Forced to Wear a Scarlet Soul: American Media Stereotypes

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Classic The Scarlet Letter (1850) was about a woman who had to wear a scarlet letter A on her personage to proclaim that fact that she was an adulteress (then a woe some title that proclaimed you a sinner)! God help you if you were a sinner. You were damned to hell for all eternity. Hawthorne was attempting to expose American's Puritanical roots and the folly that comes from condemning an individual based on their words and deeds. Of his character he wrote, "But Hester Prynne, with a mind of native courage and activity, and for so long a period not merely estranged, but outlawed, from society...She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness. . . . The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,-stern and wild ones,-and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss." Hawthorne didn't know it at the time, but he was probably an early precursor to a human right's activist. Eventually those considered 'sinful' didn't have to wear badges of their shame on their bodies, but wore them on their souls as society constantly reminded them of their unworthiness to exist. Sadly this tradition of religious and social pressures to uphold the laws of a privileged few continue to pollute the minds of people everywhere in the United States, spilling over into the media. And as American has been held up as the gold standard for how media should operate for decades, its influence even worldwide is pervasive and powerful.

The fact that America was built on more than 400 years of slavery contaminates its viewpoint. During slavery an attitude of absolute European superiority developed that still proves hard to shake, and we're feeling the reverberations of its consequences to this day. Millions of African slaves brought to this country paid their passage fare with their lives. Still many millions more paid a wage of death that extends far beyond the physical; one of cultural extermination. At every turn they were made to feel less than a human because of their skin color and the fact that they were alien to Europeans in every way from appearance to culture. Native Americans were driven from their own lands and forced to live in reservations that were little more than the equivalent of concentration camps. Chinese Americans were often slaved away in mines and on railroads. Mexican Americans and many others ethnicities that immigrated to America suffered a similar fate of degradation and persecution because they were not of European descent. The supremist nature of many European Americans who held the positions of power in this country and their Christian-centric backgrounds controlled every outlet including the media. These attitudes continued to trickle down from generation to generation because they pervaded the very fabric of the United States itself. Even in the U.S. Constitution African Slaves were termed three fifths of a human being as evidenced in article 1 section 2. Constitution of the United States - OfficialWebsite:

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html

Hollywood as we envision it burst onto the scene in the 1920's and carried along with it all of America's conventional beliefs and attitudes. And it was often used as a propaganda bandwagon to promote conservatism and the status quo. This is something that Hollywood and the Media have still to recover from. The early days of movie-making were the worst. Blacks, Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and every other non-European race were either stupefied or vilified. Out of this was born the psychology of the media stereotype in which persons of other cultures were depicted as evil and demonized or made to look like fools. This psychological manipulation serves two purposes. The first is that it humiliates the race or group being hi-lighted. The second is to make a show of power -- subtlety conveying the message that Hollywood is hoping minorities will buy into. The message being 'you are inferior' 'you will never be as good as a European,' 'you should stay in your place', etc. It also confirms in the minds of European American viewers that they have a higher place in society and that they are firmly in control of the other races of which they being convinced are second-class or lower.

There is a definite purposefulness to this method of mental invasion. The media gains power to control and market any idea they choose by taking a very real concept and distorting it to the point where it is like a cake telegraph. On the outside we have this very real package - a cake with frosting on top, but if you look just beneath it you see the façade. This type of mind game allows a person to believe they are liberal and accepting. For instance one might rationalize that a program is about or by African Americans, or Gays and Lesbians, and therefore it is okay and represents them even if the picture being presented is not true to the real ideal. Meanwhile it leaves the media free to insert any unrealistic ideal into this shell of a stock character they've created. "Entertainment media similarly typecast actors by their gender, ethnicity, age, dress, race and sexuality. Such media stereotypes reinforce and magnify our personal stereotypes...Media stereotypes play a significant role in the social disintegration that produces hatred, violence, and misunderstanding," states Paul Martin Lester and Susan Dente Ross in the book Images That Injure: Pictoral Stereotypes in the Media (2003 pg 3).

The Modern media uses the control it's garnered to create the marketing scenario that it desires for maximum profitability, and to further feed into the stereotypes that it has founded. This creates a vicious cycle where non-European or non-traditional lifestyles are pushed into a tight box with little room to breathe in terms of three-dimensional personality, while subtlety (or not so subtlety) stamping them with shame. In this way they become modern-day Hester Prynne's, compelled to move within limited circumstances in various media outlets and to portray what serves only to belittle and down-grade them. Case in point is the movie Cop Out (2010) starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. During one scene in the movie Morgan and Willis' characters are apprehending a notorious car thief. The "thief" in question turns out to be an 11 year old African American boy. Says Willis of the boy, (who is portrayed of course as a young thug) "you are an angry young man". It's not hard to figure out that what he means is an 'angry young Black man'. Cop Out is easily one of the most racist and stereotypical movies of the year that deals with an African American character. Tracy Morgan is animalized into a human clown, and is little more than a modern day reincarnation of Stephen Fitchett. Food falls from his mouth, he's ignorant, sweats profusely, his eyes bulge, and his exaggerated movements and speech are ridiculous. The African American man as an angry, simple and dangerous member of society is just one of the stock character types that Hollywood and the media uses. There's the 'smart Asian', the 'dim-witted woman', the 'super-effeminate gay guy' and many more. Clearly this misrepresentation of human beings needs to stop. The answer to ending this media racial profiling lies with each and every one of us.

We are at a time in U.S. History where all the rights that many freedom fighters bled and died for are in danger of being forfeit to false security and complacency. The legacy of people like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, César Chávez, Harvey Milk, and many others like them could become for naught. It is vitally important that minorities protest against racial, religious and social stereotypes in order to maintain the balance of human rights and dignities and preserve civil liberties. We'd do well to heed the words of Howard Zinn. "If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves." Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1991)