Introduction

The media is responsible for shaping the ways in which people view and understand the worlds. One's identity as a member of a group is primarily defined by race or ethnicity.  Over the year’s media has been responsible for shaping how people are defined as a group or race. A lot has changed concerning the representation of minorities such as the Black in media and mostly television. The history of media since the great debut of television has provided us with evidence that the failure or success of African American in the media industry can be attributed to racial inequality where the Whites feel more superior and qualified in comparison to them. Shows like the Cosby Show aimed to eliminate the gruesome stereotype of the Black man that had been represented in the media for a long time but ended up creating a false image of the middle-class Black man. The Media has had a firm grip for a long time on how certain minority groups are viewed and treated in society.

The centrality of racial identity varies across individuals, groups, context, and moments in time, trying to manage these complexities with an effort to understand the influence the media has become a daunting challenge.  It is important to consider the kind of content different people are exposed to, whether directly or indirectly. Exposure to content usually involves the degree of choice of the individual, an audience chooses what they prefer over what is termed distasteful, the difference in taste gives the media the change to segment us into groups. It is evident African American prefer different television shows to those that are preferred by White Americans.  When it comes to representing Black people in the media, not all are presented using favorable characters (Gandy, 601). The history of minorities in media has suggested minorities have always being represented by negative stereotypes but this is prior to their emergence as an active segment of the audience and an active political force.

The United States is the most culturally diverse country in the world but the media history of the country tells a different story. Although improvements have been made in the past two decades on how the minority racial and ethnical groups were being represented using stereotype images. These images were inaccurate and did not at all reflect on the people they were nor the individual diversity that existed in real life. As time went by the role of minorities was changing (Horton, Price & Brown, n.p). The role of minorities was starting to become more visible.

Taking a look at the historical deception of the Black it can be noted that many developments have occurred, in the 1950s era, the Black characters in television were used as pleasing objects to the white. Black was represented by archetypes who were defined by characters such as loyalty to the White characters. Towards the end of the 1960s, changes began to emerge, however, the new image of the Blacks that was created was a picture of idyllic representation of them, and the culture of U.S. programming is responsible for the changes that took place in the later years, these years marked a change in the stereotypical message of the Black minority group that had prevailed for long (Mastro, n.p). In the 1970s, positive shows emerged. These shows were meant to explore experience of Black families across different backgrounds, these shows were a great help in bringing more representation of Black America on Tv screens (Mastro, n.p). Despite the changes, some Black characters were represented as lazy and unemployed.

The Black characters were left underdeveloped for a very long time. Looking at the quantitative content analysis of the 1970s it can still be seen that the Black characters were represented as carefree characters, jobless, lazy and living in poverty. The 1980s ushered a new era where the Black characters started to be defined by more professional, fiscal and successful roles. They were also portrayed as people with more authority and a great place in society. These changes were made following the success of The Cosby Show (Mastro, n.p). Today the average Black characters on Tv are represented as middle-aged males and are mostly engaging in a law-related occupation. Media representation of the Black has been elevated from the gruesome images of the past. Historical evidence suggest that despite the developments that have defined  portrayal a number of stereotypes that can be eradicated in the future have continued to persist on (Mastro, n.p).

Racial inequality is the source of underrepresentation of African American on television. The fact that they do not have equal rights to their counterparts in real life makes it difficult to express them as equals in television. Bias and discrimination of the basis of race have been a longstanding issue. Looking back at the early years of broadcast media in 1939, racial segregation was a heated topic in the U.S, this topic was later on followed by a Civil Right movement that was campaigning for racial equality in the media (Luther, Catherine, Carolyn, Lepre, and Naeemah, n.p). It had become apparent that racial inequality was going to impact programming, entertainment, news reading and advertising (Luther, et al., n.p). At the beginning of the television era, most of those who worked in television stations were White, the media content that was presented to the audience was highly selected and presented based on the opinions of the employees therefore, the Whites broadcasted what was fit for them.

            Since the time media came into exitance, it is responsible for influencing how racism has been perpetuated by the society, throughout its history, it has been known to support the power of dominant groups by negatively presenting minority groups. In early films such as them Tarzan series from 1932, Blacks were presented in the film as savages who never minded their surrounding (Luther, et al., n.p). Even the early films that were produced with White Americans who had painted themselves Black carried strong symbolic meanings, meanings such as the Black people were not qualified to even represent themselves in films (Luther, et al., n.p). During these periods the Black often struggled to represent themselves because the largest share of the media industry was being controlled by the Whites.  Minorities were disregarded and viwed by the media as an audience and people who could not influence any content. During the Civil Rights movement, other changes concerning the representation of the Black in media happened. Footages and speeches of Black activists begun being shown on television and printed on newspaper (Luther, et al., 2012). All the above is evidence that ties the success and failure of Black representation in the media to the racial inequality that is present in real life.

The Cosby Show is responsible for breaking stereotypes that had been created over the years and had shaped the history of the Blacks in Media. This show’s mission was to develop a program, that would portray African American in a positive light as opposed to the emotion-evoking pictures of poverty struck and violent that had been painted by the American media.  This show is also responsible for challenging the theory of the American Dream. However, Gray suggests that television shows such as the Cosby Show provide a false sense of middle-class utopia in African American culture for many reasons.  The Black family portrayed in the show can be regarded as affluent. This show allows White to execute institutional discrimination and still be desensitized to racial discrimination, therefore, this show passes that even in cases of racial discrimination and a Black man fails he will have no one to blame apart from himself since he is not allowed to blame the White that is discriminating him (Inniss, Leslie & Joe, 692).

            The Whites in the country took the show as an example that they should not be blamed for the failure of the Black man since the show proved that anyone regardless of their color can make it in the United States (Inniss, et al., 693). The Huxatables in the show proved that the Black can succeed yet in so doing they proved the inferiority of the Black people who in comparison to their White counterparts have failed. The middle-class Black in the ideal world believes that the Cosby Show paints a false image of assimilation and fosters the backlash against affirmative actions (Gray, 16). This show is responsible for undermining the contemporary racial relations that are very evident in society. This Bill Cosby does by first painting an image of a family that has succeeded despite the presence of the White, while an idealistic world it is impossible to succeed when racism is prevailing (Inniss, et al., 694). Cosby has continued to undermine contemporary relations by projecting some of his views while leaving out others.

Conclusion

            The media has had a firm grip on how minorities have been viewed for a long time. Exposure to content released by the media involves the choice of the individual. The Whites have a different taste compared to their counterparts the Black. Over the years how African American have been portrayed by the Media has come to change with time. Over the years they were represented by stereotypes that were defined by laziness and poverty. The change started in the 1960s and towards the end of the 1980s, these changes were visible. The Black started being represented by more decent characters that were respected in society. Racial inequality is responsible for the failure or the success of the African American in media following the history of media, the White dominated these films and clearly discriminated the Black and regarded them as people without talent. Shows such as the Cosby Show is responsible for painting an ideal image that cannot prevail in real life as the Black continue to face discrimination. By creating a picture of an ideal world this show is responsible for undermining the contemporary relations in race. All the above prove that the media has had a firm grip on how a certain group of minorities especially the Black are perceived by society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works cited

Luther, Catherine A, Carolyn R. Lepre, and Naeemah Clark. Diversity in U.s. Mass Media. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Internet resource.

Gray, Herman. Watching Race: Television and the Struggle for Blackness. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004. Print.

Horton, Y., Price, R., & Brown, E. Portrayal of Minorities in the Film, Media ands Entertainment Industries. 1999. Retrieved from; https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/portrayal.htm

Mastro, Dana. "Race and Ethnicity in U.S. Media Content and Effects". Oxford Research

Encyclopedia of Communication, 2017. Oxford University Press,

doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.122

Gandy, O. H. “Racial Identity, Media Use, and the Social Construction of Risk among African Americans.” Journal of Black Studies, vol. 31, no. 5, 2001, pp. 600–618. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2668078.

Inniss, Leslie B., and Joe R. Feagin. “The Cosby Show: The View from the Black Middle Class.” Journal of Black Studies, vol. 25, no. 6, 1995, pp. 692–711. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2784760.