User:Myusername101/sandbox

Notes for peer reviews: My edits are in italics.

The representation of African Americans in media – speech, writing, still or moving pictures – has been a major concern in mainstream American culture and a component of media bias in the United States. Such media representation is not always seen in a positive light and propagates controversial and misconstrued images of what African Americans represent. ''Many people do not regard the fact that the information in the media could be false as as a result, regard it as a valuable source of information, which just makes what it shown in the media more important. It is very important that facts are checked and things are portrayed in the right way. However, this has not been the case with African Americans. In this group, mostly African-American women have been victims of misinterpretation in different types of media.''

Hip-Hop:
The misrepresentation of African-American women has permeated into the music industry, more specifically hip-hop/rap videos. ''It is now widely believed that for a female singer or rapper to make it in the show business, she has to "sell it with her body" just because some female rappers in the music scene such as Nicki Minaj, Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B believe in wearing what they want and show off their bodies, it has then been said that they owe their success to their bodies. Also, when they sing about their bodies and sing with sexually explicit lyrics, they face more backlash over this than male rappers too . For example, when Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion released the song WAP in August 2020, they were met with a lot of backlash. Conservative James P. Bradley said in a tweet that "This is what happens when children are raised without God and a family figure" claiming that the song wanted to make him pour hold water on his ears. Then, DeAnna Lorianne branded the song 'disgusting and vile' . This was very interesting as they had nothing to say when other rappers sang other explicit lyrics in their songs but seemed to only have an issue with it when women did it.''

Beauty Industry:
Scholars, such as Tracy Owens Patton, have stated that the beauty industry predominantly focuses on and caters to white and European standards of beauty. African-American women have had to navigate these biased beauty standards when it comes to their hair and body image. African slave women were held to the standards of white women, often obtaining better treatment if they had lighter skin or a body type that was similar to their white counterparts. African American women have to change the appearance of their hair in order to fit European standards of beauty, from a young age. ''This is another reason why cultural appropriation is a big issue in the African American community, because a lot of African African women have been punished, discriminated against because of their hair and hairstyles so it is believed to be unfair when non-women of color get away with making the same styles when African American women have faced so much backlash for it. Also, the lack of inclusion of African American skin in the beauty industry had led to misinterpretation too as white skin was regarded as the common skin color. Beauty youtubers and influencers such as Jackie Aina had to fight for the inclusion of African American skin in many different brands in the make up industry.''

Television:
''African Americans have been commonly misinterpreted in television. African-American women are represented in movies and films to be 'angry' and as such the name the 'angry black woman' was born. Television depicts them as getting agitated from every small thing and always looking for a reason to fight people, disregarding the fact that they have many reasons to be angry. For example, if a woman believes she is being discriminated against somewhere and lashes out due to this, people are quick to say she is being angry for no reason, disregarding to lengths to which being discriminated against could drive you to. Television does not help to disregard this stereotype.''

Sports:
Sports are a piece of life that many people hold near and dear to their heart. In sports that are featured in media such as on ESPN and some other sports channels, representation of African-American men and women is important. In the past, segregation played a part in representation of the community. “In baseball, there were established ‘Negro’ leagues for non-white players (while these leagues were predominantly African-American, there were also several Latin-Americans playing in the leagues, as well) through the early 1950s”  (Keifer, Mitchell). In her article, Andrea Eagleman talks about the history of the representation. “Research shows that racial and ethnic minority athletes and international athletes have long been portrayed in stereotypical roles in the mass media since the 1880s, when Black players were stereotyped…”(Eagleman, Andrea).

Stereotypes:
Communication and media research suggest that the mass media is an important source of information about African Americans and their image. This public image influences public perception, and is capable of reinforcing opinions about African Americans.

Typically, these opinions are unfavorable and highlight negative stereotypes associated with African Americans. Oftentimes the portrayals' very medium, such as television, is the origin of such stereotypes. Television has been cited for broadcasting material that displays an overrepresentation of African Americans as lawbreakers. A study of TV crime newscasts indicated that newscast content displayed far more counts of African Americans' crimes than that of any other racial classification.

The representation of African Americans in media has remained the same for a while, almost since the representation of African Americans in television ads exceeded in 1991. It has been shown that even positive stereotypes of African Americans in media can have an effect of prejudice on consumers. The roles of African Americans in media has evolved over time. On typical cable channels the amount of ads shown with African Americans has become neutral, but on channels such as B.E.T.[circular reference] where the viewership is mostly that of African Americans, all of the ads consist of healthy, stable, independent and enthusiastic African Americans who are goal oriented. African Americans now have bigger roles in media such as that of reporters, business owners and artists. African-American women have made an uprising in mainstream media as confident and strong individuals. Several organizations have been based on the empowerment of African-American women in media. The representation of African-American women in media has also made an increase since beauty expectations have changed. Cultural appropriation[circular reference] has somewhat changed the beauty standards of media. Fashion styles have taken on the cultural dynamics of many countries.

Working in the media:
This also serves as lack of inclusion in the media. Historically, the participation in media production by minorities in the US has been low. Despite recent gains especially in television, significant racial disparities remain. In 1971, three years after the Federal Communications Commission adopted rules to foster more diverse programming, only nine percent of full-time employees in radio and television were visible minorities. In 1978, American Society of News Editors set a goal to have their sector mirror the diversity of the American population in general.

As the years progressed, the percentage of minorities in the workplace began to grow; in 1997, visible minorities made up 20 percent of the broadcasting work force. Yet the trend towards inclusiveness, while generally growing, has been uneven. For example, a 2007 report showed that blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans made up only 13.65% of American newsrooms.The numbers dwindle still further at the upper levels of media management: during the 2013–2014 season only 5.5% of executive-level television producers were people of color.Therefore, people go ahead to make movies about minorities without even including people from the minorities in the production.

Colorism
''Over the years, the focus has been on racism and the lack of representation or misinterpretation. I would also like to include the another issue involved in the misinterpretation of African Americans in the media and this is Colorism, also known as Shadeism. Colorism, according to Oxford is prejudice or discrimination especially within a racial or ethnic group favoring people with lighter skin over those with darker skin. This is very prevalent in the media. In many productions, especially movies and TV series, when black actors are hired for roles, it is usually lighter skinned black people that are hired for these roles. It has gotten so prevalent to the point that many actors, even these light skinned black ones have had to speak up on these issues. An example is in the Disney show KC undercover where KC's parents were both fully black spies with a black son yet, KC, the main character was acted by biracial actress Zendaya and this led to people asking 'How could two fully black parents give birth to a biracial daughter?'. Funny enough, it even turns out that lead actress, Zendaya Coleman had to demand for a black family on this show which can be seen here. Biracial Actress Zendaya Coleman also had to speak on this issue saying that she is 'Hollywood's acceptable version of a black girl'. Another issue arose when biracial actress Amanda Steinberg revealed she had to give up fighting for a role because she believed a darker skinned black actor deserved it with many commending her for stepping down and many others condemning her for accepting other roles in which there should have been darker-skinned black actors too and led to many wondering what her point was of bringing this up. Basically, it is felt that if a character is going to represent a black person on television or in the media, it should be one that is fully black so it does not widen the misrepresentation of black people or misconceptions about them, such as belief that their hair should be curlier, their skin should be lighter, etc which is usually gotten from lighter skinned actresses taking up black roles. Furthermore, this misrepresentation and underrepresentation too leads to younger black actors and actresses never getting to see people 'just like them' on television.''

Recognition and Awards
''In the media, it has been said occasionally that African-American artists have been underrepresented and lack recognition. Many times it was said that even after many nominations, white artists almost always emerge winners. An example can be given in 2017, when singer Adele won Album of the year over Beyonce and during her acceptance speech, went ahead to break her grammy into two as she said that Beyonce was the 'artist of her life' and that the award should have gone to Beyonce's album Lemonade. Usually, these black artists are said to be presented awards in categories that are 'made for them' usually have 'R & B', 'Urban' or both in the titles. This underrepresentation is one of the things that led to the creation of the BET awards by the Black Entertainment Television which focuses on African-American actors, actresses and those in the media and also those from other American minorities. to give them the recognition and representation they deserve. ''

The BLM movement
''The Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement advocating for non-violent civil disobedience in protest against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against black people. However, in the media, this movement is usually portrayed in many negative ways and are believed to be constituting a nuisance. It is said that black people are simply demonizing the police when in fact the police is not their biggest threat and that they are in fact, not the most affected by police brutality. When, this is not true and instead Black Lives Matter as a movement seeks social change through various community-led efforts to support Black people and diminish the effects of racial discrimination. Also, the BLM movement is doing to fight back corrupt media portrayals of African Americans as people take to social media to fight any form of colorism or misrepresentation of African Americans they may see.''