Black Image on Television

These images have been shown to affect the way these groups are perceived and acted towards by the white mainstream (Ford 1997). The combination of the prevalence of negative images of minorities and the scientific proof of the effect these images on the behavior of the majority group lead to an invisible form of social control perpetuated through a most visible medium. This paper will discuss the ways in which black and white audiences respond to positive and negative stereotypes of the Black image on television. It will also analyze the effects that perception of the Black image has on prejudice, discrimination and oppression in our society.
             Thomas E. Ford, in a 1997 Western Michigan University study, found that "when whites are exposed to negative stereotypical television portrayals of African Americans, they are more likely to make negative judgements of an African American target person. However, exposure to negative stereotypical portrayals of African-Americans does not affect their judgements of a white target person"(Ford 271). The exposure to these negative images then only affects how the white viewer judges a member of the stereotyped group. .
             The Ford study based its hypothesis on the effects of priming in making judgements about particular social groups. Two groups of white students were shown comedy skits depicting either negative stereotypes or neutral behavior starring black actors. Then the subjects were asked to, based on circumstantial evidence, determine whether a young man, Todd in half of the situations or Tyrone in the other half, was guilty of assaulting his roommate. (An earlier study showed that almost all surveyed associated the name Todd with a white man and Tyrone with a black man.) The connection between the primer- the skits, and the judgement was not known by the subjects; they were told the studies were unrelated. Researchers found that subjects who were shown the negative stereotypical images were more likely to assume Tyrone, an African American, was guilty than those who had seen the neutral images.