preview

Black Women And The Media

Good Essays
Open Document

“Oh my gosh! you’re so pretty for a black girl.” “You’re black so I know you can twerk.” In society these phrases may be considered as compliments for black women even though they are not. However, people only know what the media portrays black women to be. It emphasizes them as ghetto, loud, angry, and ignorant. Black women are more than the negative stigma that the media portrays. In our society, the media reinforces the plague of African American women by stereotypes and falsities originating from slavery. For young African American women, the majority of media portrayal, especially in music and film, is of a bulumpcious, sexually hyperactive golddigger. This negative image of a black women is damaging to the black community by implying …show more content…

“Their perception of the black female as a degraded sexual object is similar to white male perceptions of the black female.” (aint I a women bell hooks 108)
The media has turned the image of black women into such a disgrace that their own men have fallen blind and fail to protect them.

Racism, plays a big part in the media. It is a hierarychial system that is organized to benefit white people because they are “superior” and anything other than that is seen as inferior. “black women are one of the most devalued female groups in american society and thus they have been the recipient of a male abuse and cruelty that has known no bounds or limits” (aint I am women bell hooks 108). Black women experience racism, but also go through other struggles people are not aware of. These struggles include things like: colorism and cultural appropriation.

Colorism is a discrimination that favors lighter skin more than darker skin. For the black community, these images in the media have a profound effect on women of color because in our society lighter skin is seen as “prettier”. This is why attractive black women are constantly asked if they are mixed, because it is not the “norm” for a darker skin woman to be considered beautiful. There are some mixed women who are born with thicker hair, regular brown eyes, and brown skin, and they receive discrimination because they are not the type of

Get Access