Covering By The Media Analysis

Preventing Covering by Media with Media
In societies like the American culture, rights should be for the individual people. However, the civil rights signify groups of people, which can cause labeling to occur. In his essays “Preface” and “The New Civil Rights,” Kenji Yoshino introduces the necessity for a change in the view of rights for the people. Due to the lack of rights that are specific to all persons, which are known as human rights, there are stereotypes imminent causing many people to cover. Covering means an action in which a person is hiding a characteristic that makes that person who he or she truly is (Yoshino 539). By covering, an individual can lose sight of his or her language, values, background, and culture. As presented
Media, including Internet websites, books, television shows, movies, newspapers, radio, social media pages, or anywhere one can access information, is one main reason why everyone covers. Covering is the act of “[toning] down [one’s] disfavored identity to fit into the mainstream” (Yoshino 539). People cover to fit into society’s expectations and to match whatever is currently mainstream in the media. The act of covering has both its positive and negative qualities. When covering, people tend to hide their ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability, and religion, all characteristics that define the True Self (Yoshino 539). This causes their False Self, or our mask, to appear, which is not completely a bad feature. “Both selves will exist even [within a] healthy individual” (Yoshino 541). Covering is only acceptable when it relates to polite social behaviors, such as presenting oneself professionally and maturely in front of an important figure. However, it is unhealthy when people are constantly covering, which causes the False self to take over the True Self. Throughout history, cruel and unpleasant political cartoons and other images were created and spread over media. Many of the hateful sources on media fall into the category of stereotypes. “Stereotyping divides groups, nations,
According to Yoshino, the current civil rights misrepresent the people, claiming that it embodies groups of people. Due to the grouping system of civil rights, stereotypes and labeling can be created and invoked. On the other hand, human rights relate to everyone as their own person and yield less of a bias. Therefore, it is much better than the current civil rights because it does not encourage characterization and stereotypes. There needs to be a change to the civil rights, shifting it more towards an unprejudiced view. The new civil rights, as known as human rights, is important to keep people from covering and labeling. To move towards the human rights, people need to freely express themselves without setbacks. The media plays an exceptional major part in people’s freedom of speech, religion, press, and expression. We can incorporate these views of the new civil rights into our daily conversations, on media as well, in order to spread and educate others about it. “Such conversations are the best way – and perhaps the only – way to give both assimilation and authenticity their proper due” (Yoshino 546). With the help of the contribution of media in the conversations, we can prevent further covering and encourage the True Self to unveil. With the new values of the human rights, we will be able to fully intake and