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?
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The only way minorities can unite is if they refuse to let the media define them and their relationship, and stick together no matter what. Is this easy? Not when every time you turn around there's a story on the news about race motivated violence, but it is possible. [hey where's ur first chunk?]
ReplyDeleteI do not think that a nation can progress forward when racism and prejudice are embedded in our society. We need to get rid of the racism and prejudice so that the nation can make progression.
ReplyDeleteI think that minorities can unite but they would have to ignore the media and learn that not everyone is bad or a criminal like the media portrays.
i think we cant progress foward if racism and prejudice are embedded in our society. We are stronger as a nation if we our all equal. However if there is racsim, there are races fighting against eachother causing destruction in our country. We cant be as powerful or progress if everyone is for themselves or against another race.
ReplyDeletei think racism is always going to be imbedded in our society because our country was built on slavery and white people being "over" blacks. so that is always a factor in the back of people's minds.
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