The way media handles racism
The way the media handles racism
Recently there has been an influx of different issues that deal with racism. There have been events of the police shooting blacks and getting exonerated. There have been ads on TV that have been either bluntly racist or having racist undertones. One that comes to mind is a recent soap commercial that will clean well, and it shows the effects by having a black woman become a white woman. (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/08/business/dove-ad-racist.html) This has recently come to head by Colin Kaepernick, when he found that the best way to show his hate for the violence of police officers and other acts of racism was to kneel during the national anthem.
The media portrayed his actions as anti-American, and him hating the military. This is a tactic of divergence. Do not focus on the real issue, but rather focus on this other non-important issue. In Christian Perspectives on Sociology Peter Berger said,
…in a society whose central social arrangements are dubious, to say the least, when confronted [they concentrate] attention on those areas of conduct that are irrelevant to the maintenance of the social system, and diverts attention from those areas where ethical inspection would create tensions for the smooth operation of the system.
Rather than confront the issue at hand, people will by and large make another issue bigger to not have to deal with the original problem.
If we were living in a time when everyone researched every piece of information that was presented I do not believe this would be as much of a problem. Unfortunately, we live in a time when “news” is just someone speaking, when it used to be a journalist researching facts and presenting them as best they could. With many new internet news media, the quality of reporting will not be as good due to it being so frequent. Most of which is just slander of the opposing persons views.
Media is no longer unbiased, now it is openly opinionated and proud of it. But this is not just an U.S. issue, there are other countries who are dealing with the issue of bad media when it comes to racism and false reporting as well. In South Africa there was some media stations that were accused of racism, to wit they chiefly denied it. “The reason why there can be such entrenched opposing views about racism in the media is that the very nature of racism is contested.” (Durrheim 171)
I don’t believe anyone contests that there is racism, though there may be some who would be shocked at the level of it. People will chiefly claim that they themselves are not racist, or have done stuff to stop racism, this is especially true in the media, “thus, while admitting that there is ‘racism denying racism of some sort’ in the media, racism is denied by stating ‘This newspaper has fought racism’” (Durrheim 174–75) This makes it seem like a finger pointing session, those other people are the culprits not I. The way to stop racism is not simply with not saying/doing something that is racist, but also talking about racism. There are many who benefit from a society that has practices in place, that place one race at an advantage over another.
Grunlan has described this as the cycle of poverty, and talks about it as when poor people live in areas with cheaper rents. These areas are characterized by high rates of social instability. The schools they attend are cheaper schools, the poor schools have a poor quality of education and high dropout rates. These schools do not typically graduate students who do well occupationally. They then become like their parents and the cycle repeats. (Grunlan 304–305) Rather than covering the issue of people unable to afford rent in a good neighborhood due to the landlords keeping the rent out of reach, the media would cover on the unemployment rate or some other non-issue.
One of the issues when thinking about the color-blindness of modern media is that it reflects the society it covers. For when thinking about societies racism, “This will be reflected in the media, otherwise the media is not an accurate reflection of society.’ (Durrheim 176) It is what it covers, if a nation is overly one-sided so will the media be. Likewise, if a nation chooses to either be overtly racist, or color-blind so will the media. There are several different domains or types of colorblindness, as quoted by Sue in an article by Johnson,
The first domain, Unawareness of Racial Privilege, occurs when an individual denies the advantages in U.S. society that the dominant culture holds for White individuals, including having the power to define reality, perpetuating the illusion of fairness among cultural groups, the belief in superiority and entitlement of White cultural heritage, and belief in inferiority of other groups (Sue, 2004). The second domain, Unawareness of Institutional Discrimination, occurs when individuals minimize or deny the role of dominant groups in denying access to minorities through policies and procedures. Sue (2004) describes the phenomenon as systemic bias that infiltrates leadership groups and employee performance assessments by ascribing White cultural values as essential characteristics for promotion and advancement. The third domain, Unawareness of Blatant Racial Issues, results when individuals deny or minimize the discrimination that racial minorities experience including the racial microaggressions (Sue, 2004). (Johnson 411)
What this means it that since U.S. society has white privilege, though many would deny such a thing as stated above, the media will as well deny it at the same time as enjoying it.
When it comes to Kaepernick taking a stand for racial issues, the media looks the other way, because society looks the other way. The issue when viewed from a proper lens is not ‘us vs. them’, but instead a realization that we are the issue. While you or I may have never shot a person, or been exonerated for murder, we are a part of the system that raised people who did such things. We are in the society where we can get ahead in life, simply because of the color of our skin, while another person is killed for the same reason. How are we to respond to such a thing? Do we kneel as well during the national anthem? Do we join the black lives matter movement? This may be options, but the solution is to show people who Jesus is.
All people biblically have inherent value, for all people were made in the image of God, “then God said, ‘let Us make man in our image, after our likeness…so God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Gen 1:26–27 NKJV) With all people being made in God’s image, all people have value. Your value and mine as human beings are equal.
With both of us being equal in value, neither one of us is less than the other. With neither of us being less than the other, neither one of us deserves less or more than another simply because of how we were born. We may have different lives to live, but both of ours are valuable. All life is. When a person put a policy into place that takes the value of someone and places it over another, that is institutionalized racism. When a person goes and harms or kills another because of the color their skin, that is a hate crime. When you think about all that is happening in terms of race, and want to do something, look to the Bible. “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth “(1 John 3:16–18)
Help those in need, care for those who have none. Just because you do benefit from something does not mean you cannot extend that to someone else. Love one another in deed and in truth. Do not let the media convince you to act a certain way, but rather do what is right. Follow the path of righteousness, love God and love your neighbor.
Durrheim, Kevin, et al. “Denying Racism: Discursive Strategies Used by the South African Media.” Critical Arts: A South-North Journal of Cultural & Media Studies, vol. 19, no. 1/2, May 2005, pp. 167–186.
Grunlan, Stephen A., and Milton Reimer. Christian perspectives on sociology. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2001.
Johnson, Alex and Dahra Jackson Williams. “White Racial Identity, Color-Blind Racial Attitudes, and Multicultural Counseling Competence.” Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, vol. 21, no. 3, July 2015, pp. 440–449.
Radmacher, Earl D, editor. New King James Version Study Bible. second ed., Nashville, TN, Thomas Nelson, 2014.
