Cultural Snapshot- African Americans

How are

African Americans

Represented in the media?

African Americans…

African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans or Afro-Americans) are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa.[2] In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry.

Most African Americans are the direct descendants of captive Africans who survived the slavery era within the boundaries of the present United States, although some are—or are descended from—immigrants from African, Caribbean, Central American or South American nations.

Artifact #1

http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewshortstory.asp?id=25552 

As an African American female with Spanish Nigerian and Black Foot Native  American ancestry, I do not see my likeness portrayed.

I have twins, I have my own TV show, I also design websites and I produce music.  I manage a recording artist and a small fashion design line by the same artist respectively.  I also write grants for non profits and I have raised money for a hospital's residency program.

This type of multitasked individual does not exist according to network TV, but I am living proof that we do exist  

Artifact #2

Artifact #3

http://www.helium.com/items/720534-african-american-representation-in-the-media

Mediums like film and music have helped to create more positive and widespread representations of African Americans, but television has broken the most ground. Television, which in the 1960s represented African American women through the image of Aunt Jemima, is now featuring Oprah as the most widely known and influential African American woman of all time.

Take for instance the change in McDonald's television ads over the past couple of years. Rather than directing their marketing to all-white individuals and families, McDonald's has now begun to open their campaign to all demographics, specifically highlighting African Americans. 

Artifact #4

Artifact #5

Discussion:

How African Americans are Represented

in the United States

A)   What messages are being sent about this cultural group through these artifacts?

There are different messages portrait by these artifacts.  One message that is portrait by artifact #1 is that the media does not take into account the variety of places that the African Americans come from, their ethnicity.  It also sends a message that not all of the African Americans are being represented equally.  They are all represented as if they were all the same, even though they are not.  This type of generalization is offensive to their culture and even their own individual race. 

Artifacts #2 and #3 on the other hand send a message of inclusion of the African American cultural group in their different areas.  The media is including this minority culture in their daily showing on TV as well as in movies and such.  It sends a message that this cultural group is important in this era, and that they have much cultural capital that can be used in daily advertisement.  The successes of different African American people are recognized and publicized.  These artifacts are sending out messages of acculturation and even biculturalism. 

 Other messages are however not as positively portrait as the ones with artifact #2.  If you see at artifact #4 you can see that most African American actors/actresses are working on roles related to either sports, poverty (even generational poverty), disadvantaged people, struggle, etc.  It sends a message of stereotype ideals.  It only gives a glimpse as to how some of these people live.  In a way it sends a message of passive racism because it portraits messages that do have negative effects on this cultural group.  Messages of outlaws orassimilation are sent out with artifact #5.

A   B) How might these messages impact how a child from this cultural group is viewed and treated in the classroom? 

An impact on a child from this cultural group would be that of rejection of its own culture.  A child could have a positive resistance to the culture of power, but at the same time it would try to use assimilation and lose the traits of their own culture.  By looking at the way that most African Americans are portrait in the media, and how their situation has not changed much in a long time, they could come to the conclusion that being like their own cultural group is not what is best for them, and that it is not what is approved by the culture of power.

Another way that these messages could impact a child from the African American cultural group would be that of wanting to succeed in school and in life because they want to follow in the steps of those few successful people from their cultural group that have been acknowledged in the media.  They might want to break that deficit theory and show their teacher, classmates, families, etc., that they are too able to perform well in all areas of their lives.  It could bring about great enthusiasm and inspiration for a child from this cultural group.

A)   C) Why is it important or not for teachers to examine how cultural groups are represented in the media, curriculum, and policy?

One way that a teacher mitigate the messages created by the media about this cultural group would be to set high expectations for all the children in the class, but to reinforce these high expectations for the African American children.   They must be provided with tools that will help them to achieve these expectations so that they will see that they can succeed and that success is made up of a number of microfactors in school.  

Another way to mitigate these messages is to have all the children in the class be involved in the same way.  This might include jobs in the classroom that require the same type of responsibility. Rotation of these jobs between the students is a good way to ensure equal involvement from all students.  Lessons in the classroom can involve the interests of all children equally.  Each ethnicity and culture must be equally shared and if possible included in the lessons taught.  Children form this cultural group must see that their cultural group is as important as any other, and that they are represented the same as everyone else in the classroom.  The classroom must be a safe space for these children.  It must be a space where they can feel free to express themselves and be themselves.  

Both of these ways of mitigating messages created by the media about this cultural group will hopefully eliminate that deficit theory.