In "Black Men" of The Culture of Fear by Barry Glassner, the author discusses the amount of media coverage given to the crimes committed by black males than rather being the casualties of crime because "victimization does not attract the media spotlight the way their crimes do." The media also heightens the public's fear of being a victim of a homicide when in reality, a black men is eighteen times more likely to be murdered than is a white woman. "When a dog bites a man that is not news, when a man bites a dog, that is news." Another aspect is their gangsta rap from which people blamed rappers for almost any violent or misogynistic act anywhere when songs sung by white men can be just as violent. In "Smack is Back", how the government spends a lot of time and money exploiting drug abuse when that money can be used "to address other social and personal problems effectively." Due to this amount of the media portrayal on drug abuse increases our perception of how important the issue is, which is what psychologists refer to as availability heuristic. As well as how the media portrays victims of drug abuse as innocent people to gain the sympathy and increase the credibility that drugs are ruining our nation.
Questions:
1. How is a nation supposed to progress forward when racism and prejudice are embedded in our society?
2. Can unity of minority cultures actually be realized when the media teaches us to fear one another?
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
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