White Media's Manipulation of Blackness

(the following is an excerpt from my book Real Nigga Real Nigger")

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........Framing the world according to the white male narrative is obviously unhealthy because it suppresses the racial and cultural identity of minority groups. Unfortunately, the racial ignorance (racism) of the white male narrative filters down through America until it settles, like mud at the bottom of a lake, in minority communities that are unable to disrupt the power structure that exists in America.

White American media uses two interrelated strategies to keep the power scale tipped in their favor, the positive AFFIRMATION of whiteness and the negative CONFIRMATION of blackness. These strategies, when implemented on a national level, affect the psyche of both whites and blacks in a way that ensures racial disharmony.

The positive affirmation of whiteness can take on many forms in American media. In television and movies, we recognize it by the role’s whites get as the protagonist who usually encompasses "good" values of bravery, honor, strength and reconciles his conflicts by the end of the movie. In music, white affirmation presents itself in songs that are typically about love and/or upbeat "feel" good songs. One of the most subtle but most direct examples of the media's ability to affirm the "goodness" of whites comes from the "news" media. When reporting on violent crime, terminology changes the narrative when it comes to whites. Instead of using words like "terrorist" or "thug," white criminals have the personal burden of their crime removed through terminology. For example, mass shooters (almost always white males) are identified as having "psychological problems" in an attempt to lift the burden of responsibility from the individual while at the same time protecting white America from the notion that white people can in fact be just as violent as any racial or ethnic minority group (and in many ways much MORE violent.) A consensus must be reached within America when it comes to this topic, either whites who commit a crime must be identified by the same terminology that minorities are identified by, OR minorities must receive the much-coveted protection of having "psychological problems." Even the happy family pictures used when describing how wholesome and "seemingly normal" whites were before they murdered their loved ones and/or committed suicide can be seen as an expression of white racial ignorance when compared use of mugshots when minorities commit a crime.

Contrast these examples of positive affirmation against the negative confirmation of blackness that we typically see in media and the irony quickly becomes apparent. Historically, black representation in television and film has ranged from assisting the white protagonist, to being perpetrators of violence and chaos against either the white community or the black community itself. Even the stereotypical black who dies first in horror movies demonstrates white America's indifference towards black life. There is a noticeable difference in the confirmation of black inferiority between these different roles, but the difference is only one of scale. While the black who assists the white protagonist may not demonstrate the same effect on the black psyche as the violent black "thug," it still confirms the role of black as subservient to whites. The reason these roles dominated the media market was the stranglehold white males had on the selection and production of mass media. By choosing roles for African Americans that confirm the racist ideals of the white male psyche, blackness is marketed to the masses as dangerous, overtly sexual and savage in an attempt to identify blackness as a threat to the white condition of safe, modest, and "civilized." Luckily, we have recently been blessed with a wave of new opportunities for media creation and consumption which has leveled the playing field so that minorities can create art outside of the racist paradigm of the white male psyche and demonstrate a new complete image of blackness. To all of the new black women and men expanding the landscape of African Americans in film, music and media, you are appreciated!