What we see in the media is not
always a direct reflection of reality. In an article by Sam Fulwood III he
points out how African Americans are misrepresented regularly and particularly
in sports.
This reminded me a lot of Baldwin’s
“The Fire Next Time” when he is explaining to his nephew what the white world
expects of him. While this is written 50 years later it still has some very
interesting connections. We see in Fulwood’s article that there are only 1,200
black professional athletes even though African Americans make up 13 percent of
our nations population. We are shown “an endless highlight reel of slam dunks
and touchdown runs, and the pictures speak for themselves”. The media
represents sports and its announcers as a near if not entirely black enterprise.
What we don’t see is that there are 12 times as many black lawyers than
athletes, 15 times more black doctors and 20 times as many black dentists.
While yes you don’t see much coverage on the news of lawyers, doctors and
dentists; this exposure to what entertainment enterprise that is mostly black
skews our view on race.
In Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time”
he tells his nephew to not believe what white America says about him, to not
believe in his inferiority. But if you look at the media today most of the
black success and leadership you see is in the sports world. This helps create
a culture that thinks of the majority of professional athletes being black.
Fulwood makes this case by referring to an article that half-jokingly had
people guess how many black athletes there were in America. The lowest number
guessed was “500,000” minimum. This gives us the assumption that 1 out of 26 African
Americans in the United States is a professional athlete when the real number
is more like 1 in 4000.
Even though some would say we live
in a post racial, we simply don’t. We live in an America where racial
stereotypes are still very much alive and well. While outright hatred and
discrimination may no longer be socially acceptable we still tiptoe the line
when it comes stereotypes, prejudices and subtle discrimination. What rang true
for Baldwin about expectations still does today. Even though we try to correct
it and disapprove of it, racial stereotyping still exists. We as Baldwin says is “in effect, still trapped in a history they
do not understand”.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2013/03/05/55599/the-medias-stereotypical-portrayals-of-race/
Your blog entry reminds me of an article written in The Australian. It describes how 494 of the 500 fastest times in sprinting were made by black athletes. This suggests that blacks are better at running and sports than whites, and this might account for the culture that thinks of most professional athletes being black. However, the article continues by stating that this actually has nothing to do with race. Most of these sprinters were from Jamaica, and these men and women may be born with a gene called ACTN3 that aids them in their running skills.
ReplyDeleteThe quote from this article that connects the most to your blog post is that “when we say "blacks" are better at sprinting, we are indulging in an unstated generalization”. As you mentioned, people believe that 1 in 26 African-Americans are athletes, when the number is much, much lower. Generalizing a group of black athletes (Jamaicans) and suggesting that they represent the black population as a whole is derogatory. We should also focus on the black men and women who are doctors, lawyers, and other important professions, rather than only portraying African-Americans as athletes.