Portrayal Of Black Women On Television Shows : Blaxploitation In America

“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

The stereotypical misrepresentations of African-American women and men in popular culture have influenced societal views of Blacks for centuries. The typical stereotypes about Black women range from the smiling, a sexual and often obese Mammy to the promiscuous Jezebel who lures men with her sexual charms. However, the loud, smart mouthed, neck-rolling Black welfare mother is the popular image on reality television. These images portrayed in media and popular culture create powerful ideology about race and gender, which affects daily experiences of Black women in America. With few healthy relationships portrayed in the media, Black women are left to make decisions based on the options

In Basil Davidson’s video “Different but Equal,” he outlines the European perception of Africa upon their discovery of the continent. Claims that the Europeans were making about African culture, however, were far fetched and did not depict Africa in a positive manner. History according to pre-European Africa was rich and diverse, but once Europeans saw for themselves how different their continent was from Africa, they began to make up their own version of African history.

The systematic, oppressive dehumanization of black womanhood was not a mere consequence of racism. It was a calculated method of social control, manipulation, and misogyny. With capitalism on the forefront of the American society during the Reconstruction years, and a booming manufacturing economy was on the rise, white supremacy capitalism patriarchy needed a group to be at the very bottom of the social hierarchy, a scapegoat. That scapegoat was black women. Manumitted black women showed that when given the same opportunities to live their lives like humans, they surpassed and excelled in all areas. Their success was a direct challenge to the racist ideologies that darker races were inherently inferior. Racist

In Ending Footbinding and Infibulation: A Convention Account, Mackie (1996) examines the practices of female foot binding in China, and infibulation in Africa. Specifically, the paper considers the conditions which brought these practices about, how foot binding came to an end, and why infibulation still persists. Mackie offers his 'convention account' and asserts that such practices are self-enforcing conventions which are perpetuated by interdependent expectations on the marriage market (Mackie 1996: 999). In doing so, Mackie primarily applies a rational choice paradigm in his examination, while also utilising structural functionalist and hermeneutic paradigms. Ultimately, I will posit that this synthesis of paradigms provides an effective

highly uneducated, irresponsible, and aggressive. Under these circumstances, the development of a black mans identity deteriorates, his self-worth, his image, and his history are gone. Consequently, leaving the only thing left to grasp is the portrayed image of the black male, a nigger. This is the struggle the

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek” Barack Obama. The question is always asked does the media reflect the reality of society, or does society try and imitate the reality shown by the media? There are a number of stereotypes associated with African Americans in our society such as African American men are athletes, rappers, criminals, deviant, streetwise, uneducated, and unemployed just to name a few. African Americans in the media have changed through the years. The history of African Americans on TV or minorities in general is hampered by the racial conflicts and segregation that are embedded in American society. Historically, black actors have been grouped stereotypically and assigned to comedy. This has often been traced to the genre of black minstrelsy that was popular in the early 20th century.

“No other group in America has so had their identity socialized out of existence as have Black women… when Black people are talked about the focus tends to be on Black men; and when women are talked about the focus tends to be on white women.” - Bell Hooks

Since its start, the television industry has been criticized for perpetuating myths and stereotypes about African-Americans through characterizations, story lines, and plots. The situation comedy has been the area that has seemed to draw the most criticism, analysis, and disapproval for stereotyping. From Sanford and Son and The Jefferson’s in the 1970s to The Cosby Show (1984) and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the 1990s, sitcoms featuring black casts and characters have always been controversial. However, their significance upon our American culture cannot be disregarded. During the 1950s and 1960s, 97% of the families were Caucasian. In the first five years of the

The United States prides itself on being a land of opportunities, and in many ways it is. We look at countries like South Africa, which not long ago was segregated through the laws of Apartheid, and we are glad that we are so much further along than the land of Mandela. However, every now and then we need to stop and ask ourselves just how far along we really are, and we have to wonder if many of the once oppressed countries we helped free are not passing us up in the area of civil rights and opportunity.

BET is an acronym for Black Entertainment Television. The network was established as a result of the lack of culture and diversity in the television industry. The network was launched on January 25, 1980, it was first launched as a programming block on Nickelodeon. On July 1, 1983 the network was introduced as a 24-hour television channel. The purpose of BET was to bring diversity to television and show African American people that they too could make it to television if they worked hard. BET’s network lineup included African American sitcoms and music videos. BET has become a very prominent television network over the years and is the biggest network targeting African American audiences. As of today, about 88,255,000 households

The only national channel targeted for the black audience, Black Entertainment Television (BET), was launched in 1980 (Jones 477). The broadcasted channel shows public affairs, relations, struggles, life lessons in dramas, comical and musical programs that give African American characters and themes life, which is not usually broadcasted enough on any other networks. The black audience preferred to watch television shows that featured and enhance black characters, performers, and the themes that emphasized black experiences. Studies of black’s readership of white and black newspapers in New York, that found that blacks were skeptical of the white press coverage of black activities (Jones 479). This resulted

In Patricia Hill Collins’ “Mammies, Matriarchs, and Other Controlling Images,” she illustrates four main stereotypes that Black women face. The first controlling image applied to African American women is “The Mammy.” The mammy is the faithful, obedient servant to the white family and the stereotype attempts to hide the fact that black women who work for white families are being exploited. By loving and caring for her white “children” more than her own, the mammy symbolizes the dominant group’s perceptions of the ideal black female relationship to elite white male power. The smiling mammy signals her agreement with the situation, seemingly accepting her subordination (Collins, 71). Next is the image of the Black matriarch (Collins, 73). According to the stereotype, they spend too much time away from home, are overly aggressive and unfeminine, and allegedly emasculate their lovers and husbands. This stereotype attempts to control conduct by punishing black women for assertiveness and hides the oppression by making it seem that black women are naturally this way (Collins, 74-75).

BET (Black Entertainment Television) has been providing African American-centric programming to audiences for more than 35 years. The channel’s programming was meant to be in a magazine-like format, presenting both news and entertainment shows. Today, it is one of the top entertainment channels in the United States. Here are six facts about BET, its programming and its history.

The negative portrayals of African Americans on television can cause low self-concepts for African American children (Stroman, 1984; Ward, 2004). African American children are most likely to grow up in a single parent household. Ironically, African American children primarily enjoy television shows with a family element (Greenberg and Dominick, 1970). However, early and current family oriented television shows are comedies with poor representation of African Americans (Mastro, 2009; Ford, 1997). Scholars agree these representations aide negative perceptions African American children form about people who look like them (Greenberg and Dominick; 1970, Stroman, 1984). African American children form negative perceptions about their own group, because like many other individuals they believe what they see on television is true (Punyanunt, 2008; Stroman, 1984). Since there are more African Americans living in poverty than Caucasians, African American children may feel frustrated, or hindered economically. This comes from feeling like they can never progress to the levels of the Caucasian characters that are positively represented. As a result, African American children get a misguided idea of what makes one successful. They begin to think value and worth come from what items a person can buy (Nightingale, 1993). Therefore, it is important to have diversity when it comes to positive representations of groups on