This essay will highlight the key issues arising from the media representation of race. In the essay the concepts of stereotyping, othering and appropriation will be discussed with the hope of showing that there are many issues in regards race. Race is not easily defined, however simply put the Concise Oxford Dictionary describes race as “A group of people or things with a common feature.” To think of race is to think of racism as John storey says
The first thing to insist on in discussion of ‘race’ is that there is just one ‘race’, the human race. Human biology does not divide people into different ‘races’; it is racism (and sometimes its counter arguments) that insists on this division.
This essay will seek to elaborate on how the media manifests racial distinctions.
Race and racism are not new concepts. “Racism first emerges as a defensive ideology, promulgated in order to defend the economic profits of slavery and the slave trade.” Racism is a means of asserting power and ensuring that the inferior ‘race’ remain inferior. It provided an alibi for slavery by making slaves appear worthless and dangerous.
John scattergood, writing in 1792, argued that if slavery is allowed to end, ‘The negroes from all parts of the world will flock hither, mix with the natives, spoil the breed of our common people, increase the number of crimes and criminals, and make Britain the sink of all the earth,
Whiteness is seen as ‘natural’ and ‘normal’ “White people are rarely thought of as white people; they are simply human without ethnicity.” Whilst the slave trade has since been abolished the issue of ‘race’ and ‘racism’ still exists today.
Race is about differences and as times change so do differences “We are always different, negotiating different kinds of differences.” In Establishing differences between ethnicities the idea of the black slave gets regurgitated frequently, by likening minorities with ‘blackness’, which trivializes them in order to make them subservient. For example, during colonial times the English sought to establish the Irish as an inferior minority therefore, propaganda was produced which animalised the Irish, making them ape-like to represent them as moving towards ‘Blackness’. Likening them to ‘blackness’ made them seem less ‘white’ and therefore less ‘human’. Charles Kingsley said
But I am haunted by the human chimpanzees I saw along that hundred miles of horrible country. […] But to see white chimpanzees is dreadful; if they were black, one would not feel it so much, but their skins, except where tanned by exposure, are as white as ours.
Ethnic minorities, also fall victim to stereotyping, whereby the actions of a small selection of the ethnic group are seen to represent the entire group. “The roles in which ethnic minorities have been developed in media texts have tended to be stereotypical, constructing a narrow and generalised version of the lives and identities of such populations.” For example black actors tend to be cast as violent criminals or slaves, thus “Presenting blacks as irrational and inferior” The civil rights movement in America saw a shift in ethnic representation but many stereotypes still permeate ‘Black’ culture. In R&B and Hip-hop music ethnic stereotypes persist, with such music “dominated by stereotypes of urban gang culture and, specifically, a blend of male criminality”
In the last few decades, Media representation of the Muslim community has also been substantially stereotypical with the vast majority of coverage referring to acts of extremist terrorism. “Since the events of September 11th 2001, images of Muslims have become increasingly centred on religious extremism and terrorism,” Recently after the Paris terrorist attacks, media coverage was soon dominated by immigrant fear-mongering and the idea that if we open the gates to immigrants, that extremist terrorists will flood in.
An MEP risks sparking outrage by suggesting that Enoch Powell was right to warn mass immigration will lead to “Rivers of blood”. Bill Etheridge has insisted that “open door immigration” into the UK is putting the country in danger from terrorists.
Such coverage has not gone unnoticed with many taking to Facebook and twitter with xenophobic rants which contain similar sentiments. Even politicians, such as Donald Trump, joined in the internet xenophobia
This descent into xenophobia was led, as usual, by Donald Trump. Amid bushels of word salad, he concurred with registering American Muslims, raised alarms about Arab-American treachery ("thousands and thousands" on TV cheering the World Trade Center collapse) and promised not only to deny entry to Syrian refugees, but to send back the ones already here.
David Cameron also made controversial comments, that “it is not good enough to say simply that Islam is a religion of peace and then to deny any connection between the religion of Islam and the extremists”. Due to media representation of recent events, many are drawing connections between terrorism and Islam and therefore the Muslim community suffers with innocent people being attacked in response to the attacks. “DCC Livingstone (of Glasgow) said: “Since the dreadful events on Friday we have had a number of reports of racially and religiously motivated crime. When I left the office this morning, they were standing at 64.” By stereotyping certain ethnic groups, they feel oppressed which creates a divide and develops a sense of ‘them’ versus ‘us’. “The more they feel stigmatized and oppressed, the more they may be pushed into developing separate, oppositional values, identities or ‘survival strategies’”
This idea of ‘Them’ versus ‘us’ or ‘othering’ separates the ‘dominant’ white culture from ethnic minorities. A pop culture example is how many white people in the music industry such as Miley Cyrus ‘other’ black people by having themselves surrounded by black dancers and backing singers, which makes their ‘whiteness’ stand out and places ‘them’ as their inferiors. “She (Miley Cyrus) used the tedious trope of having black women as her backing singers, there only to be fondled by her and to admire her wiggling derriere.” And thus “reducing black dancers to background fodder and black women to exaggerated sex objects.”
Miley Cyrus also uses ‘Black’ culture to make herself more interesting but she doesn’t have to deal with the discrimination that Black people receive. In appropriating ‘blackness’ she is in a position to profit from it. ‘Blacking up’ was also once popular on television with the likes of The black and white minstrel show(BBC,1958-1978) were white people would ‘black up’ with make-up and then act like fools, thus trivialising blackness and making a mockery of it. The 1990’s comedy sketch show The League of gentlemen also trivialises ‘blackness’ through the minstrel character; Papa Lazarou, who would turn up at houses and steal people’s wives. Ethnicity is commonly misused by ‘white’ people as “seasoning that can liven up the dull dish that is mainstream white culture.” Manipulation and appropriation of ‘blackness’ permeates popular culture and is even used in the food and drink industry. “Market surveys revealed that black people buy more Pepsi than other soft drinks and suddenly we see more Pepsi commercials with black people in them.”
To conclude, the idea of ‘race’ can be defined in many ways. ‘Race’, as has been explored in this essay, is used to discriminate against certain minorities and to make them feel inferior. It is also used to create differences between cultures and create divides. Race is manipulated and abused for the gains of the superior race at the expense of minorities. The race argument is timeless as new differences will be established and new groups will establish their superiority. However, to refer back to John Storey, “There is just one ‘race’, the human race. Human biology does not divide people into different ‘races’” .