by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: August 10, 2009   Last Updated: June 04, 2011

The most stunning indictment of the American media's portrayal of black America came with obvious bias in reporting during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The Associated Press published two photos. One showed a group of white people who were wading through the water and pushing some items that they'd taken from a store. The other photo showed a group of black people who were wading through the water and pushing some items that they'd taken from a store. The white people were described as "finding food". The black people were described as "looting".

The second most stunning indictment of the media's portrayal of black America came when "The "Cosby Show" reached it's peak of popularity. The news media loudly protested that there couldn't possibly be that many black families with two professionals at their head. The media refused to notice that there were plenty of black graduates from law, medical, and other professional schools long before the 70's. so of course there were plenty of successful and professional Black families.

But "The Media" gave in to overt prejudice, and was instrumental in causing the Cosby show to be unceremoniously killed while it was still a wildly popular mainstream entertainment.

While Black people are being represented as presidents, FBI agents, judges and doctors, the characters are relegated to sidekick or guest roles on fictional television shows. When "Battlestar Galactica" left Earth, why did they leave the black people behind?  Perhaps the Canadian casting agencies couldn't find any people of color to populate a couple of those fantastic worlds beyond the Stargate in the subsequent spin offs.

Futures in space have become Black people free. After the original "Star Trek" series and "Stargate" movie, Black characters had to be so deformed or alien that they were not romantic possibilities. Decades after "Hollywood Shuffle", Black actors still need to learn how to play the funny sidekick, junkie or thug if they expect to get steady work.

Reality competition shows are taking television entertainment media by storm. 

It took the BRAVO network forever to let a black person win a competition. Home and Garden Television had done so. Food Network had done so.The best Black singers can expect a short lived career on "American Idol" and other singing competitions. In front of millions of viewers, Donald Trump attempted to downgrade and dilute the award as an overt insult to the first Black apprentice, who had clearly won.

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