ms253505@ohio.edu
Martin Gilens article “Poor People in the News: Images from the Journalistic Subconscious” addresses how coverage of those living in poverty is distorted along racial lines. Gilens argues that reporters have subconscious stereotypes (and are basically subconsciously racist) about black people, especially when it comes to covering stories about poverty, welfare, crime, etc.
Subconscious racism in the news is something I think about a lot, as is subconscious racism in my own life. Gilens gave the example that white Americans are more likely to assume that black people make up the bulk of welfare recipients, and are more likely to attribute being on welfare to a lack of effort on the recipients’ part. Gilens attributes this to a disproportionate number of black people being portrayed as “poor” in the news media, but I think it goes far beyond media coverage, and far beyond the issue of poverty.
I feel race affecting me in a huge percentage of my daily interactions, and I often try to figure out why that is—often I don’t like the answer. For example, last week I walked home from work after dark and passed a college-aged black guy walking the opposite way down the sidewalk. I saw him coming toward me and immediately tensed up. Then I thought to myself, “Would I be scared if this same guy walking toward me right now was white?” The answer was no, and I hated that I felt that way. By no means was this the first time I’ve examined my reaction toward someone of a different race and discovered an ugly truth about myself lurking in the back of my mind.
But where do these feelings come from? I was raised to believe that all races and people are equal, and if you asked me today I would say that I still believe that completely. I’ve read the statistics about racial breakdowns of criminals and welfare recipients. I’ve taken sociology and political science classes and learned about distorted portrayals of black people in news and entertainment (like the examples Martin Gilens uses). I actively try to eradicate racist tendencies in my thoughts, and yet I find myself being a racist.
So is it because I see more black people than white being arrested on episodes of COPS? Or is it the Newsweek cover story about the economic downturn that includes more pictures of black families than white? Or is it the Disney movies I watched as a kid that split the world down the middle between “good” white heroes and “bad” ethnic villains?
As Gilens writes, “Even people who consciously reject a particular stereotype may nevertheless use that stereotype subconsciously to evaluate social groups.” And while I’m glad I’m not a conscious racist, being a subconscious one doesn’t feel much better.
RadioLab, one of my favorite radio programs, did an episode last fall examining the neurological and biological constructions of race. I thought it was fantastic, especially the honesty they brought to the discussion of such a touchy issue. In this clip, they talk about how students categorize pictures of people into different races, and get most of them wrong.
Radio Lab did another episode on the constructs of Choice, and discussed "priming,"-- a concept Gilens also touches on in his article. RadioLab hosts Jad and Robert acknowledged that the entire conversation was making them feel depressed and a little sick when they started to talk about how the brain can be primed for race. They found that racism is an incredibly difficult issue that doesn’t just lie in what your parents told you when you were a kid, or the TV shows you watch, or the magazines you read. It's part of a deep, complicated neurological process as well, and maybe it's not something you can control.
Gilens concludes in his article, “Both psychology experiment and new organizations’ real-world experience show that with sufficient effort the influence of journalists’ subconscious biases on news images can be eliminated.” As a journalist, the same way I know I’ll never be able to eradicate my personal political and social views to be a completely objective reporter, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to completely eradicate this subconscious racism as Gilens writes. However, by examining my thought processes, acknowledging my biases and trying to make personal progress, I can work against racial stereotypes in news coverage and daily life.
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