A Never-Ending Issue

Portraying African Americans as the criminals has always been a problem and occurrence in many movies.

Starting from 1967, in the movie In the Heat of the Night African American actor Sidney Poitier takes the role of Virgil Tibbs who is a Homicide Detector. He goes to Philadelphia to visit his mother. During his time in Philadelphia, a rich person is found dead. The police accused him for being the suspect, even though he wasn’t, but simply because he was black.

Menace to Society is a film from 1993 is about the life of hoodlums which involves the use of drugs and violence. The start of the movie sets off the criminal issues in the movie. Watching the video, which starts off with two African American men , Caine (Tyrin Turner) and O-Dog (Larenz Tate) walking in a liquor store. The Korean woman who works there stares at them as if they were suspicious about stealing. Moments after, O-Dog shoots the Korean man behind the counter he then takes the Korean woman to the back and kills her as well. These two characters are already seen with a gun which predicts the rest of the movie will deal with a lot of violence and gang related situations. The way they are dressed gives them the “thug look“. The thug look can be described as guys wearing baggy clothes that are usually one solid color, large loose chains, and acting tough. Thugs tend to use a lot of profanity.

In the 2010 movie Twelve, most of the characters in the movie, are white except for the drug dealer, Leonel. The role of the drug dealer is played by Curtis Jackson also known as 50 Cent (Rap/Hip-Hop Artist). He is an underground drug dealer, selling an addictive drug cocktail "Twelve." His character plays the role of a thug-look-alike drug dealer. He kills one of the other characters for not having money for the drug "Twelve."

In these different movies, African American are not all seen as thugs, they are seen as the "bad guys". It has always been that way in society and through the movie industry, even if they’re not, people assume they are for the simple reason of being black. They are known to be that way because they are from a “poor low class life-style” in which they are mainly considered to be ghetto.

Crowther, Bosley. "Movie Review - In the Heat of the Night - NYTimes.com."
     Movie Reviews, Showtimes and Trailers - Movies - New York Times - The New
     York Times. 19 Feb. 2012. Web. 14 Feb. 2012.

Holden, Stephen. "Movie Review - Menace II Society - NYTimes.com."
     Movie Reviews, Showtimes and Trailers - Movies - New York Times -
     The New York Times. 19 Feb. 2012. Web. 14 Feb. 2012.

Crash

We have all heard of the stereotypical comments towards African Americans; "They are all involved in gangs, they are uneducated, loud, aggressive, lazy". The list can continue negatively upon African Americans. These comments are not true because anyone can perform foolish acts. There are many people who are not African American and are involved in crimes, murders, and robbery that will not benefit them. Criminals can come in any color or shape. The media has claimed to be unfair towards African Americans. Through the use of movies, African Americans are seen as criminals, thugs, and the enemy.

In the Oscar winning movie for best picture, Crash, the director creates a downfall towards African Americans in a particular scene, while the white characters are being displayed as "greater people". In this scene, whitw people are scared of African Americans because they assume they ‘re involved in gangs or they‘re harmful.



In the scene above, two African American men, Ludacris and Lorenz Tate, are walking out of a restaurant when Ludacris says, "You see any white people in there waiting an hour and thirty two minutes for a plate of spaghetti? Huh?" White people didn’t have to wait for their food, as opposed to them. They should have received the same service as the rest of the people. Lorenz Tate mentions how their waiter was African American. The fact that she served the white people first implies to the way they have to treat white people to avoid problems with them. 

Seconds later into that scene, they are walking towards the white couple, Sandra Bullock and Brendon Fraser. Sandra Bullock moves closer to Brendon Fraser and grabs him by the arm, as if the black people were going to harm them. Ludacris makes it seem like he is upset with the way they are being viewed in that scene, as gang bangers and threatening because he says that’s not who they are. But when Lorenz says “Because we got guns?” Ludacris says “You could be right” they pull out a gun. The two young men point a gun to the couple and carjack them. Ludacris contradicts himself he says they’re not threatening but in the end they commit a crime. Under less then 5 minutes in the movie, many discriminations are aimed towards African Americans.

Why do we stereotype?

What are the average stereotypes Americans think when he or she sees an African- American? What usually comes to mind is that the person is dishonest, dumb, lazy, and ignorant.These stereotypes have evolved within American culture dating back to our original settlement, particularly after slavery,and,ever since then have not stopped. Although these are just stereotypes a person may use to describe an African American, these stereotypes are consistently used in films to portray African-Americans. Even though these stereotypes sometimes may or may not be accurate, many people like to judge a whole race based on one action,and because of this African-Americans are unfairly and unjustly treated. Many films and other types of media have been showing African Americans as second-class citizens. As a result, many Americans have forgotten who African-Americans really are.

Both professors and writers, Robert Entman and Andrew Rojecki's talk about the statistics of race in the media in their book The Black Image in the White Mind. According to the Entman-Rojecki Index of Race and Media, 89% of Black female movie characters are shown using vulgar language, while only 17% of White woman are. Black women are shown as being violent in movies 56% of the time compared to the 11% of white women. It is not fair that African Americans be treated so unjustly. All types of people use vulgar language, but because they are African American and have been picked on in our American culture they are portrayed as an inferior race. The Entman-Rojecki Index of Race and Media also shows that the most serious crimes including rape, homicide, robbery, and assault are only committed by a small percentage of African-Americans in inner cities, but despite statistics people still have their natural tendencies to characterize all African-American males as thugs.

People portray African Americans in these roles because it is present in our news.Even though there may be crimes that white people have committed somehow the ones involving black people is always higher in demand. What has society taught us to become? By showing television and movie viewers these images, it seems as if the media is trying to keep America racist. 


Hill, Robert. "Black Men in the Media." Post-Gazette.com. 23 Nov. 2011. Web. 15 Feb. 2012.  
     <http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11327/1191907-109-0.stm>.
McCalla, Casey. "Black People Receive 60% Longer Sentences For Same Crimes."News ONE For  
     Black America. 08 Feb. 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2012. <http://newsone.com/nation/casey-gane-                     
    mccalla/black-people-receive-60-longer-sentences-for-same-crimes/>.