Furthering a Negative Stereotype

Just the other day, I don’t know why, but I got thinking about Spike Lee’s master piece; Malcolm X. I remembered the masterful display of Denzel Washington. I kept thinking about Malcolm X talking about the dictionary definition of the word “Black”. Malcolm X was very critical of the dictionary entries under the word Black. Just out of curiosity, I decided to check the meaning of the word in a dictionary. After all in this age of advancement and Political Correctness, it might have a more positive meaning. Or so I thought.

According to Dictionary.com, black, amongst other negative descriptions, is “without any moral quality or goodness; evil; wicked: His black heart has concocted yet another black deed.” It also goes on to describe Black as “deliberately; harmful; inexcusable: a black lie”. In all, there were 35 descriptions for the colour black, all save one or two were negative (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/black).

Compare this to the same definition of the word “white”. There were 42 definitions, ALL of them were positive. White is described as “morally pure; innocent” (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=white). I was stunned, how can this be? But then I should have not expected any better. You only need to open your eyes and ears to see and hear the constant vilification of Black people in the British media. Why do they hate us this much?

Sometime ago, I was on an IT training course and it was one of those rare moments when majority of the course participants were black. The Instructor was white and he had a horrible time trying to explain the spam filtering functionality of the product he was teaching. Even though the course materials clearly stated “Blacklist” and “Whitelist” for banned and allowed items into a network, he was too embarrassed to use the words instead he chose to refer to them as “Banned” and “Allowed”. “ Why is he getting embarrassed” one of the black attendees asked me during coffee break, “after all it simply reflects the thinking of white people, they never want black people inside…” Inside where? I wanted to ask him. But I understood what he meant.

I might not go as far as saying all white people want to “keep black people out”. But I do know that the British media is geared towards portraying Black people in the worst possible way. The media is always quick to point out that the suspect is “black”. Another favourite term is “Operation Trident is…” This is another way of the media saying the crime was by a Black person (http://www.stoptheguns.org/whatistrident/index.phpP. This phrase has also been used in cases of stabbings. Why is there no special Police unit for predominantly white crimes?
What I cant seem to understand is how the media is able to individualise white crimes but generalise crimes committed by Black people. Anytime there is a Black on Black violence, the Police will always appeal to “Community Leaders” or “members of the community”. In a case of “white on white violence” there is only an appeal for witnesses. No mention of “community”. Do they really think we hold tribal meetings every day after work or something?

What makes the media to assume that as a Black person you should know what other black people in your area are doing? Why is the average Blackman perceived as a gun totting, rapist and drug dealing mugger? Some might say it is because most drug dealers and muggers are black. If that be the case, why then is the average middle aged white man not perceived as a paedophile? After all majority of the paedophiles are middle aged white men.

Some time ago a study was carried out amongst young Black and White children. This was aimed at knowing just how they felt about the two races. Even the Black children did not want to be Black. How can you blame them when “black” in this country has been portrayed so negatively? One can only just imagine the damage that such negative stereotyping is doing the psyche of young black children. As said by Margaret O'Brien Caughy, Sc.D, an assistant professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Texas Health Science Centre at Houston

Racial socialization can be described as the practice of communicating messages about race to children "who are black in a society in which being black has negative connotations," …. Depending on parents' values, racial socialization can emphasize achievement, morality, racial equality and self-esteem; the minority experience, including awareness of discrimination; or black culture

Sadly it is not only the white media that have furthered the negative black stereotype. Trevor Phillips, the supposed head of the useless CRE (Commission for Racial Equality) I must stress that anytime this man opens his mouth, it is to change foot, sometime ago suggested that Black boys be taught in separate classrooms. It is baffling how he arrived at this conclusion. It is no wonder that Ken Livingstone, The Mayor of London and a white man said Trevor Phillips was so right wing he could be BNP. If we need to change how people perceive us, we need to start from home.