of African Americans in the media.
First, these images affect how African American children and adults view themselves … Second, these images affect African American adults because others tend to view these images as indicative of how African Americans really act and respond accordingly … Third, these images harm the entire society in that they create disharmony between reality and perception and decrease the chances of positive interactions between blacks and others. (p. 181)
It is important to remember that stereotypes are not inherently racist. Yet, because of their history, many generalizations come from a negative or problematic ←11 | 12→place. Today, stereotypes are ingrained in our mediated culture as routine. We use them in the everyday process of creating meaning. They are very persuasive and not easy to change.
Social Identity Theory
Social Identity Theory explores group membership and identity arguing that most people identify who they are in society based on the specific groups they belong to, in other words in-group or out-group perspectives (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). Since we exist in a constant cycle of experiencing the world and constructing meaning as members of various groups, Hinton (2000) suggests that we are more likely to accept stereotypes as norms when there is a consensus among friends, family members and even societal groups.
Social Identity Theory argues that through the cognitive process of categorization and grouping, the in-group members will develop a stereotypical view of the out-group members and through the process of seeking to maintain a relatively high social identity the stereotype of out-group members will tend to be negative. (pp. 114–115)
Hinton also believes that in-group members will view out-group members as more different than they really are from the in-group and they will see out-group members as more similar to each other than they actually are. For example, Banjo (2011) found that white viewers enjoyed stereotypical entertainment based on their cultural openness and competence concerning the out-group.
Viewers reported low-enjoyment when uncomfortable with entertainment that disparages out-group members and identified conflicts between attitude and behavior when interacting with black culture whether personal or mediated. (p. 153)
Gandy (1998) argues cognitive structural thinking can help us to, “pay attention to the relationships between the attitudes, images, and impressions of self and others as they are shaped through direct and mediated experience” (p. 51). He suggests that priming also helps to normalize racial stereotypes because stereotypes are primed by a certain trait or exemplar which is easily accessible and made applicable to societal perceptions.
←12 | 13→
Humor and Black Americans
Numerous studies have been conducted to examine how an African American audience relates to humor. Some researchers focus on how humor is used to create joy and understanding, while others examine how it may help to cope with oppression and self-deprecation. For example, black participants reported a more positive attitude and identification when viewing racially charged comedy with black in-group members rather than with white out-group members while white viewers displayed no differences in a 2015 study by Banjo, Appiah, Wang, and others.
Social identity and racial socialization display a direct relationship between the negative stereotypical images received from media, especially when it comes to being black and understanding how blacks identify with their racial group (Adams-Bass, Stevenson, & Kotzin, 2014). Sanders and Ramasubramanian (2012) detailed through their research how most black film and television characters are considered favorable by black audiences despite the fact that many of those images are stereotypical.
A number of studies have explored how to eliminate or counter problematic stereotypes. For example, Holt (2013) found that the fear of crime is becoming more about the human dyad and less about racial stereotypes. Fojioka (1999) studied Japanese students and the negative stereotypes they recognized about African Americans. This research reported that negative stereotypes could be reduced by seeing positive portrayals of African Americans on television.
Tan et al. (2001) studied the social environment and popular roles in order to assess the influence of normative peer groups on changing stereotypes. They reported that peer groups could change the impact of specific stereotypes and they also confirmed that it does not extend to more general racial beliefs. Plus, a combination of critical media consumption and counter message control may reduce some racial stereotypes that are perpetuated by news stories according to a 2007 study by Ramasubramanian. Finally, targeted training against stereotypes can reduce the activation of those stereotypes among audiences based on the research of Kawakami, Dovidio, Hermsen, and others (2000). This means, sometimes people can be motivated to avoid stereotypes when they experience alternative processing.
A few studies have examined the connection between ethnic humor, stereotypes, and media. Reifsteck (2017) discovered that there is a strong correlation between black racial identity and humor specifically when it comes to enjoyment, expression and perception. She reported that exposure to culturally specific humor might also aid in racial identity development. Apte (1987) defined ethnic humor primarily as a type of humor where fun is made of the perceived behavior, customs, ←13 | 14→personality, or any other traits of a group or its members based on sociocultural identity. Gandy (1998) believes that ethnic humor works because it relies upon readily available stereotypes that make up the core of the joke.
Telling a joke that depends upon such stereotypes reinforces the symbolic structures in which stereotypes exist and do their cultural work. The joke works because it is understood and we understand or ‘get’ the joke because we possess knowledge of the stereotype. And, unless our response to the joke is hostile and resistive; getting the joke is likely to increase the structural importance of the stereotype by establishing yet another link for it to the somewhat unique circumstance in the joke. (p. 90)
According to Gillota (2013) there are three broad theories about humor. The first theory, was created by Thomas Hobbes and called “superiority theory.” This involves the use of ethnic humor as a way to feel superior to the group that is joked about. The second, is “aggression theory” developed by Sigmund Freud. Aggression theory connects humor to a kind of release valve enabling the discussion of socially unacceptable content. Third, “self-deprecating” humor which is used as a defense among some comedians where they make fun of their own racial group.
Blacks have been the butt of American ethnic humor for a long time argues Cooper (2007). This includes both denigratory and self-denigratory humor. Cooper writes on the comedy of Richard Pryor, “If a humorist makes fun of stereotypes, the implication is that stereotyping is not such a serious issue to the groups so represented (p. 244).” Also, in his study, participants easily recognized Pryor’s comedy through the
