Over the years, the black community has constantly been attacked by the media. The discrimination of the black people by television and film has caused them serious social and psychological damage. Television series ignore racial discrimination by showing that black people have an equitable access to economic success. Racial discrimination has often been portrayed in the television as not being the cause of the issues existing within the black community.
Racial Slur on Live Television
The belief that superiority of abilities, values and culture of a certain group are related physical characteristics has rationalized white domination (Feagin & Sikes, 1994). Racism is a deliberate system of hindrances and deceptions that prevent the black people from attaining economic, social or educational advancement. Racial discrimination is a significant hindrance to progress in people of color. Every major sector of the society is dominated by the white people (Feagin & Sikes, 1994).
Over the past few decades, there has been an influx of African American characters in American television series. At the moment, there is no a single individual person or group that has managed to unify the black community against these detrimental portrayals of the black community. Black people necessitate access to expensive material goods in order to achieve high economic status. Television series such as How to Get Away with murder and Scandal show how women achieve economic success at the expense of their own vulnerability.
The television series show that black women need to acquire more masculine traits and lack vulnerability in order to be successful unlike white female characters that are portrayed in similar situations. Television series such as Scandal show that women need to be tragic in order to be successful. Tragedy is a necessity for a plot device in a number of television series. Black women are represented as being sexual objects for white people.
Television series and programs show that racism is indirectly encouraged by normal crime coverage that give a picture of blacks (Entman, 1992).This has significantly contributed to modern white racism and contributed towards denial of black rejections. I also find a television series such as Cops showing various instances of racism. The show is racist since it focuses on the black people as being the cause of numerous crimes. There has been a long history of racism in boxing. For instance, McGregor showed various instances of racism during his fight with Mayweather. The support Mr. McGregor received from the crowd made him enjoy his ethnic pride.
Racial discrimination must be genuinely acknowledged in order to fight the present oppression of the black community. The white people have for long enjoyed many privileges thus largely ignore any claims of discrimination. A step towards ending racial discrimination is allowing black producers and actors control their narrative. Black producers, writers, actors and audiences should be provided more opportunities to tell their stories. This will consequently make the black people more confident in their cultural identity.
At the present time, racial discrimination has become extremely relevant. Both blacks and white people have not learnt to treat each other in the appropriate away. A peaceful and flourishing society will necessitate people to learn to respect and support each other regardless of skin color, gender or religious views.
References
Neal, K. (2017). From Mammy to black-ish. Violence Against Black Bodies: An Intersectional Analysis of How Black Lives Continue to Matter, 145.
Entman, R. M. (1992). Blacks in the news: Television, modern racism and cultural change. Journalism Quarterly, 69(2), 341-361.