The New Racism on Television

As I see this picking up a modest amount of views over the last couple years, I think it's important I share a little bit about this for those interested in knowing. I created this short documentary my senior year in 2007 for a class I took at the University of Wisconsin.

It's a topic I've thought a lot about over the past several years. At the heart of it, I've observed from both afar and my own personal experiences, that racism is still alive and well of course, but it has evolved with our society from an in-your-face, federally mandated, figuratively black and white racism to one which quietly works behind the scenes to embed disparaging ideas about groups of people in our subconscious. These ideas are projected in our everyday life, and we see them in the behavior of good people are probably not racist so-to-speak, but have racist projections. I think it's better shown than told, like on this video about the different reactions to a white kid and a black kid stealing a bike: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrOSL85ZMck

I think television media is just one avenue of many where we see these ideas being spread on a subconscious level, whether it is intentionally harmful or not. I think we also see a kind of narrow sided manipulation everywhere from advertising to prison statistics, but this video was only 10 minutes, and only about visual media.

As a professional, doing some work editing prominent reality television myself now, my perspective has not changed. People who put themselves on camera have a natural tendency to want to play a character, and unfortunately for people in minority groups, these characters they play become what the unexposed general public sees and believes that group to be like. Visual representation. The wilder the character, the more we remember them and the more we subconsciously think of them as the faces of their group. It works the same way for other minority groups besides people of color as well, but there's a debate about social ramifications that I'm not having at the moment. It's this way across media, narrative television, movies, radio, the news. We are presented with characters and not people, because truly knowing people requires you to be able to interact one on one with an individual and obviously that is a built-in limitation on visual media. In all situations, we naturally and subconsciously digest these characters as representations, and then we interact with people with these representations influencing how we think about and treat the people we interact (or even don't interact) with.

Personally, I do not believe this is only the fault of white media producers. In fact, I think that in the black community, we are very much responsible for what is being put on display in many cases. I did not get into BET on this video, but for years they were a huge perpetrator of some really shameful shit. To some degree, I think they have pulled back on some of it and replaced it with positive imagery, but no network, no distributor, no record label, no media outlet is innocent. And we, as consumers, are very much guilty for consuming it. I'm not at all saying we are wrong for being entertained because I don't think you should feel bad about watching or listening to anything that you are morally ok with doing so, but I think we should be making ourselves aware that we are always being manipulated by media. Not as a conspiracy, not as an intentional brain washing (for the most part), just as the nature of visual media dictates. The purpose of this video is to help you open your eyes to our history and our present of being manipulated by media. I don't think there is a true mass solution because the solution is awareness, and that is something you must find personally if you wish to.

Everybody is entitled to their own opinons here and that is why I have and will continue to keep the comments open despite many that differ from my own. I only remove inflammatory comments that include no argument, even if the argument is small minded on either side of the debate. I did not think this would get views at any level, I was just sharing it with whoever wanted to see. I'm glad it has promoted dialogue, however ignorant some of it may be. I think many have made persuasive arguments on both sides, and many have made merit-less arguments on both sides. But the point is we are discussing it and not ignoring it, and that is truly awareness.

Created by Bradinn French
Music by Reza Ahmadi

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[frenchbk]

The purpose of this is not to label the people in it or to blame any person or even blame the media. The point is, we must always analyze and question what we are watching OURSELVES, draw the line between the fictional characters who make it entertaining and the the real people behind the characters. Representation is hugely important and we have been misrepresented for centuries now, and it's not just white media doing it. These are all just things meant to think about and reflect on, please.

[frenchbk]

Unfortunately, with characters, the general audience tends to believe that the characters are the real people. And this is what I'm trying to get people to look at, these characters have become real people for the ignorant audience. And it's not just white audiences, it's black audiences too. We all buy into it and that is dangerous because we don't get to know the people, just how they behave on 30-60 minutes of TV and it becomes the expectation of how these people normally behave.

[frenchbk]

Usually don't respond to comments, but I don't like people misinterpreting the message. I don't think New York is a jezebel, but she did play one on tv, even if not by her own hand. On the contrary I think she is a very beautiful, strong, independent woman who is obviously smart enough to have created and maintained her brand. Same with Flavor Flav, he's obviously much smarter than this character he played, but in reality tv you have to have characters to get ratings. It's the way it works..

[DARIUSSR612]

THIS IS A GOOD VIDEO SIR!!! I WAS THINKING THAT THE "NEW" T.V. LINE-UP SUCH AS SHOWS LIKE TYLER PERRY'S "HOUSE OF PAYNE", AND "MEET THE BROWNS" ARE TWO EXAMPLES OF "COON-NIGGER" T.V.!! I THANK YOU FOR THIS UPLOAD, NO MATTER HOW OLD IT IS, IT'S POIGNANT TO SOCIETY TODAY!!!

[tearuponsociety]

absolutely amazing u are

[katiedavis1997]

If only everyone watched this video and saw just how corrupt and biased the media can be. Well done, an amazing insight. Thank you.

[ILOVETOLOVEYA]

@Amillionmes but somehow, you ended up here, watching a video about black people. don't be a web troll, bitch.

[33daher]

Fu$@%@#!k you

[jay44571]

stereotypes rull our media...its funny...and entertaining...and i am black...i love hip hop and hip hop is full of people acting like what we stereotype them as....and i love every second of it.....

[MizzDiamonds]

great documentary

[WildWestSamurai]

While I do appreciate this video and feel you bring up interesting points that highlight very real issues, frenchbk, I find it rather unfair that among the clips you aired to point out stereotypical portrayals of blacks were ones from HBO's "The Wire". I feel it's unfair because, unlike every other crime show on television, the black characters on The Wire are actually well-rounded and realistic. Just like the real Baltimore, most of the cops and politicians are black as well as drug dealers.

[newmindseye]

TRUTH!!! I WEEP!!! If only there was someone to help or show the way. I believe talking about "how something looks all the time" or "sexual misconduct" is LOW THINKING. When there is so many other events/actions needing our attention. My brain is in my head not between my legs. Thanks for trying! Excellent video!!!

[fullfist]

the narrator is black himself i figure.

.

frankly, i see a lot more fair skinned , bright eyed villains in movies. I could make the same arguments for my race, stronger even.

modern TV is very keen on showing the black as a sort of stable, wise support characters, whole sit-coms have been made intending to show blacks as capable, moral and hardworking. The Cosby show and Family matters. Thor movie where they changed a wise nordic god into a negro. Green mile, spiderman, m. freeman characters...