Whispered Truth, Screaming Lies
A Hard Look Into the Voices of America
Whether it be through the tumultuous and grisly era of slavery; the venomous, acrimonious period of Jim Crow; or through the contemporary progression of the suppression of African Americans via unjust mass incarnation, there is one factor that remains a continuous facilitator throughout four hundred years of human suffering; the hazardous, consequential voice of the biased media, that can be as condemning as the voice of god.
Media and mass communication shape the perspective, actions, and most consequentially, the perceptions of the public; with mass power, comes even more massive responsibility. And in the US, citizens and organizations are granted with the right of free speech in our Constitution, and, equally, the responsibility not to misuse it. Perspectives are varied and disputed, but nevertheless, they are the narratives of individuals; an opinion cannot be wrong, and a perspective cannot be incorrect. However it can prove to be fatally errored. In world where all the many truths are equal, can one be more equal than the others?
The answer is yes. Yes it can.
Certified scientific studies and compilations of data support this conclusion; media perspective that harbors bias against minorities, and, incoincidentally, is the most frequently perpetuated narrative in mainstream media, has the direct result of the criminalization and dehumanization of marginalized communities of minorities, in particular, that of African Americans. The media’s poisonous tentacles has invaded the American psyche to plant insidious seeds of conditioned prejudice dating back to the 18th century, when newspapers ran lost-and-found ads for runaway slaves. And indeed, still in the modern sense, racial bias poisons the american ideals of freedom and equality, whether it be in law enforcement, healthcare, or the legal field. However, it is the thunderous, booming voice of the media that perpetuates these stereotypes that are harmful and insulting to many marginalized communities, and further enforces ideas of prejudice.
The result is the public subconsciously conditioned to associate people of the African American community with negativity and violence. And with these warped and inaccurate perceptions, bias and prejudice are loosed within the workplace, the education and governmental systems, and law enforcement, and justified from the ‘facts’ produced by the media that allow it to be righteously wielded. A study conducted by Harvard’s own Project Implicit determined that approximately 88 percent of white Americans have implicit racial bias against black people, and even black citizens have been deeply conditioned with an underlying prejudice against their own people.
However, this slippery and subtle evil is implicit racism, elusive and difficult to define or discern, and thus difficult to identify and dismantle. It is subconscious, toeing the line between indulging in the legal right of free speech and facilitating infringement on the rights of others.
Data compiled via an official study by the civil rights organization, The Color of Change concluded that while 51% of the people arrested for violent crime in New York City were black, 75% of the news reports about such arrests highlighted black alleged perpetrators. Furthermore, media bias shapes the tumultuous relationship between the African American community and the law enforcement and judicial system, as explained in the Sentencing System’s Race and Punishment article on the damning racial perceptions of crime. The article further examines the stark situation, determining media as a source of racial misconceptions on crime in the US, shaping the media’s powerful overarching narrative communicated to the public.
And how, dare say, is this damning narrative so insulting to not only minorities, but also American ideals to be refuted? The answer to the problem is the problem itself.
The power of this problem in question is tremendous and consuming, and its progression unstoppable; it consumes the world, human minds and human lives. However, it also brims with a diversity of ideas, perspectives, and contrasting narratives; it is the dissonant cacophony of billions of human voices screaming to be heard, crying out in the only way they can tell the world; through the media. A place open to perspective, to differing truths, and communicated to a diverse audience. It is here, where the human heart bleeds uncensored and whole, that the public stops being the public and becomes the people; people who regain their humanity and can feel, unfettered, the pain of someone else in the world.
However, it is when a perspective stops becoming a voice amongst the others, and becomes a malevolent force that feeds into the volatile emotions of human fear and hate, and dominates the mainstream communicative source of media, that it becomes a formidable weapon. And so, it is time to stop thinking of the media as the thunderous boom of incorruptible, errorless truth, but as a compilation of billions of human voices screaming to be heard; it’s time to hear all of their stories.
Whispered Truth, Screaming Lies
A Hard Look Into the Voices of America
Whether it be through the tumultuous and grisly era of slavery; the venomous, acrimonious period of Jim Crow; or through the contemporary progression of the suppression of African Americans via unjust mass incarnation, there is one factor that remains a continuous facilitator throughout four hundred years of human suffering; the hazardous, consequential voice of the biased media, that can be as condemning as the voice of god.
Media and mass communication shape the perspective, actions, and most consequentially, the perceptions of the public; with mass power, comes even more massive responsibility. And in the US, citizens and organizations are granted with the right of free speech in our Constitution, and, equally, the responsibility not to misuse it. Perspectives are varied and disputed, but nevertheless, they are the narratives of individuals; an opinion cannot be wrong, and a perspective cannot be incorrect. However it can prove to be fatally errored. In world where all the many truths are equal, can one be more equal than the others?
The answer is yes. Yes it can.
Certified scientific studies and compilations of data support this conclusion; media perspective that harbors bias against minorities, and, incoincidentally, is the most frequently perpetuated narrative in mainstream media, has the direct result of the criminalization and dehumanization of marginalized communities of minorities, in particular, that of African Americans. The media’s poisonous tentacles has invaded the American psyche to plant insidious seeds of conditioned prejudice dating back to the 18th century, when newspapers ran lost-and-found ads for runaway slaves. And indeed, still in the modern sense, racial bias poisons the american ideals of freedom and equality, whether it be in law enforcement, healthcare, or the legal field. However, it is the thunderous, booming voice of the media that perpetuates these stereotypes that are harmful and insulting to many marginalized communities, and further enforces ideas of prejudice.
The result is the public subconsciously conditioned to associate people of the African American community with negativity and violence. And with these warped and inaccurate perceptions, bias and prejudice are loosed within the workplace, the education and governmental systems, and law enforcement, and justified from the ‘facts’ produced by the media that allow it to be righteously wielded. A study conducted by Harvard’s own Project Implicit determined that approximately 88 percent of white Americans have implicit racial bias against black people, and even black citizens have been deeply conditioned with an underlying prejudice against their own people.
However, this slippery and subtle evil is implicit racism, elusive and difficult to define or discern, and thus difficult to identify and dismantle. It is subconscious, toeing the line between indulging in the legal right of free speech and facilitating infringement on the rights of others.
Data compiled via an official study by the civil rights organization, The Color of Change concluded that while 51% of the people arrested for violent crime in New York City were black, 75% of the news reports about such arrests highlighted black alleged perpetrators. Furthermore, media bias shapes the tumultuous relationship between the African American community and the law enforcement and judicial system, as explained in the Sentencing System’s Race and Punishment article on the damning racial perceptions of crime. The article further examines the stark situation, determining media as a source of racial misconceptions on crime in the US, shaping the media’s powerful overarching narrative communicated to the public.
And how, dare say, is this damning narrative so insulting to not only minorities, but also American ideals to be refuted? The answer to the problem is the problem itself.
The power of this problem in question is tremendous and consuming, and its progression unstoppable; it consumes the world, human minds and human lives. However, it also brims with a diversity of ideas, perspectives, and contrasting narratives; it is the dissonant cacophony of billions of human voices screaming to be heard, crying out in the only way they can tell the world; through the media. A place open to perspective, to differing truths, and communicated to a diverse audience. It is here, where the human heart bleeds uncensored and whole, that the public stops being the public and becomes the people; people who regain their humanity and can feel, unfettered, the pain of someone else in the world.
However, it is when a perspective stops becoming a voice amongst the others, and becomes a malevolent force that feeds into the volatile emotions of human fear and hate, and dominates the mainstream communicative source of media, that it becomes a formidable weapon. And so, it is time to stop thinking of the media as the thunderous boom of incorruptible, errorless truth, but as a compilation of billions of human voices screaming to be heard; it’s time to hear all of their stories.