The Effects Of Past Racial Discrimination : The Stereotypes Of Black Men

Jim Crow was a system in the southern and bordered states that made lives for blacks and other races from white difficult from 1877 to the 1960s. Blacks were to be treated as inferiors to the whites. “ Newspaper and magazine writers routinely referred to blacks as niggers, coons, and darkies; and worse, their articles reinforced anti-black stereotypes” (Pilgrim 2000). Overall, it was oppression on blacks. Blacks did not receive their full rights as citizens. Blacks faced so many other racial problems from whites as if they had done something wrong in the world. Two examples of how blacks lived with Jim Crow are Walter Cavers from North Carolina and Dora Dennis from Arkansas. In interviews they described issues they had to face where they were

Racial stereotypes have always been a serious issue in society. The stereotypes impact many aspects of our life. We more or less get carried away by our perceptions toward race, and judge people in a certain frame unconsciously, as Omi set forth in In Living Color: Race and American Culture. Taken by Hilary Swift, this photo presents an African American woman, waiting for a bus that can take her to the Kitchen of Love, a food pantry that located in Philadelphia aiming to feed people suffering from hunger, where she volunteers. It happens in dawn so it’s still dark outside. The surroundings give us an idea that it should take place in a black neighborhood (Stolberg “Black Voters, Aghast at Trump, Find a Place of Food and Comfort”). The woman is staring at the direction where the bus is coming, with a smile on her face. As a photojournalistic image, this photo is aiming to portrait a kind and helpful African American woman, however, does this photo really “positively” portrait an African American woman?

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.

A common stereotype for Black Americans is the over criminalization of black men. Although criminals come in every shape, size and race black men are targeted as criminals more than any other race. The media recently came out with the movie “Straight Outta Compton” which focused on the real life events of young rappers now. White policemen harass and attempt to

Stereotypes are born from fear and ignorance. They are used to wrongly judge an individual or group. Brent Staples, a black man, is no stranger to this. “Black Men and Public Space,” written by Staples, he discusses his experiences as a black man; often being mistaken as a criminal because of his appearance. Most people see his universal identity and not who he really is. Living in the city of Chicago as a black man, he is frequently categorized as a thug or aggressor. The purpose of his essay is to inform the readers about how it feels to be the one who is stereotyped, as well as to express his discontent of being type casted. As a result of the negative stereotypes involving black men, Staples has the capacity to negatively alter the space he is in by causing others to fear him. Equivalently, many people also fear cops because of the stigma they have. Because of this, the police negatively impact the space they are in. In the article, “What Happens When Black People Learn They Should Fear the Police”, Jesse Singal discusses how police brutality has affected the black community’s trust in the police.

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.

"When someone fabricates a crime and blames it on another person because of his race OR when an actual crime has been committed and the perpetrator falsely blames someone because of his race." (Russel 70) The negative image of African-Americans has become so bad that "imaginary" Black people are invented as criminals. In some cases Black individuals were even chosen out of a line

In “Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space,” Brent Staples discusses stereotypes that black men faces in today’s world. Where in his response to oppression he had changed his outside appearance to appear ‘friendly’ to be able to satisfy others. In many other stories, response to oppression was typically covering up instead of being yourself around others. However, I found that the most appropriate response to oppression is to adjust your outside appearance so you appear more friendly to give your inner identity more of a voice for others to be able to hear.

”In the era of colorblindness, it is no longer socially permissible to use race explicitly as a justification for discrimination, exclusion and social contempt, so we don't," Alexander said. "Rather than rely on race, we use our criminal justice system to label people of color criminals and then engage in all the practices we supposedly left behind” (Famed 1). Now after a majority of the black race is behind bars people begin to give the black race a negative stereotype. If you were walking with a child down the street and you saw a black person, what are you automatically going to think? Oh, he seems like a nice man and let your child go up to him? Or are you going to think well he is black so you have to pull your child closer to you because you are afraid that he might try to take your child? So why do people set these stereotypes for only black felons? Why don’t white felons have the same reputation? Thus, creating a negative stereotype for the black race. From the War on Drugs essentially putting people behind bars, to how the Jim Crow laws are resurfacing again, and to how mass incarceration effects the families, mass incarceration has become a major problem for the black communities all around the world.

By criminalizing the black man, by usage of propaganda and passage of outrageous laws, a multi-billion dollar industry was founded off of labor provided by mass incarceration. Black men were portrayed as criminals in early movies such as Birth of a Nation where the entire plot revolved around a black man raping and terrorizing a white woman. In the end, white men rescue the woman and lynch the blackfaced actor. This early use of propaganda slowly but surely instilled the modern day stereotype for black men: they’re all thugs. Why would the large number of minorities being carted off to jail be concerning when they’re clearly criminals? Anything could get a black person thrown in jail, while a white man was forgiven for any crime

For decades, Americans have been associating young black men with stereotypes that affiliate them with violence. These stereotypes, which are based purely off of appearances, have caused many young black males to face violent, unnecessary, as well as unjust encounters with white police officers. As the number of deaths among young black men increase because of police brutality, society should change how they perceive these men in order to prevent inflicting more harm to them. Specific cases, such as the cases of Freddie Gray, Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, and several others, will be presented in order to display how the distortion of the stereotypes can cause incredible harm to young black men due to police violence in addition to how stereotypes affect society’s perception of all young black men.

In the news we hear stories about how another black male have been sent to prison. The big question that most people ask is “why?” He was selling drugs. A petty crime like that gets a black male at least 10 years in prison. Whereas, a white male selling drug gets probation. African American are portrayed as thugs who either sell drugs or are always in the streets terrorizing people. For instance, in the article, THE FIGHT FOR BLACK MEN, by Joshua Dubois. A man named Joe, who lived in a typical african american life style was fatherless. At a young age, he started to use narcotics. Later on, he was caught by the police and was sent to jail. Where he met someone that taught him the knowledge on how to sell drugs in the streets. This lifestyle is the stereotypical lifestyle of Black males or Black people in general. People assume that ‘ALL’ African Americans are the same. In another article, Black Men and Public Space, by Brent Staples; the character describes his first encounter with racism when he was behind a white woman, who thought he was going to rob her. So, she started to run. He mentions that just because he was wearing baggy clothes and black, she automatically thought the worst of him. Another stereotype for Black males is that they are not educated. In Black Boys in Crisis: The School-To-Prison Pipeline, it states that dropouts (mostly black kids) are going to be incarcerated at one point in their life. In this article, it states the statistic percentage of how

In Brent Staples "Black Men and Public Spaces," Staples perceives today's racial stereotypes by sharing the experiences he has faced in the past. When Staples encounters his "first victim," a white woman, he realizes he is being stereotyped as a mugger, a rapist, or worse just because of his appearance and race (346). Staples becomes "familiar with the language of fear" by elaborating on other encounters he has had in public; the most frightening encounter perhaps was being mistaken for a burglar while working as a journalist in Chicago (346-347). Before the age of 22, Staples did not realize how serious the stereotypes were for being a black man. He attributes his ignorance to growing up in Chester, Pennsylvania where he remained a shadow

It is a widespread fallacy throughout society, when people think of crime they often think of race. The stereotype of African Americans being violent, dangerous and the common criminal has a lot to do with why people correlate race and crime together. Overtime racism has gone from serious overt acts, to unrecognizable acts. The main problem with racism is that most people are unaware that they are doing it because most believe racism no longer exists, which is false. There are many theories such as the labeling theory, critical race theory and intersectionality that are used to try and make sense of why exactly African Americans and other minorities are discriminated against. It is also found that the media has a lot to do with the extensive image of African Americans being portrayed as criminals because a lot of the news that is broadcasted is about violent acts committed by Blacks. Unfortunately, over time, society has depicted a false image of an African American. If this stereotypical image of African Americans was created by society, then the one thing that can alter that image is the public view and society

Our society sometimes creates certain images and ideas that then is hard to get rid of. When we see something on television we tend to believe it. For example, media portrays a black man as a criminal, we get that image stuck in our brains, and it is what we then believe. Thus, whenever a black man is running, armed or not, they could possibly be in danger of getting shot because they could look suspicious (Cush). This image is so ingrained in our minds that even black police officers fear for their lives. A statement by an undercover detective says, “My greatest fear is being shot by a fellow cop, not by a suspect” (Cush). A black man, or anyone of color, does not deserve to be stereotyped because of the images we see on a television. Some people claim to not have a racial bias but claim there is a reason to fear someone based on race. For example, “There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life… than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start to think about robbery and then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved” (Kennedy). That man believes that he has a higher risk of being robbed by a black man than a white man, this would be true in say a place where there was a higher black population but is still unjust. Race does not dictate what people do and this is just another example of someone stereotyping a human being.