Upon reflecting in preparation for this Media Literacy Assignment, I realized that I spend a good deal of my free time catching up on the news of the day instead of watching movies or television shows. I read articles from local and national newspapers – I browse news websites like CNN and MSNBC – occasionally, I watch clips or full episodes of cable TV news shows. I simply prefer to invest my time in perusing news outlets than in watching movies or sitcom TV. I found it difficult to recall a movie or TV episode that I could creatively assess; therefore, I decided to analyze a news media source.
The source I chose to critique is an “Impact Tonight” segment of the Fox News show The O’Reilly Factor. My segment of choice aired on September 11th 2013. The topic of discussion was Race and Violence in the US; the guest interviewee was Dr. Donald Tibbs, Associate Professor of Law at Drexel University. In the opening remarks of the segment, O’Reilly firmly stated that “”there [is] a rise of hate crimes in the U.S.A. in the wake of the Trayvon Martin verdict” (2013). From the outset of this news segment, I felt overwhelmed by the extreme bias conveyed by O’Reilly: in all four of his examples of ‘hate crimes’, young black men (or teens) were the perpetrators. He made the assumption that the “Trayvon verdict angered many in the African American community” and asked his African American guest: “are these attacks [on white people] payback?” (O’Reilly 2013.)
A quick browse of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report Hate Crime Statistics website reveals that “72.0 percent [of racially motivated hate crimes] were motivated by anti-black bias” (2011). Seventy. Two. Percent. Why, then, do we overwhelmingly hear, from both biased cable news stations and more local news sources, about anti-white violence? Maybe more importantly – why does the media find it reasonable to fixate on perpetuating the archetype of the ‘violent young black male’ instead of focusing on and bringing to light the underlying factors that contribute both to individual cases of violence and to systemic injustices sustained by many young back males?
Later in the interview, O’Reilly presented unfounded claims that “young black men…are becoming increasingly violent” and that all “young black men are angry” (2013). These statements provide a spot-on example of the “Menace to Society” archetype of young black males, as described at MinorityReporter.com (2012). I believe the display of archetypes specifically in the daily news media may have a more impressive influence on the psyche than more subtle displays of black male archetypes in movies or TV shows. Although I cannot relate from the perspective of a black male observing this archetype in the media, I personally have a stronger reaction to and find myself more aware of the manifestation of this archetype in the news than in movies or in TV shows. Even without purposefully choosing to inspect reports put out by biased news channels like Fox News (Ackerman, 2001), I often notice the perpetual presence of the ‘Menace to Society’ archetype when scanning the news story on the cover of the Philly Metro Paper or the New York or Los Angeles Times, or by watching the first 15 minutes of an NBC10 Philly news broadcast.
I believe that these daily, widely publicized ‘reminders’ of the inherent anger of and danger posed by young black males contribute significantly to the phenomena of “black male seasoning” (Del Zotto, 2004, p. 165) and stereotype threat (Steele, 2010) experienced by young black males. Del Zotto (2004) notes – many young black boys internalize these repetitive, conditional expressions of ‘the self’ (angry – dangerous – violent – worthless – hopeless). Over time, compounding and internalizing these negative factors can result in personal acts of self-destruction (use of drugs or alcohol when driving, unprotected risky sexual activity, overdosing on drugs like heroine or cocaine), thus leading to the invisible act of societal Black male gendercide. I imagine this internalization phenomenon may have the greatest impact during adolescence, a period of life known to play an essential role in personal identity development. Yet, as we heard in class from the personal accounts of youth participants in the P.L.A.A.Y. video, young black men do not inherently see themselves as angry and dangerous. Young black males often express that they do not want to engage in acts of crime and violence; they really are not ‘tough guys’ but kids.
I wonder if the assertion and perpetuation of the ‘violent young black male’ archetype in the media by individuals like Bill O’Reilly stem from an internalized feeling of: ‘I’m so fearful of your presence that I have to act.’ I relay this quote from our in-class discussions around the use of this feeling as the impetus behind the historical lynching of blacks. How far must certain people go in order to protect who they are? Why must others be held down? Are our self-identities so fragilely built that the mere presence of an ‘Other’ threatens our very being? If this is the case, then I feel that we all really must begin to address our race relations’ struggles at a much deeper, widespread, and personal level.
So where does this leave urban educators today? How do we change this archetype and address the Post Civil Rights disenfranchisement of our young black male students? Yes – there is a disproportionate number of black men convicted of felonies who therefore cannot vote. Yes – the Supreme Court recently invalidated a key part of the Voters Right Act, making it more difficult for poor minorities to exercise their constitutional rights as citizens. I would even extend this concept of ‘disenfranchisement’ to the fact that, by existing in a globalized society, we favor wealth and our place on the world stage over our cultural commitment to social services, making “urban black communities not only … the poorest communities but also … a section of the poor that is blamed for creating its own poverty and for threatening the social order of an upwardly aspiring nation” (Del Zotto, 2004, p. 163). But what do we do? How can we use our roles as educators to begin to change negative perceptions and unjust realities in society?
I suggest that we each find how to use our unique personhoods, as male/female - white/black/Hispanic - homo/heterosexual - poor/middleclass/wealthy, in very specific and exceptional ways. Personally, as a white, middle class, heterosexual female, I will never be able to fully understand the reality of a black male – I just cannot ever have or live that experience. But I would like to foster deeper connections and relationships with black males (students, teachers, and those in our class) in order to figure out how to empathize with them. I would like to bring what I learn from our classes, conversations, and personal connections to others outside of our GSE classrooms and outside of our placement schools. At this time, this is the extent to which I am comfortable and confident in helping foster more positive perceptions around young black males in society today.
The source I chose to critique is an “Impact Tonight” segment of the Fox News show The O’Reilly Factor. My segment of choice aired on September 11th 2013. The topic of discussion was Race and Violence in the US; the guest interviewee was Dr. Donald Tibbs, Associate Professor of Law at Drexel University. In the opening remarks of the segment, O’Reilly firmly stated that “”there [is] a rise of hate crimes in the U.S.A. in the wake of the Trayvon Martin verdict” (2013). From the outset of this news segment, I felt overwhelmed by the extreme bias conveyed by O’Reilly: in all four of his examples of ‘hate crimes’, young black men (or teens) were the perpetrators. He made the assumption that the “Trayvon verdict angered many in the African American community” and asked his African American guest: “are these attacks [on white people] payback?” (O’Reilly 2013.)
A quick browse of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report Hate Crime Statistics website reveals that “72.0 percent [of racially motivated hate crimes] were motivated by anti-black bias” (2011). Seventy. Two. Percent. Why, then, do we overwhelmingly hear, from both biased cable news stations and more local news sources, about anti-white violence? Maybe more importantly – why does the media find it reasonable to fixate on perpetuating the archetype of the ‘violent young black male’ instead of focusing on and bringing to light the underlying factors that contribute both to individual cases of violence and to systemic injustices sustained by many young back males?
Later in the interview, O’Reilly presented unfounded claims that “young black men…are becoming increasingly violent” and that all “young black men are angry” (2013). These statements provide a spot-on example of the “Menace to Society” archetype of young black males, as described at MinorityReporter.com (2012). I believe the display of archetypes specifically in the daily news media may have a more impressive influence on the psyche than more subtle displays of black male archetypes in movies or TV shows. Although I cannot relate from the perspective of a black male observing this archetype in the media, I personally have a stronger reaction to and find myself more aware of the manifestation of this archetype in the news than in movies or in TV shows. Even without purposefully choosing to inspect reports put out by biased news channels like Fox News (Ackerman, 2001), I often notice the perpetual presence of the ‘Menace to Society’ archetype when scanning the news story on the cover of the Philly Metro Paper or the New York or Los Angeles Times, or by watching the first 15 minutes of an NBC10 Philly news broadcast.
I believe that these daily, widely publicized ‘reminders’ of the inherent anger of and danger posed by young black males contribute significantly to the phenomena of “black male seasoning” (Del Zotto, 2004, p. 165) and stereotype threat (Steele, 2010) experienced by young black males. Del Zotto (2004) notes – many young black boys internalize these repetitive, conditional expressions of ‘the self’ (angry – dangerous – violent – worthless – hopeless). Over time, compounding and internalizing these negative factors can result in personal acts of self-destruction (use of drugs or alcohol when driving, unprotected risky sexual activity, overdosing on drugs like heroine or cocaine), thus leading to the invisible act of societal Black male gendercide. I imagine this internalization phenomenon may have the greatest impact during adolescence, a period of life known to play an essential role in personal identity development. Yet, as we heard in class from the personal accounts of youth participants in the P.L.A.A.Y. video, young black men do not inherently see themselves as angry and dangerous. Young black males often express that they do not want to engage in acts of crime and violence; they really are not ‘tough guys’ but kids.
I wonder if the assertion and perpetuation of the ‘violent young black male’ archetype in the media by individuals like Bill O’Reilly stem from an internalized feeling of: ‘I’m so fearful of your presence that I have to act.’ I relay this quote from our in-class discussions around the use of this feeling as the impetus behind the historical lynching of blacks. How far must certain people go in order to protect who they are? Why must others be held down? Are our self-identities so fragilely built that the mere presence of an ‘Other’ threatens our very being? If this is the case, then I feel that we all really must begin to address our race relations’ struggles at a much deeper, widespread, and personal level.
So where does this leave urban educators today? How do we change this archetype and address the Post Civil Rights disenfranchisement of our young black male students? Yes – there is a disproportionate number of black men convicted of felonies who therefore cannot vote. Yes – the Supreme Court recently invalidated a key part of the Voters Right Act, making it more difficult for poor minorities to exercise their constitutional rights as citizens. I would even extend this concept of ‘disenfranchisement’ to the fact that, by existing in a globalized society, we favor wealth and our place on the world stage over our cultural commitment to social services, making “urban black communities not only … the poorest communities but also … a section of the poor that is blamed for creating its own poverty and for threatening the social order of an upwardly aspiring nation” (Del Zotto, 2004, p. 163). But what do we do? How can we use our roles as educators to begin to change negative perceptions and unjust realities in society?
I suggest that we each find how to use our unique personhoods, as male/female - white/black/Hispanic - homo/heterosexual - poor/middleclass/wealthy, in very specific and exceptional ways. Personally, as a white, middle class, heterosexual female, I will never be able to fully understand the reality of a black male – I just cannot ever have or live that experience. But I would like to foster deeper connections and relationships with black males (students, teachers, and those in our class) in order to figure out how to empathize with them. I would like to bring what I learn from our classes, conversations, and personal connections to others outside of our GSE classrooms and outside of our placement schools. At this time, this is the extent to which I am comfortable and confident in helping foster more positive perceptions around young black males in society today.
References:
Ackerman, S. (2001). The Most Biased Name in News: Fox News Channel's extraordinary right-wing tilt. Retrieved September 30, 2013, from: http://fair.org/extra-online-articles/the-most-biased-name-in-news/
Del Zotto, A.C. (2004). Gendercide in a Historical-Structural Context. In A. Jones (Ed.), Gendercide and Genocide (pp. 157-171). Vanderbilt University Press.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2011). Hate Crime Statistics 2011: Incidents and Offenses. Retrieved October 2, 2013, from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2011/narratives/incidents-and-offenses
O’Reilly, B. (Interviewer) & Tibbs, D. (Interviewee). (2013). Race and Violence in the US [Interview transcript, Interview Video]. Retrieved September 30, 2013, from Fox News Web site: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/2013/09/12/race-and-violence-us-0
Steele, C. (2010). Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
The Minority Reporter. (2012). The 6 Archetypes. Retrieved September 30, 2013, from http://www.minorityreporter.com/The_Minority_Reporter/The_6_Archetypes.html
Ackerman, S. (2001). The Most Biased Name in News: Fox News Channel's extraordinary right-wing tilt. Retrieved September 30, 2013, from: http://fair.org/extra-online-articles/the-most-biased-name-in-news/
Del Zotto, A.C. (2004). Gendercide in a Historical-Structural Context. In A. Jones (Ed.), Gendercide and Genocide (pp. 157-171). Vanderbilt University Press.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2011). Hate Crime Statistics 2011: Incidents and Offenses. Retrieved October 2, 2013, from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/hate-crime/2011/narratives/incidents-and-offenses
O’Reilly, B. (Interviewer) & Tibbs, D. (Interviewee). (2013). Race and Violence in the US [Interview transcript, Interview Video]. Retrieved September 30, 2013, from Fox News Web site: http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/2013/09/12/race-and-violence-us-0
Steele, C. (2010). Whistling Vivaldi: And Other Clues to How Stereotypes Affect Us. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
The Minority Reporter. (2012). The 6 Archetypes. Retrieved September 30, 2013, from http://www.minorityreporter.com/The_Minority_Reporter/The_6_Archetypes.html