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| Why does American media continue to distort the reality of the black family? |
"A Dangerous Distortion Of Our Families", represents one of the most important pieces of research to reveal detailed insight into an issue that has plagued the United States in one form or another since the 18th century:
The ongoing distortion of the broader perception of the African-American family by the media, whether intentional (which the study indicates it often is), or not.
The actual research of the study was conducted by Dr. Travis L. Dixon, a professor of communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Dr. Dixon was interviewed about the study on a segment of The Brian Lehrer Show last Tuesday morning along with the chief marketing officer of Color of Change Rashad Shabazz - definitely worth a listen if you want to click on that link above and hear their thoughts and observations.
The research confirmed concerns and complaints that writers, activists, academicians, clergy, politicians and concerned citizens have voiced for years - the continued widespread distortions of the black family in popular media and news coverage in America.
The study dives into the degree to which provably-false narratives about issues like black poverty, parenting and criminality by both news media and entertainment (film and television), are still embedded within popular American culture.
To the extent that many Americans who don't actually know, work with or socialize with African-Americans on any kind of regular or meaningful basis, do not "see" a true representation of the black family in the news media and entertainment they consume on a daily basis.
During their interview with Brian Lehrer on Tuesday, Dixon and Shabazz detailed how the kinds of perpetuated racial stereotypes identified in the study impact the implementation of public policy on the local, state and national level - including the recent Republican tax bill.
Obviously I'm not an academic, but I've read through parts of the report and the research seems quite comprehensive.
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| University of Illinois Professor Dr. Travis L. Dixon |
When the divisive, racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric of the Trump campaign was at a fever pitch - and the toxic "otherism" that was (and continues to be) the defining plank of his overall message was being continually circulated in the inordinate news coverage that Trump received.
The news stories and op-eds were examined for the context in which they portrayed the African-American family.
And it wasn't just conservative media outlets that were analyzed either.
Dixon analyzed stories from CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC, national and local newspapers (including the New York Times and Washington Post) from all parts of the country - as well as ideologically-conservative Websites like Brietbart and Christian-themed media outlets that promote conservative policies.
While the focus of the study is on how African-Americans are portrayed in the media, it offers valuable perspective on the 21st century definition of the American family, a subject that is the overall mission of Family Story, the co-producer of the study - an organization which seeks to enlighten the public on the diverse definitions of what "family" means in American society today.
And it also offers insight into the growing economic divide in America that was further widened by the recent passing of the Republican's tax bill - a shameful, overreaching and irresponsible piece of legislation that was passed, in part, by conservatives who utilized rhetoric laced with some of the very same flagrant distortions of Black Americans highlighted in the study.
With Christmas falling on a Monday this year, my guess is that some of you (hopefully) reading this will have some spare time over the next few days, I'd recommend that you to take some time to read through it - you can click here to go to the Color of Change Website to download a PDF copy of the full report, or read a digital copy on the Website.
For those unfamiliar with their emails, Color of Change was founded back in 2005 by social justice advocate Van Jones and former MoveOn.org volunteer James Rucker following the national outcry over the botched federal response to the devastation in New Orleans and surrounding areas caused by Hurricane Katrina.
It was established based on the progressive online activism model of MoveOn.org, utilizing email and social media to coordinate massive targeted responses to specific issues related to racism, injustice, poverty, voter disenfranchisement and the distortion of African-Americans by media outlets.
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| Right-wing nutjob Glenn Beck with his chainsaw gun |
From the NRA-supported "Stand Your Ground" laws in Florida which enabled racist psychopath George Zimmerman to walk after stalking and murdering unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin.
To targeting the corporate advertisers of former Fox News host Glenn Beck after his deranged public comments accusing President Obama of being a racist who hated white people.
While I've signed a number of online petitions from Color of Change in support of their grassroots activist efforts, and donated a few dollars to them in the past, I first heard about their joint study on The Brian Lehrer Show last Tuesday morning.
Some of the highlights of the study were things I'd seen, known of and written about - but I'd never seen the distortion of the African-American family verified with research before.
For example as the study highlights, 59% of the families depicted in news media stories about the poor were black - when in fact only 27% of families living below the poverty line in America are black.
Or think about this one, if you see a news media piece on television about welfare recipients or welfare reform, chances are that the "b-roll" footage you see in the background as a reporter does a voice-over will show black people standing in lines at a government office.
But as the study highlights, 60% of the families shown in news media stories about welfare were black, when 42% of welfare recipients in America are black.
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| Americans in a bread line in The Bowery in the 30's |
As Dr. Dixon observed in his interview last Tuesday, when millions of white Americans were receiving some form of public assistance during the Great Depression in the 1930's under the New Deal, politicians never stigmatized welfare recipients by characterizing them as "lazy".
The mainstream news media continually present a distorted image of what poverty looks like in America, painting a picture that equates being black with poverty - when in fact poverty in America is far more diverse than how the news media and popular entertainment typically present it.
Quick example: when I lived in Brooklyn, it was common knowledge that large segments of the Hasidic Jewish population in certain areas were on welfare - as someone who considers himself a news junkie I can tell you with absolute certainty that I've never once seen a Hasidic man or woman in a television news report about welfare in the United States.
Interestingly, last Wednesday I was listening to a segment on Fresh Air, host Terri Gross was interviewing filmmaker Jonathan Olshefski and North Philadelphia music producer Christopher Rainey about Olshefski's documentary about Rainey's family.
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| Filmmaker Jonathan Olshefski & the Rainey family |
It's actually a really fascinating story if you have some time to listen to the interview with Terri Gross.
Some aspects of the challenges Rainey's family faced living in North Philly reflect the issues outlined in Dr. Dixon's study.
For example, after Terri Gross asked Rainey to describe the North Philly neighborhood where he lives and has his music studio, Rainey mentioned the close-knit nature of the community populated with many long-time residents.
He noted that many of the local buildings were constructed in the late 1800's and some of the streets still have cobblestones.
But he also quickly noted the distorted perception most people have of North Philly from the way the neighborhood is so often portrayed in a negative light by the local television news media.
So again, the study is definitely worth a read, as part of its examination of the distortion of the black family it also delves into the perpetuated myth of the absent black father - a topic I last blogged about back in January of 2014 after the release of a CDC study on the role of fathers in family health and child development.
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| Trump's racist appeal to black voters in 2016 |
The study co-produced by Color of Change and Family Story is especially important in the age of Donald Trump.
A man who regularly dispenses uninformed wildly-distorted stereotypes of "others", particularly African-Americans.
Remember the eye-opening comments Trump gave back on Friday August 19, 2016 as he was polling at historic lows with people of color? When he made a desperate hail-Mary pass to try and woo African-American voters to support his candidacy?
During an appearance in the mostly-white Michigan suburb of Dimondale, after trashing his opponent Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party for taking the votes of African-Americans for granted, he famously went off-script and asked black voters for their support with this asinine statement / question:
"You're living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58% of your youth is unemployed - what the hell do you have to lose?"
If you look past the flagrant ignorance of a statement like that, it's a prime example of someone whose perceptions of black Americans are so distorted, that he literally has no understanding of the actual reality of the African-American family.
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| "Liberal media"? A snapshot of MSNBC political coverage during a month in the 2016 presidential race |
When he sees people of color, he sees a myth.
The steady diet of "other-ism" based on the continued denigration of basically anyone who doesn't look or worship like him would be his own business save for the fact that he's the president.
And as Dr. Dixon's study notes, that kind of alarming ignorance informs his (and other Republican's) public policy positions - the result is a government enacting laws and legislation based on myths and distorted truths.
The end result is a dangerous cycle that ends up feeding itself, with policies like the Republican tax bill that only end up reinforcing the false narratives the legislation is partly based on in the first place.
Sound crazy? It is.
A sick feedback loop that leaves many Americans, not just African-Americans either, obscured and stigmatized - reduced to a simplistic one-dimensional stereotype that empowers the political, ideological and financial needs of those who would use it to leverage their own needs.
Anyway here's to organizations like Color of Change and Family Story for engaging in the hard work of helping people to understand and change this false narrative - let's hope Dr. Dixon's study can be a tool to awaken people to the realities of 21st century America.
As we approach the 2018 mid-term elections, let's hope an undistorted view of American society can help serve the truth rather than the narrow self interests the recent Republican tax bill aims to appease.
Dr. Dixon's study isn't a magic cure, but it's a pretty good start.
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