“The representation of Black people is not good. And it’s funny because, in the past years, I have seen more movies about Black lives and Black societies. But no, the media is not representing the real life of Black people. The most represented part of Black people in media is about the fighting and bad things that are going on. Black people are not all about fighting and violence, and the media shows too much about the negative part, which is not always real, and not enough about the important things. Mainstream media needs to show more about Black culture, music, people, happiness, and all the beautiful, fun, and positive things that Black people do.”
“As far as African American representation in the media, I feel as though it’s getting better, but there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done. Personally, whenever I have talked to my family members, it’s very interesting because we talk about how we are depicted. Oftentimes, we’re just tired of the same narratives, like we are struggling, in the hood, or we’re all gangsters. I want to see more of a wide range of things that we can do and accomplish in terms of our representation. I want to see us in various forms of media, fantasy, literature, you know, anything like that, instead of just being pigeonholed into these very strict, kind of stereotypes that we’ve been pigeonholed into.”
“I think our representation in the mainstream media is sometimes disheartening. I think we only get a media spotlight when it comes to something negative, and sometimes they don’t take enough time to try to find the positive stuff to give some light to. I think a lot of times, we always see the horrific stuff that happens. With the mainstream media, I don’t see representation in commercials, but they might have our music playing in the background. However, it’s somebody who doesn’t look like us being represented in the commercial. So, we can do better even with sports. I was watching the draft one time, and they were talking about this guy who just got drafted, but they were talking about something negative he did when he was in high school. This guy just got drafted, you know, and so they do us like that. And it just hurts my heart. There’s so much stuff going on, and so many beautiful things that we’re doing, and you never hear about it.”
“I think the representation of Black people in the media has gotten better, but it still is a problem, or else this question wouldn’t need to be asked. Every time I see something in the news about Black people, it is about shootings, killings, drugs, or some type of crime. Like, is that what we are really only good for? Black people are some of the most talented athletes, musicians, and movie stars, and those types of celebrities get recognized for it, but let them mess up, and it will be the only headline you will see for years. It will come back to haunt them like a digital footprint, despite other great things they are doing.”
“I do feel like Black people are at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to public media outlets, like the news and things like that, because whenever something happens, if a Black person does it, the news will say, ‘three Black males did this.’ But if it’s a white person or any other person, they’ll say, ‘all three males did this,’ and don’t specify the race. In terms of social media, that just depends on the person behind the page; you create your own image. Definitely, a lot of people portray bad images of themselves and glorify that they’re criminals, like, ‘I did this, I did that,’ and people nowadays like that type of stuff. So, I don’t know what’s going on nowadays; people just like violence. Black people’s representation is half and half. I don’t perceive too much like, ‘Oh my god, it’s targeted towards Black people,’ but we do still have a disadvantage. At the same time, there is kind of a responsibility that we Black people need to have when it comes to things that are being done for social media.”
“I think the representation depends, because if it’s big corporations, I think they try to make it look like they’re saying something good, but they’re actually making slick comments and trying to make us look bad. If it’s big corporations like Fox News, they’ll try to just show the bad parts of Black people—talking about rappers, drugs, and only gun violence. They never show the good that Black people are doing. I think smaller news companies, smaller people that try to represent us, have a better idea. And since some of them are Black and have experienced the same issues that Black people are going through, they kind of represent it better and are trying to make us look like what we’re doing is actually what everybody else does, instead of just talking about the same basic things that Black people go through—shootings, violence, drugs, and rapping. Instead, they try to talk about Black people in a way that shows we are doing something good for the world, but mainstream media I don’t think does a good portrayal of us.”
