African American Influence On Society
Additionally, a huge contributor of White Supremacy is mainstream media such a television shows, movies, and news channels. Growing up in the 21st century, media broadcastings and publications were being developed at an extremely rapid rate. Everywhere I would go, I would always be exposed to newspapers, magazines, articles, and television shows that discussed trending topics, political affairs, and seemingly important topics and stories. As time continued to progress, media and media access became “essential” to human survival, and today, it is almost impossible to walk down the street or around the corner without seeing someone using a cellphone or a laptop. In fact, in today’s society, even children are being exposed to technology and social
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I’ve always wondered: “Why aren’t there more black actors or actresses?”, “Why are black people portrayed as only murderers and robbers?”, “Why am I the only black person in my graduating class?”, and as I grew older, my desire to find the answers to these questions intensified. Additionally, in conjunction with these questions, I also began to experience gradually increasing anger towards my race, and began denying and stripping myself of my African-American culture, background, and traditions. I didn’t allow the African-American and black racial stereotypes to be applicable towards me; therefore, I initiated a process unofficially known as “white-washing”, a term used to describe a minority assimilating with Western culture; however, in my opinion, a better definition to describe “white-washing” would be “a term used to describe a minority assimilating with Western culture at the expense of purposely denying or “erasing” his or her own culture. I believe this definition is more applicable to modern-day African-Americans. I began only associating with Whites and Caucasians which resulted in my change in behavior, speech, and attitude. In other words, I began act like a typically portrayed “White” person. I hated being African-American, and everything associated with it. I hated our speech, dialect, attitude, mindset, clothing, etc. I hated being black. I began criticizing and begin condescending towards those within the black community and categorizing them based on racial stereotypes, biases, and prejudices. Additionally, I also began praising Whites, and desired so strongly to be one of them and a part of their ethnicity. In today’s society, this is a very strong issue facing not only people like myself, but also others within the community as well. Internalized racism is loosely defined as
I’ve always wondered: “Why aren’t there more black actors or actresses?”, “Why are black people portrayed as only murderers and robbers?”, “Why am I the only black person in my graduating class?”, and as I grew older, my desire to find the answers to these questions intensified. Additionally, in conjunction with these questions, I also began to experience gradually increasing anger towards my race, and began denying and stripping myself of my African-American culture, background, and traditions. I didn’t allow the African-American and black racial stereotypes to be applicable towards me; therefore, I initiated a process unofficially known as “white-washing”, a term used to describe a minority assimilating with Western culture; however, in my opinion, a better definition to describe “white-washing” would be “a term used to describe a minority assimilating with Western culture at the expense of purposely denying or “erasing” his or her own culture. I believe this definition is more applicable to modern-day African-Americans. I began only associating with Whites and Caucasians which resulted in my change in behavior, speech, and attitude. In other words, I began act like a typically portrayed “White” person. I hated being African-American, and everything associated with it. I hated our speech, dialect, attitude, mindset, clothing, etc. I hated being black. I began criticizing and begin condescending towards those within the black community and categorizing them based on racial stereotypes, biases, and prejudices. Additionally, I also began praising Whites, and desired so strongly to be one of them and a part of their ethnicity. In today’s society, this is a very strong issue facing not only people like myself, but also others within the community as well. Internalized racism is loosely defined as