Before we dive in, let me set a scene for you.
It’s March of 2018, I got out of the car and opened the backdoor. A little boy bounces out with excitement holding an action figure in his hand. He takes my hand and we walk towards the theater, his mom and sister not far behind us. I looked down at him and smiled as he jumped up and down. We walked into the theater, him letting go of my hand and running to the giant movie poster. On that poster was Black Panther aka, T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman). A black male was the leading actor of a Marvel superhero movie, and millions of black boys and girls around the world were seeing a superhero who looked like them for the first time.
“Livie,” the little boy said, me looking down at him, “do you know why I already love this movie soo much?”
“Why?” I asked with a smile.
“Because he looks like me!”
That is not something that black children in America get to say very often when looking at a movie poster. Seriously, think about it. How many movies have you seen that had a black lead? How many tv shows have you seen with a mainly black cast? Let’s add to that: how many tv shows have you seen with a mainly black cast that does not portray stereotypes? Now, how many movies and tv shows have you watched with white leads?
A numerous amount, right?
The little boy I talked about above is my little cousin, Aren. He was only five when Black Panther came out, but it made a huge impact on him. To see someone on a big screen who looks like you, especially when you’re not used to it, it’s magical. I had my own Black Panther moment as a kid when Princess and the Frog came out! I remember freaking out about it with my other cousin. To see black culture displayed in a princess movie was something that I may not have understood fully in my head back then, but it was definitely something that my heart understood. If having a strong black lead can cause such positivity for these children of color, what does not having them, or having them negatively portrayed do to them?
I grew up surrounded by people who didn’t look like me. I live in a mostly white neighborhood and I went to a mostly white school. All of my friends were white kids, and I did not have a black teacher until fourth grade. To be honest, I felt more comfortable around white people. Going to family reunions was uncomfortable for me and still feels awkward to this day. What I saw every day in real life reflected what I saw when I turned the tv on. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to find shows and movies that show more diversified casts, but I don’t choose what I see when I scroll through TikTok. Even though TikTok is more diverse than tv shows may be, people feel more open to expressing their racist ideals. When I see those kind of things on TikTok, all I can think about is how my eleven year old cousin is on TikTok as well. This made me wonder how exactly does the portrayal of black people in the media affect black children. So, I started doing some research.
Some may argue that kids don’t even see race/color, nor do they care about it. Well, one of the first things I found was a study about how infants see race. In one of the experiments they conducted, they were able to see that when caucasian babies were shown pictures of different races, they were more likely to be drawn towards their own race (Kelly, 2005). This means that babies can see race as early as three months old! If babies as young as three months are seeing race on their own, children definitely see it when they are looking at TV or Youtube. When kids look at TV or Youtube, they often try to find themselves in the characters. They see people who look like them and think “I want to be like them!” When these kids see negative stereotypes displayed, how does that affect them? Well a journal posted by the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics said the following:
“There is evidence from college students that stereotyped media images can induce stereotype threat, in which members of a negatively stereotyped group underperform consistent with the negative stereotypes. The outcomes that are negatively impacted include academic performance, career choice,disidentification with academics and impaired academic skill building, as well as hypertension and anxiety,” (Dill-Shackleford, 2017).
According to this, the media can have a negative effect on kids when they portray characteristics that envelope stereotypes. Another type of media that can negatively affect young black children is, of course, the news. Many kids of color get their media role models from sports. In pro sports like basketball and football, most of the players are black. A lot of kids and teens of color look up to them. If you ever walk by a park and see a group of kids playing basketball, you’ll likely hear one of them yell out “Kobe!” as they take a shot. A few of them may have jerseys on with last names like Bryant, Jordan, James, Curry, Durant, all black men who set an example to black children what black excellence is. Everyone knows about the dumb jock stereotype, but men like the five named above have fought it by speaking up about politics. Now, take a moment to watch the following video:
“Shut up and dribble.”
My high school band teacher said something along those lines about Colin Kapernick during my junior year. I was disgusted and determined to quit band. One of my freshman friends, a black girl, convinced me to stay (which ended up being a good decision, I’m thankful for the memories we got to make the following year). If it had that kind of effect on me, it makes me wonder just how negatively it affected one of the younger black girls or boys in class. The next year, the size of the band dwindled down. The political comments stopped, but I didn’t forget. Those “dumb jocks” have done a lot for the black communities. Lebron James opened his own school called “I Promise.” He brings in at risk children in his home town of Akron, Ohio and helps them get an education. If you want to learn more about the school, check out the website: https://ipromise.school/
Lebron’s not the only one doing things for his community. All of those men listed have worked hard to help the black community. Kobe Bryant donated and worked with multiple charities, Steph Curry and his wife created their own called “Eat. Learn. Play." which also fed children during the pandemic, and Kevin Durant has a charity as well, and that’s just naming a few. But you don’t hear about what these black men are doing in the news.
If the research shows that children are negatively affected by stereotypes portrayed in the media, why do we continue to let these programs and shows play over our televisions? Whether or not you have a child of color, you should be worried about what kind of diversity they see in the media they consume. It’s hard to aspire to be someone when they don’t look like you. We as a society have to look at our past mistakes so that we can prevent them from happening in the future. This is something we can fix. But everyone must be willing.
“When parents neglect to acknowledge the lack of diversity on their kids’ screens and refuse to have these conversations with their children, the systemic barriers only grow taller, blocking younger generations’ path to progressive change,” (Capstone, 2020).
It's up to us to make a change, and it takes every single one of us.
References
Capstone, G. (2020, October 29). Breaking systemic barriers: Children's media influences views on diversity. Retrieved March 24, 2021, from https://gradynewsource.uga.edu/breaking-systemic-barriers-childrens-media-influences-views-on-diversity/
Dill-Shackleford, K., Ramasubramanian, S., Behm-Morawitz, E., Scharrer, E., Burgess, M., & Lemish, D. (2017, November 01). Social group stories in the media and child development. Retrieved March 24, 2021, from https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/140/Supplement_2/S157
Kelly, D., Quinn, P., Slater, A., Lee, K., Gibson, A., Smith, M., . . . Pascalis, O. (2005, November). Three-month-olds, but NOT newborns, PREFER OWN-RACE FACES. Retrieved March 24, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2566511/
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