Racism Fueled by the News

In class we talked about how stereotypes of different races are strongly linked to the media. I think that television specifically holds most of the responsibility for encouraging and fueling these stereotypes. Sure movies and commercials, and paper advertisements also play a role in this, but they aren't as repetitive as the shows on TV. News stations especially encourage stereotyping of race. For example when there is a report about a criminal, the very first thing they do is identify the gender and the race of that individual. So when viewers see this report they automatically, and most likely subconsciously associate the crime with the criminal's race. And over time they may even pick up on trends. For example if I hear a report of a man suspected of making a bomb I'm going to assume he's Arab. If I hear a story of a man who was shot in the streets of Boston, I'm going to assume he was Black. If I hear a report about a man who kidnapped a young boy, I'm going to assume the man was white. I can't pinpoint specific stories that I've seen to lead me to these assumptions, but I have them. And I would be surprised if I was the only one who unintentionally makes these assumptions. 

I always hate when news reporters say anything about a potential terrorist scare because one of the very first things they say is whether or not the suspects were Arab. I understand that the majority of terrorist attacks and plots against the US are by Arabs. However the Middle East is really big and there are only a few countries responsible for these attacks. Saying that the Arabs attacked the US again doesn't inform anyone of anything. Taking the tragic event of 9/11 for example. I'm sure the majority of US citizens don't fully understand the reasoning behind the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and that most people have no idea that the conflict between the US and Al Qaeda has been going on for at least 20 years before 9/11. Yet because of the news reports on TV, most Americans only received the message that "the Arabs" were attacking the US. And now Arab Americans have to live with that stereotype for a very long time, if not forever.