Racial prejudice within the media against minorities
The
media reinforces racist ideology and practices through the production of racist
discourse. The power of media is large because it affects the way it produces
and it also transmits the message to people of color, especially Blacks. It
also creates social problems and jeopardizes the harmony and unity of Canadian
society. In the text, Chapter 20 -- Racism in the Media starts off by quoting Siddiqui, “When visible minorities do appear in our newspaper
and TV public affairs programming, they emerge as villains in a variety of
ways—as caricatures from a colonial past; as extensions of foreign entities;
or, in the Canadian context, as troubled immigrants in a dazzling array of
trouble spots; hassling police; stumping immigration authorities; cheating of
welfare, or battling among themselves or with their own families.” (p. 253,
(year- Not title).
The
focus of our presentation is racial prejudice within the media, and racial
profiling. Why is it so much more common or typical for a black male driving a
Mercedes to be pulled over rather than a white male? The media drives the rest
of the population to assume and develop many incorrect opinions and biased
opinions on specific racial groups. In Canada it is very common that African
American and Aboriginal people are targeted by the media. The majority of
people incarcerated in this country are Blacks and Aboriginals, yet these
people do not make up even half of the population. This leads the rest of Canadians
to subconsciously feel as though these people are possibly different in a way,
such as being more defiant of the law, or a threat to society than the average
person in society.
Realistically,
it is not just these minority groups that responsible for crimes, drugs, and
acts of violence; many other whites, including people from European ancestry
also commit these crimes as well. Take “white-collard
crime for example, yet these far more delinquent crimes are not focused on,
particularly in the mainstream media. The media is more likely to spotlight
incidents where a person of minority engages in deviance with the rules of the
law rather then a white person who committed the same
if not a similar degree of offense. .
….
Essay contains no bibliographic references
