Racial Stereotypes

The image of the black male today and even years ago is one that is socially constructed with the many stereotypes and images that surround black males. Racial stereotypes are socially constructed beliefs that all members of the same racial group share that same characteristic, and in most cases are characteristics that are negative. There are stereotypes that include ideas such as black intellect, innate criminality and the fact they are subhuman. These negative stereotypes do not reflect the reality of the black male today, just as these images were not accurate depictions of the black males of our past. Even with these incorrect depictions of the black male, the negative stereotypes have remained and have even become accepted by non-blacks, but also by blacks. The media had been criticized for some time now for their representations of African Americans on television and also literature suggest that although the number of African Americans in television had definitely gone up the qualities of the characters that are being playing have remained the same. (Punyanunt-Carter,)
Using research findings from the college students’ perception has consistently shown that the negative exposure that African Americans receive from these negative stereotypes in media have a significant influence on the evaluation of the African American in general. Taking a look at history, some Black male stereotypes label them as submissive, unsophisticated and childlike. These stereotypes have painted dishonorable images for Black males and since these stereotypes have progressed through time and still continue to this day they will only continue to thrive off the Black male culture. The new typecast for Black males include, being a criminal, poor, athl...

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...ans in almost every aspect. Flaherty and Sethi also point out that although you hear about white-on-white, black-on-black, and even black-on-white, it is very rare that you will hear of a robbery that was committed where it’s the white person committing the robbery against a black person. Single offenders with white victims and black offenders are fourteen times as frequent than those with black victims and white offenders during the years of 2000-2002. (O'Flaherty & Sethi, 2008)Seeing that white criminals’ are ample, this phenomenon seems to be one that is counter to some of the common beliefs of racism; whites don’t like blacks, law enforcement undervalue black safety, and that courts are reluctant to accept black testimony against whites. Form those racial assumption one would assume that white would be eager to commit robberies and other crimes against blacks.