Race and the Media

A trend I have been noticing in the material we've discussed in class is that is seems to be "okay" to be racist against certain groups. From products and sports teams being named after entire nations to the issue of the freshman committee making headdresses, it seems as though racial issues involving Native Americans are less important than those involving African or Caribbean Americans, Asians, or any other oppressed group. Like I said earlier, a station at the freshman "diversity" fair that painted people in blackface would have incensed outrage, whereas the station that was really thought of, the one making "Native" headdresses, went unnoticed except by people in our class. How can this be?

Part of me wants to say it's just plain ignorance (which it really is), but why is there so much ignorance? Who is perpetuating the ignorance? Is it individuals or families that just don't know any better, or is it the government? The media? Something else?

I would like to argue that the media and advertising is the reason for much of this ignorance. Obviously ignorance is being passed down from generation to generation, but it has to stem from somewhere, and the root of the problem comes from the media.

When it comes down to it, the media are the ones unintentionally conditioning us to be racist. The media is the reason why people are generally more afraid if they're walking through a city alone, at night, and there's a black man behind them than if there's a white man behind them (I'm not saying this is right, but I'm saying that it happens this way). I will openly admit that I am guilty of this profiling myself. It's horribly embarrassing, but it's true. I feel like a terrible person for feeling that way, but I also know that I have been conditioned by television to associate black people with crime. As much as I have tried to break this habit, it's a physiological reaction that doesn't seem to want to go away.

Of course, that's kind of unrelated, because it's not the point I'm trying to make. It just shows how much influence the media has on our ideas of race. When it comes to Native Americans, it's a lack of coverage by the media that allows for so much ignorance. People aren't necessarily openly racist against Natives (at least not here in the Northeast), but they know nothing about them. Their issues aren't shown on TV. Their struggles is not written about in the newspapers. It is not covered on the internet. They are absent from mainstream media and, in the eyes of the average person, silent and nonexistent.

Other races, on the other hand, are at least represented, even if it's negatively. Their struggles are covered by the media. If something someone in politics said offended Asians, or African-Americans, it is found out about, incenses rage, and is usually apologized for. This is never the case for Native Americans, about whom racist things are said on a daily basis (Washington Redskins, anyone?)

So I'm not really sure who I'm blaming here. The media provides people with stories they want to hear, but people want to hear more stories like the ones the media provides, so the media provides more stories like that. It's a vicious cycle that multiple people are responsible for and it ensures that groups like Native Americans are excluded from mainstream discourse. Perhaps that's why it's "okay" to make headdresses.