target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_c1675a54-c958-5702-9fb7-5b28c4901e29">2014) suggests that people of color can also be responsible for racism. While some argue that this is rare because racism is tied to power and control, she sees things differently.
People of color can and do reproduce structures, systems and practices of racism too, but by writing and speaking against the oftentimes one-sided stories existing in a white supremacist world, CRT scholars illuminate the fact that the social world is not static, but is constructed by people with words, stories and also silences. (p. 20)
As more scholars have started to study media and race there is a movement toward the examination of storytelling within CRT. This approach is endorsed by Solorzano and Yosso (2002) who describe how “majoritarian” stories are, “generated from racial privilege and stories in which racial privilege seems natural” (p. 27).
These stories privilege whites, men, the middle and upper class, and heterosexuals by naming social locations as natural or normative points of reference. A majoritarian story distorts and silences the experiences of people of color and others distanced from the norms such stories reproduce. (p. 23)
Each chapter in this book examines the normalization of racial images and messages in the media, particularly the way they create the basis of our knowledge ←6 | 7→and understanding when it comes to African American culture in this society and around the world. I see the term racism as having extreme historical and emotional ties pushing it into a deep abyss of negativity, fear, and hatred. When we focus on those extremes, we often miss the important, but subtle elements of racialism that are just as powerful and problematic. For example, the Jezebel stereotype is alive and well in Gabrielle Union’s role on Being Mary Jane. Despite the fact that she is a highly successful black woman working in the broadcasting industry she jumps in bed with a number of men. And the contemporary mammy stereotype fits Tyler Perry’s Madea with her no-nonsense attitude, extreme protective nature, and southern accent thrown in for comedic purposes.
Abraham and Appiah (2006) discuss how the role of visual imagery in the priming of racial stereotypes through the media involves an implicit racial propositioning.
In this process, the images of blacks function as concrete and vivid cues, exemplars, which provide context that adds to and elaborates understanding of the specific issue discussed explicitly in the text … This process of implicit racial propositioning may be one of the discursive means through which contemporary forms of prejudice manifest themselves, and through which black stereotypes are rehashed and maintained in society. (p. 189)
Despite the fact that we are seeing more African Americans in mediated products today, many of those images and messages reflect certain stereotypes, biased frames, and historical myths. In an effort to open up the conversation about race and media and to promote a move toward change in the status quo, Racialism and the Media: Black Jesus, Black Twitter and the First Black American President presents selected exemplars of how race is normalized in the media.
Research has shown that mediated images and messages are an important part of how people see the world (Means-Coleman, 2013; Napoli, 2010; Nightingale, 2011; Ross & Nightingale, 2003). While the media may not have an all-encompassing power or control over an audience, it has been documented that images and messages can impact certain people, at certain times, in certain ways (Newman & Guggenheim, 2011; Potter & Riddle, 2007; Preiss, Gayle, Burrell, Allen, & Bryant, 2007). Mediated texts offer ideas and images that feed our societal norms and ultimately influence how meaning is constructed and deconstructed around the world.
Born out of what sociologist, Herman Gray (1989) calls, “America’s storehouse of racial memory,” racialism is supported by the historical and ideological distinction between races in this country. As a political construct, it is also tied to social and institutional ideologies and behaviors (Harris-Lacewell, 2003). And ←7 | 8→finally, the commodification of race through commercialism is another important element to be considered as part of racialism’s significant reach (Thornton, 1996).
Chapter One, “Contemporary Zip Coons: The Problem with Funny” examines how the Zip Coon stereotype is alive and well today. It has evolved into a contemporary image in film and television that is very popular. For example, comedians like Eddie Murphy, Kevin Hart, Chris Tucker, and David Mann star in numerous roles as modern day buffoons.
Chapter Two, “Ghettofabulous: How Low Can You Go?” critically explores exemplars in reality TV, rap music, news, film, and urban/street fiction questioning how “ghetto equals black” has become a norm in society.
Chapter Three, “Advertising and Black Folks: Whassup!” focuses on advertising as it uses images of and messages about black culture to sell certain goods and services. This chapter will not only look at negative exemplars, but it will also discuss advertising that frames black culture in a positive way.
Chapter Four, “Black-ish and the Changing Nature of Black Identity” offers an exploration of core ideas surrounding blackness. Through this comedy series blackness is challenged and redefined in relation to class, gender, and environment.
Chapter Five, “Balancing Stereotypes: Black Male and Female Roles on Prime-Time Television” explains how complex characteristics can be found in numerous roles on prime-time television that challenge black stereotypes such as Jezebel and Mammy or gang member and criminal.
Chapter Six, “A Satirical Parody: Black Jesus in the Hood” investigates how religion and poverty coexist in the inner city. Black Jesus meets the people where they are and in his own way he tries to help everyone understand that life should and could be better.
Chapter Seven, “Deconstructing Intersectionality in Crash” is an evaluation of the movie Crash which demonstrates how the collision of different genders, classes, and cultures in Los Angeles influences power and experience.
Chapter Eight, “Black Twitter, Interpretive Communities, and Cultural Capital” studies the way that Black Twitter has redefined activism on a global scale by generating a wealth of knowledge and opportunity through shared experience, meaning, and collective behavior.
Chapter Nine, “President Barack Obama: Biased Frames and Microaggressions” evaluates the problematic macro and microaggressions experienced by Obama as the first Black American president. Visual and verbal exemplars are discussed in the perpetuation of biased cultural framing.
Chapter Ten, “Science Fiction and Fantasy: Going Where Few Blacks Have Gone Before” is a critical examination of black themes and characters imagined now ←8 | 9→and in the future. The world today is fifty percent people of color, so it makes sense that stories about the future in science fiction and fantasy must be more inclusive.
Race will always be a significant part of America’s ideological
