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Simply put it appears that the media in general tends to support and even highlight stereotypes for nearly every ethnic, social, and religious group that exists.

In regards to black America the blunt fact that so many non-blacks raise an eyebrow whenever they see an educated or well-spoken black person on TV supports the idea that the media portrays most blacks as under-educated, vice seeking, financially poor individuals. However it is a blurry line to say if the media itself is fully to blame for this poor representation of blacks in America.

Many blacks seem to uphold these stereotypes and even take pride in these stereotypes. Many black rappers glamorize the world of ghetto living, living only for material possessions, and bragging about being from the violent streets. Younger blacks latch onto this 'cool' image just like many other young teens latch onto the rebellion of punk rock or the drug induced blur of techno music.

Many blacks reinforce other American's view of them stereotypically by attacking white America whenever something goes wrong. Notice when Hurricane Katrina hit and left the area devastated that black America called foul on the white leaders and saying that George Bush doesn't care about black people. Then they wonder why white America looks at many blacks with disdain and confusion. While I agree that the handling of the disaster down there was absurd and a horrible show of how our government is flawed, I don't believe it was because more blacks lived there.

On the topic of blacks being portrayed by the media as violent, gun-toting robbers in the cities I'm not so sure the media portrays blacks this way it just happens that the media focuses on the negative and fear inducing news. Generally bad news makes good news for your nightly newscast. It just so happens that many of these criminals are black, but again look at the socioeconomic way of things. Many inner-cities are filled with blacks and generally they outnumber whites. One needs to consider if some blacks remain there out of an embracing of their ghetto stereotype, a love of their community, or a lack of motivation to improve ones position (which is not race specific at all).

In conclusion it appears that the media portrays black America in a sterotyped fashion, but it is important to note that many people in an ethnic or racial group will uphold those stereotypes either out of pride, laziness, or rebellion. To put my conclusion in perspective, I spend most of my time in North Philadelphia which if you view the news will know is part of Philadelphia that to date has the most gun violence in any city in the country. The majority of the shooters and victims are blacks, any time there is a security report issued for a suspect the suspect is black. The media portrays almost every criminal in the city of Philadelphia as a black African American male. It is hard to argue with the cold hard facts when you see so many blacks killing blacks and wonder what is going on within their communities that is causing this problem?

The media will always portray stereotypes and always portray the dismal, sad, and horrific news because it means ratings; blacks will continue to be stereotyped when a good portion of them continue to uphold these stereotypes through violence, crime, poverty, and calling the race card whenever they feel they have been treated unfairly. Black America can only escape the media portrayal of themselves by avoiding participating in negative stereotypes themselves.

Learn more about this author, Maxwell Payne.
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