Violence Influences Children

 Racism and discrimination continue to be a problem within our society. Media has played and will continue to play a crucial role in the way Americans perceive African-Americans. Images seen in the media keep negative stereotypes about African Americans and impact majority of society’s views of Blacks. Negative stereotypes may be harmful to African American children and adolescents as they attempt to build their way through identity development.

Entertainment media says a lot to their viewers about who counts in society. The portrayals of minority characters in entertainment media affect the ways children see themselves and others. The video game industry seems to have contained a high rate of racism according to the article, “Violence, Gender and Race in Video Games”. It found that 79 percent of African-American males were shown as verbally and physically aggressive compared to only 37 percent who were white males. While most protagonists were white males nearly nine out of ten African-American females were victims of violence, which was twice the rate of white females. With children playing so many video games their minds have been taught to prejudge people based on their skin color.

According to “A Different World: Children’s Perceptions of Race and Class in Media” research found that children associate white characters with having lots of money, being well educated, and being a leader. On the contrary they associate African American characters with breaking the law, having a hard time financially, and being lazy.

African American youth are bombarded with negative images of their race. It may have an impact on their development and their overall sense of who they are or who they can become. This can prove to be difficult because they find that the world around them has already defined them by the color of their skin. They African American youth struggle to define what it means to be black in spite of the stereotypes which are seen around them.

Glaubke, Christina R. "Media Impacts Children's Self-Image & How They See Others."Children Now.  
      2011. Web. 15 Feb. 2012.  
      <http://www.childrennow.org/index.php/learn/media_messages_about_race_class_gender>.

Lake Sosin Snell Perry and Associates. "A Different World: Children's Perceptions of Race and Class in 

     Media | Report." Media Awareness Network. 2010. Web. 15 Feb. 2012. <http://www.media-  

     awareness.ca/english/resources/research_documents/reports/diversity/different_world.cfm>.