African American Stereotypes

Asians always have perfect scores on the test and aspire to be doctors. African Americans have serious attitudes, are thugs and live in poverty. While all Hispanics are illegal immigrants, who can not speak English and commit vicious crimes. If you watch much television, all of these previous statements may seem true. Television is a powerful source of knowledge that in some ways help us understand others in humanity and ourselves.

Stereotypes seem to be very present in our country, especially stereotypes towards African-Americans. For the longest time, like it has been instilled as a fact in my brain, black people have been directly related to the words “ghetto” or “hood”. I don’t remember a time where I actually can remember the words “ghetto” or “hood” without the picture in my mind of an African-American person. I think that this is a big problem in today’s society because it is not true but still seems to be taught. In politics, society, and everyday life, it feels like African-American’s are being slammed for being hoodlums. This is a problem because there are millions of African-American people who do not fit this stereotype, but still get degraded and treated badly because of this age old belief.

How are African American men portrayed? They have many stereotypes under their race and specifically the men of African Americans. There are numerous reasons why African Americans have dominant racial stereotypes. However, it does not make it right that African American men should be the scapegoat for every problem. Being a scapegoat is taking the sins of others. How can African Americans get equal rights and respect if all they get is racism, disrespect, and get blamed? They do not get equal rights in education, job force, etc. Some African Americans may be in a lower class than Caucasians but often time African Americans make it to the high-class hierarchy but they are still not appreciated or respected as much. This other stereotype that African American men may be boxed into is black masculinity. Conversely, if an African American man acts different from usual African Americans, their own people and Caucasians judge them for being different. African American men are getting blamed way too often for many things and even crimes they did not commit. The society needs to stop view African American men as the scapegoat because it is absolutely not fair to them. Even if those men are purely innocent, people think they are not masculine. African American men should not be blamed or deal with punishment that they did not commit.

The riots in Ferguson were not called for because they only led to the destruction of the city and the arrest of protesters. They accomplished nothing and took away from the reason of the riots, Michael Brown’s unjust death. Protesters that stood peacefully and chanted “Black Lives Matter” had a greater effect as they stood across the country (Healy).

A stereotype is a popular belief about specific types of individuals. Stereotypes are standardized and simplified conceptions of groups based on some prior assumptions. African Americans have been perceived to be someone they are not in the media, history, and in everyday life. Although some stereotypes are true, many are harmful and inaccurate.

African Americans have been oppressed ever since slavery was abolished and it seems to be a never-ending cycle. White Americans oppressed the black population because they needed a way to remind everyone of their so-called supremacy. They did this through many different ways but the most common were by theatrical performances. Ever since the minstrelsy shows the negative stereotypes of African Americans seem to keep growing. According to the book Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks, “in almost every American movie in which a black had appeared, filmmakers had been trying to maintain the myth that Negroes were naturally rhythmic and natural-born entertainers.”

For peaceful protestors, their message could be misinterpreted and taken the wrong way. The media need to consider the possibility that there might be people who might partake in the protests for no reason. Furthermore, the family of Michael Brown and President Obama appealed for everyone to act calm; however, this was not given as much footage as the violent incidents, stoking an already delicate situation further. In this particular case, the grand jury was given sufficient time, evidence and almost all the information. Although the evidence pointed around the facts that the people involved were an unarmed African-American teenager and a policeman and whether the police man was acting rightfully, the media sensationalized this news to such an extent that they made this story about race. Instead of concentrating on the actions and the ethics of the policeman and focusing on the jury’s decision, the media has therefore imprinted a false perception of the whole story. The media needs to think about a better way to portray the news as to prevent a division within the

George focuses on implicit bias largely in the educational sector and how that effects African Americans with the emphasis on specifically the black female. Educationally facilities tend to apply restrictions regarding disciplines on a sort of equality across the board basis; however, the failure of recognition is that this method is not effective and results in long term psychological disparities that will prove to affect an individual’s well-being well beyond their school years. Racism is certainly still prevalent in society and perhaps even unintentionally woven into the very fabric that has a huge impact on our

Popular culture has dictated and reinforced upon society the stereotype that African American men lack any type of higher level education, and are in their majority incarcerated. Among these stereotypes, is the one that says that African American men are not apt father figures, and that they display a tendency to be more-than-likely to walk out on their families. In fact, it is quite the opposite: while 1.7 million African American fathers are not present in their child’s lives, 2.5 million are; out of those 2.5 million, 70.4% bathed, diapered or dressed their children daily, compared to 60% percent of white fathers, and 78.2% fed and ate with their children daily, compared to 73.9% of white fathers (National Health Statistics Reports, pg.12-14).

For many years there has been a lot of talk about what Africans think of African Americans and sometimes most of it isn't in the most positive light, and vice versa. As a Black American myself I want to delve deep into this argument that has been going back and forth for years. I feel that it is important for Africans and African Americans to understand each other, learn from each other because there are only certain things that are mainly different about each group but at the end of the day we are the same.

In my graduating class, there were seven girls: four Arabs, one Somali, one Bengali, and myself, an African American who also has Ethiopian heritage. While in high school, I continuously dealt with a majority of my classmates, as well as some teachers, making remarks that I considered to be racially offensive and made me quite uncomfortable.

In Ferguson, Missouri, 18-year-old African American male Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson. The incident involving Brown created a critical environment in Ferguson and became a dangerous and controversial time in America. The events following the initial incident impacted Missouri significantly. Following this incident, a ripple effect of police brutality incidents took place. The question "Is the law is really doing their job and protecting us?" Was created.

The media today has been developing ways for the African-American culture about how they are supposed to be portrayed when they are on television. Mainly the media want to focus on material and other aspects that contribute to alienation, such as, drugs, violence, crime, and antisocial behavior. What is the cause for all this? The cause for this is that the media is bringing in reality television to portray African-Americans as offensive and prejudiced.

In today’s society it has become a norm to make assumptions of an individual and categorize them into groups that fit them. This would be known as stereotyping, and it occurs everyday and almost everywhere. It can affect someone’s everyday life along with their emotions. A stereotype is a widely held idea or image of a a group of people and is based off of some truth, while misconceptions are based off no evidence at all. Stereotypes can either be positive or negative. Stereotypes exist because that’s how the human brain functions, they see something that repeats within a group of people and that’s how stereotyping begins. An example of a positive stereotype would be that African-Americans are very athletic. However, there can be some negative

On August 9, 2015, a Ferguson Police officer shot and killed unarmed young man, Michael Brown. This set off a chain of events that catapulted the #BlackLivesMatter Movement into national media attention. Since the unnecessary death of Michael Brown,