Your tv tells you that black Americans are athletically gifted and physically intimidating. It also tells you that if they’re not, then they must be funny, a criminal, or an excellent communicator. Your tv does not tell you that black Americans, generally speaking, are capable leaders in every walk of life, although at least one man in particular is now seen as such.
If you are like most white Americans and have far less regular interaction with black Americans than with your own color, then your perception of skin color being a wrapper of whatever lies inside is largely defined by what you DO experience, which is watching sports and other media in your living room – almost none of which features anyone other than people in Caucasian packaging in roles of capable leadership. I’m talking about both real and make believe roles.
Harry Allen’s post about an academic study on black CEOs is uncomfortable for me to read, both in terms of presentation and content, but I’m glad I did. That’s the feeling I get about much of what I read at his Media Assassin site, where he calls attention to the messages of the media on a daily basis. But why not turn this around and use it to change things?
Think big, act big: from watching tv and movies, we all realize that blacks are strong and like throwing elbows, and that all gay people are really hilarious. Thanks, Hollywood! For your next act, let’s say that shows start embracing their inner 24 and have a black President – and not just “a President,” but an amazingly great President. And I’m talking LOTS of shows, like every night of the week, where we’d be just as likely to see black people in the role of “capable leader” as we would white people (or, more specifically, white male people).
Would that reflect reality as of right now? Maybe not, statistically speaking, but Hollywood, for all of its flaws, has always done an effective job of being on the leading edge of societal transformations; what might a full-scale invasion of America’s living rooms on a nightly basis accomplish in the arena of public perception regarding black Americans as something other than athletic, funny, or criminal?
