Research Question:
“How does the media influence our ideas of implicit bias, especially when it comes to ideas of race and criminality.”
Introduction:
My Research question is important to me because as a African American Women living in a world where I watch people who remind me of a brother, a cousin, a sister, a aunt, and etc I come in connect with many News channels , and many videos where African Americans are being held down, and killed in the hands of people who job was to protect us, or killed by the hands of people who the media told them to protect themselves from. When researching this question I wanted to find maybe an answer or maybe even a reason to why some medias use their network to communicate this idea of African Americans being the main focus when it comes to “criminality”. As a result of media, they create certain groups for certain people which is a negative thing especially being that many people live in certain places where they cannot interact with all races, and by media labeling a certain group as criminals it becomes a major issue which results in deaths of innocent women, men, and children, also the arrest of many innocent Women, Men, and Children.
Bibliography Entry:
Bridgette Baldwin, BLACK, WHITE, AND BLUE: BIAS, PROFILING, AND POLICING IN THE AGE OF BLACK LIVES MATTER, 40 W. New Eng. L. Rev. 431 (2018), https://digitalcommons.law.wne.edu/lawreview/vol40/iss3/4
A Summary :
In the Article BLACK, WHITE AND BLUE: BIAS , PROFILING, AND POLICING IN THE AGE OF BLACK LIVES MATTER, by Bridgette Baldwin the author explains how implicit bias and the idea of African Americans being “criminals” is something in which has been passed down from centuries. As a result of that the author tells the readers that media also plays a positive, and negative role to that. The author explains how the media plays a positive role when it comes down to recording and sharing the injustice that African Americans face when it comes not only from cops, racist, and individuals in which the media influence to fear people of color. Bridgette Baldwin explains to the audience that the injustice that African Americans face is real , and is something in which should not be controversial being that it is something we see through these videos where they shoot unarmed black men , woman, and kids. She tales about how the media would forever have a impact on the way African Americans are viewed, and how these stereotypes are something in which would forever characterize African American individuals as the real threat of America.
A Reflection:
When reading this article I agree with the author because media as of today can have a positive and a negative impact on society. The media as of today broadcast to millions of people from everywhere these topics where people are taught that African Americans are dangerous compared to any other race. he author talks about how not only media but shows, movies, and songs has a impact on how people are viewed. Majority of the time African Americans are painted as criminals, thugs, abusers , prostitutes, ghetto, and so on. There has been a list of stereotypes that was made for black people in which as of today has affe ted the way that we are viewed. When flipping through News channels , News articles , and Videos shared on my time line on facebook , twitter, and even instagram I am thrown with innocent African American people who are being made a mockery of. As of today people blame Tamir Rice parents for letting the 12 year old boy play with a toy gun outside, they blame Eric Gardner for not “complying” they blame Trayvon Martin for “looking Suspecious ” , they blame Sandra Bland for ” speaking up against the injustice that she was facing”, and they blamed the death of Ahmaud Arbery for ” looking suspicious while jogging” . As of today they blame the victims of these terrible killing, or even say it was a mistake on their part but not actually admitting to the “mistake on their part” . While Dylan Roof a white supremacist walked into a African American church and killed 9 innocent people, upon his arrest they later took the killer to Burger King before taking him to jail, Or maybe George Zimmerman who shot Trayvon Martin a unarmed black teen, he was later taken to trial but later was pronounced innocent, and as of today is trying to sell the gun that he use to kill Trayvon Martin. When looking at Dylan Roof people are more so influenced to the idea that white individuals are not criminals, even while Dylan Roof was on trial they blamed it on “Mental Illness even then Dylan Roof stated that he was proud of what he did. They tried finding ways around it , but hen it comes down to a African American Individuals they always find a way to label them as the criminal. When speaking of the media and these ideas of Implicit Biases we are seen that African Americans who have not did anything wrong are more likely to be put in a life or death situation unlike the many other races of people who are seen committing a terrible act. As a result of that the media for example Fox News is a media that is broadcast all around the world openly that black people are the real criminals of America. It scares me being that at any time of the day someone can paint me as a criminal or maybe as a threat due to the color of my skin, or even paint one of my family members, my friends, and my family friends as a threat and that could be the end of us only because the media has been influencing people that because I am black I am a criminal.
Quotables:
“Racial profiling allows certain ideas about behavior to be associated with a group of people simply because of racial identity. In the 1980s, African American mothers were profiled as welfare queens, which signified their hyper-sexuality and laziness.25 African American youth in the late 1990s were described as super-predators, which signified their criminality.26 The phenomenon that put racial profiling on the map, *436 “driving while black,” justified the overzealous roadside stops of African American motorists based on the view that black drivers were(…)”
“When it comes to minority suspects, police officers are more likely to use excessive force to initiate a stop or make an arrest. Minority suspects, particularly African American males, are perceived as more threatening, less compliant, and more violent. The linking of blackness to criminality will shape whether an unarmed African American will be shot when confronted during a traffic stop3”
“Yet, while these horrible acts of violence are made visible on computer and cell phone screens across the country, the meaning of these violent acts remains contested. We must remember that even the meaning of real-time reporting is never self-evident and that these visual images of violence are shaped by an older racial logic that continues to justify the killing of black people.”
“While thousands saw Eric Garner get choked to death, many responded that it was his poor health that killed him.47 When Cleveland police rolled up on twelve-year-old Tamir Rice and opened fire without asking a question, many responded that his parents should have taught him to take better care of a toy gun.48 The underlying theme in the interpretation of these racial assaults has been a notion of “noncompliance” by these African American victims.”
