Essay: Who Is to Blame for Negative Black Portrayal on TV and Its Impacts on African Americans?

American television got its start in the late 1940s and at the time, television was a virtually an all-white medium. Once black people came into the picture, they were featured in anything from musical variety shows to Shakespearean productions but what mattered is what was palatable to the masses. Historically, shows or roles that feature African Americans in comedies or musical varieties have been the most successful. Since African Americans were first featured on television, their creative range has been extremely limited as they were expected to fit into a certain role in society. Being so limited, it is important to analyze black portrayals on television and how this effects the African American community as a whole. Following this history is essential to understanding its effects on the black community and the relationship between blacks and their own portrayal of themselves.
Television is by far the most competitive form of socialization within our society. Television is a medium that gives its audience, voice, color, singing, recording and games. Published in 1984, the Journal of Black Studies analyzes the impact of television in the black community. The journal states that black adolescents’ viewing time almost always exceeds that of other children’s of 1970. As an example, a study of nine and ten year-old children revealed that while Black children were averaging seven hours of television viewing per day, white low-income children averaged 6 and white middle-income children averaged only four hours per day. With black children spending a large part of their day consuming television, it undeniably plays a major part in the black societal dynamic. Adolescence being an extremely influential period for socialization makes these facts are extremely alarming. Furthermore, the Journal of Black Studies states that “..less desirable social characteristics are associated with heavier television viewing: Children who watch a lot of television tend to have poorer nutritional habits, are more likely to engage in conflictual or delinquent behavior, and have lower school achievement than those children who watch television less.” With television directly affecting behavior like this, it is important to note just how much television black children are consuming. As holders of the highest amount of viewership, black children are extremely influenced by the television and that affects their self perception. Furthermore, young children find it difficult to separate television from reality and cannot even distinguish commercials from regular programming. If children have difficulty separating reality from the screen then they will find it difficult to filter persuasive or symbolic messages. Clearly, the portrayals of black people on television can have a direct effect on their daily lives; watching a television at a high rate allows more opportunity to internalize images on screen. It is important to examine how black portrayals have changed and shifted in the media in order to understand how these portrayals influence black people.
Having black people absent from television programming is harmful to black self esteem but having negative portrayals of black people is even more harmful. To further dive into these portrayals, an analysis of The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and African American family programming from 1980 to 1990 will be presented. The six Power Rangers are high schoolers with special abilities and are represented by different colors that are rather symbolic. The White Ranger is the leader of all the rangers played by a white male is described as “quick thinking, wise, and strong”. Another white male plays the Blue Ranger, a Latino male portrays the red ranger; an Asian male is the black ranger; a white female is the Pink Ranger; and the Yellow Ranger is played by a Black female. The characters with the most speaking parts happen to be the Pink Ranger and the White Ranger with the rest of the characters having little to no significance to the plot. Furthermore the White Ranger makes all the decisions for the team along with Zordon, another white male. This communicates to audiences not only that the White Ranger is the most important character in the show but that all the major decision makers are white. Seeing The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and how little agency black people have on screen is alarming. Even though there are black characters it doesn’t mean these characters are good influences on children. Young children simply do not have the social capacity to separate these types of symbolic messages from their own self-perception of blackness. Internalizing a power imbalance between white and black people becomes a reality.
Sherryl Browne Graves conducted research on the portrayals of African Americans in television and came to the following conclusions: black families were shown as isolated from other families, African Americans are more likely to be shown as victims or perpetrators of violence, and African Americans dominated more in comedies than in dramas. Isolating black families from other families did not allow audiences outside of blacks to relate with the characters and causes a deeper divide in racial relations. The absence of cross-ethnic interactions further normalizes an idea of segregation. African Americans are burdened with stereotypes of violence and violent images which only perpetuates those stereotypes. Black people dominated comedies because they weren’t taken seriously and were meant more to entertain whites than to share a personal narrative. Black portrayals essentially fit into a narrow selection of stereotypes that not only limited African American expression but echoes black people’s place in society. These stereotypes have a history that extends past television but still has an impact on today’s generations.
Socialization of children through television is an undeniably powerful force. Often, it is a child’s first look into the world and a way for them locate their own perception of self in society. With black children consuming television far more than any other demographic, it is crucial that they view positive portrayals of the African American. The negative portrayals of black people on both Power Rangers and black family dramas has allowed the black child to internalize disastrous messages on their self esteem. It is important that these negative stereotypes are acknowledged so that positive portrayals can be seen on television in the future.