African American Women and African American Families on Media - Research Paper Example

? 4 How the media portrays African American women and African American families The racial discrimination still remains one of the most wide-spread problems all over the world. Lots of pains are taken to combat this negative phenomenon in the United States, where the problem of racial intolerance appears to be very poignant. Of course, it could sound a bit ironically that country, having a black man as the President, confronts racial discrimination, nonetheless, it is true. Racial intolerance is not just a problem of some particular people, it can turn to be a tragedy of the whole country and a great shame of the country. Actually, the problem of women rights can not be regarded as newly appeared. All women from different parts of the planet fought for their rights that should be equal to those gained by men. Of course, there is no need to mention those people who devoted their lives to fighting for the rights of black people. It is almost unbelievable that the Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson that claimed for the rights of every citizen to be observed, technically served only the white citizens’ interests. Thus, being a nation of the nations, the USA turned to be unable to provide all the citizens with equal rights. And since the very start of the US history, black people were fighting at first for their freedom and then - for their rights. The attitude and public perception of black women still deserves speaking about. Living in a civilized society, where human rights must be observed and cherished, it is hard to believe that some people still suffer from intolerant treating and have their right violated. Very few of us really pay our precious attention to the problem of stereotypical depiction of black people by contemporary mass media. Still, it does not mean that such problem doe not exist at all. It is an undeniable fact that every nation, every ethnic group are viewed through the prism of a set of social stereotypes that not always and, frankly speaking, almost never prove to be true. Black women are a special category which is very often becomes exploited by mass media in its own interests. The question of a famous journalist Jake Snow is very topical and sounds anxious, - “Think about how often you see an African-American woman being portrayed on the screen as brave, intelligent, and strong or playing a leadership role?”( Snow 2009). Maybe some of us would say we don’t have to focus our attention on such trifles and this problem is not very serious, but, nonetheless, it doesn’t become less abusive and humiliating. The very fact of arousing this issue is quite outspoken – if people talk about that, it means something is not OK here. Let’s recollect Mammy from a famous Hollywood movie “Gone by the Wind”. It is almost impossible to forget her awful manners, her constant grumbling and crudeness. Though it is hard to disagree that her character was a complete embodiment of positive and life-asserting values, the mass media has caught this stereotypic portraying immediately and proceeds exploiting it nowadays. Even when we take a look at her we see a big, overweight woman, and that does not correspond to our ideal of beauty. Mammy is an uneducated woman who is loyal to her masters, but still she is a slave. Though slavery has gone long ago, the image of Mammy remained unchanged, and such portraying of the black women, if put it mildly, lack tactfulness and respect. “The stereotypical woman being portrayed by the media is shallow, weak, unintelligent, and incapable of making decisions on her own, untrustworthy, materialistic, and promiscuous” (Snow, 2009). The black women are suppose to be narrow-minded, always unsatisfied with their own lives, they are rarely portrayed as successful business women, learned professors or simply reserved and well-educated member of society. Black big “mammies” are to provide the white people with comfort raise children and take care of them, but they are, as it was stated by, Snow, “verbally aggressive”. The following stereotype is a stereotype of Jezebel, a hot, predatory, lewd and seductive mulatto, taking all possible chances to achieve her own goal. Technically, such representation of black women is not devoid of reason. If we could go back to the times of slavery, we would see that it was extremely difficult, even impossible, for freeborn light-skinned black people, especially women, to find more decent job. Women had to feed their children, protect their families; there was no choice, no alternative. David Pilgrim, a contemporary sociologist, asserts that such image of aggressively sexual woman was created to justify those cases of rapes and other outrages towards young black woman of slavery-era (Pilgrim, 2002). Such portrayal of black woman was opposing the dominant stereotype of black “mammy”, which was unattractive for white man. But what about white women? Proceeding from those stereotypes, supported by lots of white people, it is possible to make a conclusion that all white women are prudent, supporting and cherishing high moral standards, almost puritans. Though it is obvious, that there are a lot of immoral, sexually insatiable women or white prostitutes, those black women’s sin turned to be unforgivable. Black women were treated as property; those “Jezebels” were simply sexual toys for their male-masters. It was very convenient to say that all the black women were not satisfied with their black husbands, that nobody raped them, and nobody forced them into prostitution. Lots of porn films exploit the image of Jezebel. According to Dr. David Pilgrim, - The obligatory "Black whore" is added to urban-themed movies, apparently to give "real life" authenticity (Pilgrim, 2002). According to majority of critics, lots of contemporary TV shows’ portrayal of black women, such as "In Living Color" and "Family Matters" and even “The Cosby Show, is overshadowed with social stereotypes that often appear to be unjust and negative. Recently, a respected commercial trademark of “Pepsi” has aroused the public resentment all over the world. The silly commercial, depicting a family of a black woman and her husband, uses indecent means to promote its product. We can witness how furious the wife becomes when seeing her husband eat unhealthy food. The black woman is rendered as a family dictator. The woman is also very aggressive, and her aggression is directed against a white woman, to who her husband happened to smile. Unwillingly, you start hesitating if everything is OK with her mental health. So, we confront the same problems again and again: a furious black woman, who has an obedient husband, is depicted as a tyrant, and white woman – a poor victim of ferocious and crazy black matriarch. Such commercial stereotypes black women, moreover, it proved to be so insulting that lots of people expressed their utter disapproval of such method of advertising. Here goes the next type of stereotype – matriarch. This is what Michelle Huxtable says about the given type, - “The Black mother figure in Black homes… the “bad” Black mother… fail their traditional “womanly” duties. Spending too much time away from home, these working mothers ostensibly cannot properly supervise their children and are a major contributing factor to their children’s school failure. As overly aggressive, unfeminine women, Black matriarchs allegedly emasculate their lovers and husbands” (Huxtable, 2010). African-American women are sometimes called “Welfare Mothers”. What does it mean? It means that there was one more stereotype created by white people, who usually regard themselves as being extremely hard-working, doing all their best to reach the famous, so desirable American dream. As for welfare mothers, they are treated as those who can not and do not want to work. It is quite strange, that nowadays women start forgetting about their main role given by nature – to raise children, be mothers. More and more emancipated women are striving for getting a well-paid job, dreaming about miraculous career and do not actually think about having such unimportant thing like family. As for Afro-Americans, they cherish the family values more than some white women. “Welfare Queen” is neglected by lots of contemporary tax payers. Such women do not have husbands to support the family; nevertheless, they have many children. No wonders, that a lot of decent Americans are resentful of leading such lifestyle. Suffice it to recollect Claudine, a heroine of Diahann Carroll. She makes her living by getting social welfare benefits and doing some odd jobs. But the heroine appears to be simply a victim of circumstances. She is not a bad mother, she is not a bad example for her children, vice versa, she is a gentle and caring woman, real mother. Children mean everything to her. Such image of welfare mother is also nothing good. There are different people, different situations and different destinies. If once there was such precedent, it does not mean that every black woman, unwed and receiving social welfare benefits, should be labeled as lazy-boned consumer of taxes, paid by working people. Many men – many mind. There are some ignorant people who still take all those stereotypes for granted and treat Afro-Americans accordingly All those facts mentioned above testify to one thing – it is necessary to get rid of old, useless and insulting stereotypes, because any society, which is still unable to eliminate such “labels”, can not be called a civilized one. There are so many outstanding Afro-Americans who made a great contribution to the American culture, politics, science and even history: Rosa Parks, Condoleezza Rise, Oprah Whinfrey, Jennet Jackson, Beyonce Knowles are very few of them. So many dark-skinned beauties represent their countries at various beauty contests. And, of course, the family of the US President really can serve an epitome of partnership, mutual respect, support and devotion. Just take a look around, you will see a lot of Afro-American families, a lot of Afro-American woman. Look at that woman living next door to you: is she a poor working class representative, having lots of naughty children and living from hand to mouth? No? It means she is not a “Welfare Mother”. Then, maybe, she is overweight, verbally aggressive woman, wearing hair rag, and nurturing her white children and ‘family’ better than her own? No? So, she is definitely not a “Mammy”. Or she is a sexually aggressive tigress, constantly looking for a new lover? No? So, it is hard to call her “Jezebel”. It is important to remember that any stereotypes do harm to both stereotyped and stereotyping. Each person, black, white, red or yellow, is a unique creature and deserves being treated as an individual. It is up to us to make our society better, safer and purer. So why not start with fighting stereotypes, why not change our personal mind and thus, change the public opinion. We are all human beings, we are equal and have equal rights and we should treat other people like you want they treat you. This simple truth will help eradicate negative stereotypes and, maybe, it will help to change our world for better. Works cited Amoah, Jewel D. "Back on the auction block: A discussion of black women and pornography." National Black Law Journal.14 (2), 1997: 204-221. Print. Anderson, Lisa M. Mammies No More: The Changing Image of Black Women on Stage and Screen. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997. Print. Huxtable, Michael. “Black Women Stereotypes”. FindArticles.com, 2010. Web 15 April 2011. Pilgrim, David. “Jezebel Stereotype”. Ferris State University, 2002. Web. 15 April 2011. Snow, Jake. “Black women on TV still stereotyped”.FindArticles.com, 2009. Web 15 April 2011. Read More