The Media's Influence On Racism And The Media

What does racism mean? Racism is a belief “as a set of institutions conditions of group inequality and an ideology of racial domination,in which the latter is characterized by a set of belief holding that this subordinate racial group is biologically or culturally inferior to the dominant racial group” (Bobo, 2003, p 319). Racism is one of the world's major issues today Race is a set of genetic, biological characteristics, and area related characteristics. One influence on racism is the media. The media has a massive effect on the way races are viewed by society. The media is made up of television, newspapers, magazines, film and radio. Racism is fuelled not only by the people but also by the media. The media across Northern America has a very
The multi-billion dollar Bruce Wayne/Batman is back after the death of his parents, with his butler Alfred Pennyworth to protect his hometown of Gotham city from injustice and the criminal underworld. This time with the help from his CEO of the Enterprises Applied Sciences division Lucious Fox, provides Batman with just what he needs. Bruce- born into a the wealthy white family of Thomas and Martha Wayne inherits all of Wayne enterprises after his parents death. Bruce now the head of Wayne enterprises, intrigued by his fathers work to “help” the people of Gotham, exposed to the underworld, is now fighting for what he believes in, justus, and protecting Gotham from the corrupt. A reoccurring theme in both mainstream comics and hero films is the belief that the white man must dominate and protect the city, that no one of colour could take on this task. It has to be a white man. Nolan’s casting of Fox as a man of color exposes the idea of white supremacy which is the belief that white people are superior to people of other races
In the films some of the villains had specific racial decent: Bane is from the fictional Caribbean Island of Santa Prisca in a prison called Prina Dura, Bane is a racial binary character that grew up in Latin America who's father was British. Ra’s al Ghul, according to the Batman comic, was born to a tribe of nomads somewhere in the deserts of Arabia, his daughter Talia al Ghul is of the same decent. Yet the actors who play each of these characters are not of Middle Eastern decent, rather of a European decent. “Gone are his Latino heritage and lucha libre mask, his addiction to psychosis-inducing steroids and his fixation on his childhood teddy bear (Sabo, 2012).” Unfortunately In Hollywood it’s all about the box office, how much money the films bring in, which in order to gain fans directors often will cast well know actors, rather than deviating from the norm. When casting actors of color it is very rare to see a new coloured actor in hot new films because they are unknown or racially stacked as background characters, which get less screen time compared to white actors who are playing main roles, being exposed more and making a name for themselves. These box-office films as Dyer states “construct the dominant images, set standards (Rothenberg, 2002, p11), and the belief that these main roles are “presumed superiority for white bodies” (McDonald, p248) An