"if anyone around here should be scared, it's us"

In chapter 11, "Representations of Whiteness in the Black Imagination" of "Race and Representation," bell hooks explains that black people perceive white people in a particular way, sometimes based on stereotypes- pointing out that white people often don't understand that they aren't judged by black people. For hooks in particular, she associated white people with thoughts of terrorizing and threatening individuals. She described a reoccuring experience during her childhood of walking from her black neighborhood into a white neighborhood to reach her grandmother's black neighborhood. Walking through the white neighborhood was always a terrifying experience for hooks. She felt that every white person was looking at her with hate and she felt like she did not belong. bell hooks explained that even now, she experiences these same feelings towards whites in experiences such as when she is interrogated in an airport where her dark skin makes her appear "suspicious" to the white security guards. "I learned as a child that to be 'safe,' it was important to recognize the power of whiteness, even to fear it, and to avoid encounter," hooks said (175). hooks also explained that white guests and speakers at a conference where she spoke could not understand why a black woman would be intimidated by the white people in the room.
bell hooks' accounts showed me a perspective that I have rarely seen. It reminded me of the part at the beginning of the movie "Crash" when two black men notice a white couple walking down the sidewalk. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MprFd8p9X94 Starting at 7:35 of the video clip, Sanda Bullock's character nervously holds tighter to her husband's arm as they pass the two men. One of the black men points out that, in fact, they should be the one's who feel threatened, because they are two black men surrounded by all white people. "If anyone around here should be scared, it's us," he says. Now that I have had a chance to think about it and to see some different perspectives, it must be more common than I realized for whites to find blacks threatening, and for blacks to find whites threatening. It's difficult for either to understand the other's perspective. In hooks' story of the conference she attended, she met a couple including a black woman and a white man. This man gained a new perspective from living with this woman, and hooks said that he could understand "how racism works."

the standards for blacks and whites in commercials

In an article titled "Advertising Whiteness" which explained a study conducted on the representation of whites and blacks in television commercials, Entman and Rojecki found a great disparity in the portrayals of whites and blacks in prime-time t.v. commercials. For example, white characters are more likely to be in commercials for expensive or luxury items, while black characters may not be included at all in this genre. Black characters are more likely to be found in commercials for necessities and less expensive items. Additionally, the study showed that: "White characters in commercials were about three times more likely to appear in contact with each other or with viewers than Blacks" (168).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gUlCXxyVj0# This commercial, for example, shows a white couple who are affectionate. The couple kisses after she receives gold jewelry- hence the tagline: "every kiss begins with Kay." I was unable to find a Kay commercial with a black couple-- it may exist, but the difficulty that I had finding one shows that it is not as common as the commercials with white couples. This may be due to a few things that this article pointed out: White characters are more likely to be shown in close contact with each other, such as kissing, and the study "suggests advertisers' belief that many in the White audience remain troubled by images of contact with Blacks" (172). Also, the company may have chosen not to include black characters in its commercials because they are not typically used in promotions for expensive items like diamonds or gold jewelry and it might seem out of place, like the study stated.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C7lyLaGvqE&feature=related This compilation of several commercials for Zales jewelry includes one clip of a black couple- the woman reaching over and hugging the man. These two were the only black characters included in the rest of commercial, or any of the other variations of the commercial. This suggests that black characters are an exception to the typical image of couples in the jewelry commercials.

news clips of civil rights movement: did they influence viewers?

In "Media and Minorities," Larson describes two ways that the media coverage of the civil rights movement was interpreted. In general, media coverage of protests is typically brief. It focuses on either the violence or energy of the crowd but does little to explain what they hope to accomplish. Coverage of the civil rights movement focused on images of conflict during protests, in some ways encouraging stereotypes of blacks as aggressive, but they did not interview black protestors for their opinions or motives. In news coverage, the reporters often interviewed white people for their perspectives on the movement. One interpretation of the news coverage was that the images that were captured of white policemen violently abusing black protestors directly influenced individuals and important politicians to end segregation. However, Larson pointed out that if one looks at events and results of media coverage more realistically, there was not necessarily a strong connection between media coverage and the changes in opinions. For example, Larson says, "It was in the South, where the newspaper and local television coverage was least supportive of the movement, that attitudes changed the most during the late 1950's and early 1960's" (159). Changes in oppinions of the politicians and others did not tend to correspond to the timing of news coverage or to where news coverage was more supportive of the movement; Changes appeared to be independent of the influence of media news coverage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYqsJizN4gI
This series of clips from television covering the civil rights movement are interesting as the coverage deals with segregation. In the beginning of this video, you see white women protesting what I assume was the integration of black children into this white school. As the chapter mentioned, the news featured the opinions of the white individuals, holding the microphone to their mouths and listening to their perspectives of what was happening. One of the women claimed that this wasn't a matter of segregation, yet she carried a sign and did not allow her children to attend school that day. The news lacked objectivity in this type of coverage, because if they had asked the mothers of black children for their opinions about what was happening we would have heard something different. It appears that this white woman's perspective may have been in the best interest of the television station- the view being that segregation wasn't the issue but it is just inconvenient to expect black children to integrate into different schools. This keeps things "simple" and avoids controversy- they don't have to face the real problem facing America by not allowing it to become personal and this may have been the method that some news stations chose to use.

minorities are illegal immigrants...

Larson’s “Media and Minorities” describes the limited representation of Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans in the news media. Hispanics, in particular, are only covered in one-percent of the news, according to studies of the 1990’s. Often, Hispanics are only covered in the news if there is a story depicting them as criminals or illegal immigrants. Perhaps because of a limited understanding of minority groups, there is also a problem of violent representation of Native Americans. Early media coverage of Native Americans depicted violence and aggression towards whites, representing them as savage warriors. These stereotypes still hang on in some ways, but it is now common for them to be portrayed as general problems or nuisances to American society.
There is rarely a distinction made between the various groups of Hispanics, who could be from a number of countries. Hispanic individuals are often immediately associated with immigrant stereotypes. This immigrant-stereotype is also common for Asian Americans in news media. The reason that Vietnamese-American received the majority of Asian-American coverage in New York Times over the course of 60 years was because of stories about Vietnamese immigrants.
This news story, for example, made it to the Oklahoma City news – it involved the question of policemen stereotyping Mexican’s as illegal immigrants and a Mexican man who is not a U.S. citizen. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbgZKwytWL0
It is interesting because they do interview the Mexican man, Rivas, who was arrested, as well as his attorney, but does the white policeman’s statement outweigh theirs? The story does not come to a definite solution because the journalists cannot find proof that this man is or is not employed in the U.S. In the case of this news story, I am wary of both sides: the policeman says they won’t target Mexican license plates because “that would be profiling,” but I have trouble believing that. I agree with the attorney that police probably keep a close eye on cars driven by Mexicans, assuming that they would be illegal immigrants. Then again, it also sounds pretty suspicious when the man says “his brother” has a job at ‘Johnny Carinos’, not him. The news coverage leaves a feeling of mistrust for this man because the viewers are left unsure of his honesty or his status in our country. With limited coverage of Mexicans, news like this may leave viewers with a single impression of them.

the news coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial and other black crime

According to chapter 7 of Larson’s “Media and Minorities,” journalists have control over what is included in or excluded from the news and the angle that stories take. Minorities are often represented as violent or the cause of problems, or their difference compared to whites may be emphasized. While stereotypes are not as obvious as they once were, they can be found in the headlines and tone of news stories. Issues are often defined as having two distinct sides, dismissing the complexities of reality. In this way, minorities are typically represented as “good” or “bad” characters to the news stories rather than complex individuals. Because few minorities are represented in media, a minority may be expected to bear the responsibility of representing his entire race.
African Americans in particular are typically represented in media as criminals or athletes, according to chapter 8 of Larson. When blacks are involved in crime or violence, the news media treats this as a typical occurrence, while a white criminal’s behavior is described as out of the ordinary or unexpected.
Chapter 8 emphasized that the media often represents blacks as victims of poverty or difficult pasts. If a black individual is portrayed in a positive light, he is a success story for having overcome the difficulties of his life. This tactic was used by media during O.J. Simpson’s famous murder trial. Simpson was described as rising above the poverty of his childhood to become rich and successful then returning to the violence that influenced the beginning of his life.
According to Lipsitz’s “The Greatest Story Ever Sold: Marketing and the O.J. Simpson Trial,” media also took advantage of the entertainment qualities of the O.J. Simpson trial. The trial had all of the qualities of a popular television drama, including an athlete, actor, and celebrity being charged with murder, court room scenes, and various tangible pieces of evidence.
I think it’s incredible how much money all of the t.v. networks, magazines, etc, (and even Simpson himself) made off of this murder trial. The scene of Simpson trying on the gloves, which were some major pieces of evidence in the trial, emphasizes how similar this trial was to a fictional trial in a movie or novel. The trial had the attention of viewers throughout the country who may not have normally been so interested in a trial. It’s likely that the media was so quick to become involved in this trial because it was another instance of “a violent black man,” an image that was already common in the media. I wonder if the trial would have been the biggest news story if Simpson was a white rich man instead of a black celebrity. Another added factor may be that Simpson’s wife was white, so it was an interracial marriage. The factors of race in the case may have added to the fame that this trial received.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VssuCNMjgBg&feature=related

the representation of black politicians in media

Chapter 16 of Stephanie Greco Larson’s “Media and Minorities” is called ‘News Coverage of Black Candidates and Politicians’ discussing the amount of coverage black politicians receive compared to white politicians and the type of coverage they are given. There have been a number of studies conducted in an attempt to find meaning in comparing the coverage of black politicians to white politicians. In the 1970’s, one study found that in newspapers, “black candidates received significantly more coverage in longer articles than whites; however, white candidates’ coverage was more likely than blacks’ to be prominent” (203). Between the years of 1967 and 1990, black politicians in campaigns for mayor got more coverage, especially prominent coverage, compared to white politicians. In the late 90’s, no difference could be found between the coverage of white and black politicians in newspapers. Looking at newspapers in the 1970’s again, the tone of the stories about black candidates were taken into account and found that, “18 percent was coded as ‘negative’ or ‘unqualified negative,’ compared to 15 percent of the whites’” (206). Black representatives in the U.S. House believe that they are not taken as seriously by the press as white representatives are. Also, a survey revealed that two-thirds of black politicians believe that they are treated differently by the press than white politicians. Then again, white candidates claim that black candidates are favored by the press because they are black and the press doesn’t want to come across as racist.

From Dec. 10, 2007 to Nov. 10, 2008, Obama’s picture has been on eleven TIME magazine covers while his opponent McCain’s picture has been on five TIME magazine covers. It’s interesting, but along with the rest of the press given to the election it is difficult to say that any amount of coverage or type of coverage leading up to the election can be attributed to Obama’s race or McCain’s race. I wonder with any of the other studies whether they tell us anything significant, because, for example, the difference between 18 and 15 percent in the study of newspaper coverage is a close percentage and the difference could be due to a number of factors that were not taken into account when the study was searching for discrimination against race. On page 210 of Larson’s book, it said, “Blacks are also stereotyped as ‘novelties’ because whiteness is assumed to be the ‘norm,’ which makes racial minorities the exception,” so the amount of coverage that the black presidential candidate received could be the press’ interest in such a ‘novelty,’ or it could be a double standard, such as claimed by white candidates in Larson’s chapter. The coverage of black politicians is hard to keep track of, because you can’t prove that any coverage is the result of a politician’s race and there are various other factors that influence media coverage.

the portrayal of Native Americans in television

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP7JHo-pX28&feature=related

In this series of Mad TV skits, a black actor portrays a Native American character named Eddie Thundercloud. The skits depict Native Americans through countless racist stereotypes including the use of a bad accent, generic “Indian” clothing, and a teepee. The skits make reference to alcoholism and drug addictions among Native Americans, and to low-paying Casino jobs that many Native Americans have resorted to. In one particular instance, he mocks Native American languages, and the dialogue of the main character and his “supporters” implies that Native Americans are violent. The scenes where Thundercloud is naked reinforce the stereotype of Native Americans as savage. While these skits were presented as part of a comedy show, it is an example of stereotypical treatment of Native Americans which was described in Chapter 4 of Larson’s “Media and Minorities” as a technique that “…haphazardly combines different tribes’ dress, religious rituals, speech, and physical stature to create a hybrid Hollywood Indian” (46). Being specific to no tribe of Native Americans, it creates a single outsider’s perspective of the entire ethnicity of people disregarding the distinct cultural differences that exist between them. One of the main issues that Larson points out about the portrayal of Native Americans in film is that they typically use a white main character’s point of view to tell the story. In the case of these skits, the Native Americans are imitated based on the views that African Americans and whites have of them.