Negative Stereotypes Of The Black Community

There are not enough fingers in the world to count how many times I have heard the phrase “It’s because he is black.” It doesn’t matter if I am in school or even at the mall, I hear this statement, this stereotype. Stereotypes have always existed, but the emphasis of negative stereotypes forced onto the Black Community through different media outlets has put a strain on the Black Community. These negative stereotypes are weapons used by racist people to keep the black community socially and economically oppressed. Phrases like “they are thieves,” “they are violent,” and “they are uneducated” are only a few of the stereotypes used to oppress the Black Community. This is not a mindset people are born with­ people are primed with these stereotypes.
The news, commercials, televisions shows, and movies are different types media that have put negative connotations on the Black Population.
These negative stereotypes have been psychologically embedded in people of America subconsciously through media these negative stereotypes have negatively affected the black community socially and economically. The media portrayal of black men as criminals, and many people equate black men to murderers and thieves which causes fear in reality. Media is subconsciously portraying black people as criminals on television shows and news, only covering issues in inner city environments primarily populated by black people. The study “Media Impact on the Lives of Black Men and Boys” conducted by The Opportunity Agenda describes these portrayals as negative associations exaggerated by media with black men in, “criminality, unemployment, and poverty.” The idle Black male on the street corner is not the “true face” of poverty in America, but he is the only idle Black male in the world as depicted by media. The study then refers to how these negative connotations have created obstacles for
the black community through unconscious bias. This research led to the conclusion that people tend to more easily associate negative words (e.g., terrible, failure, horrible, evil, agony, war, nasty, and awful) with unknown black faces, as opposed to white faces. The consequences of the media distorting the reputation of black men are affecting black people like unjustified violence against the black community.
Also, because of media’s negative portrayal of black people, other races have developed a fear of the Black population and it has caused other people to make rash decisions.
These decisions are seen through the multiple Black deaths that have happened because of negative stereotypes. One occurrence, was the shooting of Trayvon Martin, a hooded and unarmed black male who was portrayed as a criminal by a white male. A multitude of experiments conducted by lead author John Paul Wilson, PhD, of Montclair State University, state that white men are more likely to fire a weapon at a Black male than a white male. John Paul says his research suggests that, “these descriptions of unjustified violence against African Americans, reflect stereotypes of black males that do not seem to comport with reality.” Fear of the Black Community, that are produced by stereotypes from media, are the clear reason for the issues that the black populace of America face. Dr. Wilson organized many studies that proved this claim to be true. Media has created a chain that is holding Black people down by means of the negative stereotypes that have been associated with
them.
Despite different media outlets producing these stereotypes, these connotations did not originate from media. The stereotypes originated from when Africans were brought to this country as slaves. They were called savages, ignorant, a danger to themselves, and were thought to be overly aggressive. Even though these stereotypes have been modernized, they still spread the same demeaning message about Black people. Stereotypes of Black people being dangerous and overly aggressive still exist today because of media depiction of Black people in such a manner on tv shows and only showing crimes that involve Blacks on the news. Anyone can see the effect of these stereotypes when police pull over a person of color. Police are not pulling them over for violations, they are pulling them over because of racial profiling. A Black man is three times more likely to be searched at a traffic stop, and six times more likely to go to jail than a white person. According to The Sentencing Project, on the New Jersey Turnpike, Blacks make up 15 percent of drivers, over 40 percent of stops and 73 percent of arrests—even though they break traffic laws at the same rate as Whites. The Equal Justice Initiative study also proves that by having a

biased jury leads to African Americans being more likely to be guilty than whites while also forcing them to face even longer sentences than whites who commit the same crimes. For instance, white people are using drugs at a rate five times more than Black people, so how are Blacks still the ones who are incarcerated at a higher rate than white people, because of the stereotypes that have been put in place by different media outlets.
Subsequently, these negative connotations have began to affect black children as well. As soon as a Black child steps foot on a school campus they are already stereotyped as a “troublemaker” and that they need to be watched more than other students of different ethnicities because of how Blacks are viewed through media. A new government study on discipline in the nation's public schools show how this issue is becoming topical. According to the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, Black children make up 18 percent of preschoolers, but make up nearly half of all of the preschool’s out­of­school suspensions. In the same article it says that a Black student is 3 times more likely to be suspended than a White student. Minority students are disciplined in school harsher than White students. Education data shows that students who are expelled or suspended are more likely to drop out of school. Those dropouts are more likely to end up with criminal records because jobs want people who at least have a high school education and without that. This pushes people to find ways to make more money that does not require a high school diploma like selling drugs, thus creating a school to jail pipeline in the Black community all because of how Blacks are depicted in media. How can a person break this cycle if they are already set up to continue it from the time they are a preschooler? In what way can we break this social stigma that has been here since slavery.
Some people contradict racial stereotypes with the simple saying of “they just do not exist.” Certain people make this statement with no factual base, and although the argument of stereotyping is very subjective, there are still evidence and studies shown to prove that stereotypes exist and negatively affect the black community. By saying that these negative connotations simply do not exist means that the person saying it has chosen to ignore the facts. Social scientists like John Wilson, have created and developed multiple studies and researches to prove that racial

stereotypes of the Black populace of America exist and they are causing a negative effect on the community. These studies provide facts that state and prove that the Black community is being oppressed by the weapon of stereotypes.
The negative effects of racial stereotypes are holding the African American community down and what better way to end the problems than digging up the roots. These psychologically embedded biases have pushed Black people into a box and there have been a multitude of social experiments conducted by accredited scientists and sociologist to prove these negative connotations exist. Media’s depiction of Blacks have negatively affected the black community socially and economically.