"The media's the most powerful entity on earth because they control the minds of the masses.
Television has become a viable affiliate in majority households in the United States. According to statisticsbrain.com the average American spends 35 hours a week watching TV", then spending it with their family members. Whether we understand the adverse effects of Television have on our brains or not, media has the authority to rule society. .
Media has played and will continue to play a crucial role in the way White Americans perceive African Americans and how African Americans perceive White Americans. The media stereotype of bad guys wearing black or that anything that is black is evil has been encouraged for over a hundred years. Where as, Whites are portrayed as the beautiful, hero's or even as Jesus. As an effort to extol pre-conceived notions about African Americans, media over the years has displayed African American men with many negative stereotypes such as Sambo's, violent, criminals, senseless and pimps. As well as African American women as promiscuous, ugly, passive, and emasculating. .
Looking at past examples of African Americans treatment in the media, one can see that the media has become the main culprit through which persecution; misperception of African Americans is carried out. .
Early depiction of African Americans in Hollywood.
According to From Slavery to Freedom African Americans were "outraged " when the movie Birth of a Nation was introduced to America. The film recounts the Civil War in the eyes of the Klu Klux Klan and how they opposed the political and social progress made by newly freed Blacks. Birth of a Nation suggested Black men were vicious vile beast that sought out White women and Black women were sex slaves. The movie was so horrid, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) had to take action and protest the movie's release. Birth of a Nation was the initiation of the media brainwashing negative images of African Americans.
