Perception of the African American Males Essay

African Americans males are considered dangerous based on a false identity, misconceptions, and misinformation that are available in the media; this includes but is not limited to rap music, news, and TV shows. This misconception can be traced as far back as slavery. The perception of blacks’ males as being dangerous began when the slave came to America on 1619. Due to the situation of being treated as property, to be freely bought and sold, and that the owner was free to split up a couple or family at any time simply by selling some of his/her slaves. African slaves started to behave in a hostile manner. Because of their behavior the Caucasians immediately started to classify the slaves as being dangerous, and they need to be tame as if they were wild animals. This lead the slave masters to start putting chain and walking around with their rifles when they would be in the fields with them. As it was stated in ‘The Brut Caricature†, it portrays black men as innately savage, animalistic, destructive, and criminal; deserving punishment, and maybe death. Due to the negative influence and portrayals of African Americans males, these individuals are often misguided. The nature vs.nurture theory comes into play. I. e. Low income black males are predisposed to innate qualities, while behavioral traits are learned i. e. through the media. â€Å"Get Rich or Die Trying† is the mentality of most African American males with the help of the media. Most males see themselves as rap stars, sports stars, and or comedians. There is limited exposure of African American as doctors or lawyers at an early age its learned that their chance of success in life is limited. The men in the low income communities have the tendencies of wanting to become like the â€Å"white man†. The main problem is that they portray the idea of â€Å"get rich quick†. These perceptions cause them to turn into drugs, and from there into violence and crimes. According to a 2006 National Urban League report a third of black males will spend time in prison before their 35th birthday. This fact could be because of the high school dropouts and the poor understanding they get from society. Yes, I said the poor understanding from society, because black men are one of the least understood groups in our country. People don’t look at the conditions that cause a lot of black men to be in the situations they’re in today, they just look at the results. † According to my findings, among men, blacks (28. 5%) are about six times more likely than whites (4. 4%) to be admitted to prison during their life. I also noted that there are more black males in prison in America than are in college. (The Black and White of Justice, Freedom Magazine). Volume 28. Another consequence for African Americans it’s that the â€Å"monster† image given by the Caucasian people are carry by the poor African American people. According to Stallworth (early 1990’s) young black males continue to follow patterns of slavery times. Many fulfill white America’s image of them legitimately by becoming successful gangster rappers, others fulfill these image illegitimately by becoming â€Å"bad niggers† Rappers, therefore reinforce the popular belief that as â€Å"bad ass niggers† young black can achieve fame, recognition, and sense of being (somebody). If they lose, however, they can face a long stay in our jails and prisons or even bodily injury and death. Which it’s happening now days. Media and the African American Males According to the book ‘Black Demons’ there is a â€Å"black pathology† a fundamental weakness in African American families that can be traced to their experiences as slaves. The news media, for example, have taken the lead in equating young African American males with aggressiveness, lawlessness, and violence. Likewise, the entertainment media have eagerly taken their cue from the journalists, and these false images not only affect race relationship but also create a self felling prophecy for African American youngsters, whose limits of achievement can be determined for them by suggestions in the media. A common stereotype about African American men is that they are engage in drug abuse a disproportionate way which it’s not true because according to statistics from the US department of Health and Human services that although eight percent of African American males cocaine, eleven percent of whites have use the same drug. This is, however, not the impression that we get from watching the evening local news or even an episode of television program COPS. Blacks Stereotyped of Being Intellectually Inferior and Criminals. Another common negative stereotype, establishes the African American male as intellectually inferior. Studies directed by psychologist Claude Stale, indicate that African American teenagers are aware that they are stigmatized as being intellectually inferior and the go to school bearing what psychologist Claude has called a â€Å"burden of suspicion† Such burden can affect their attitudes and achievements. These shadows hang over stigmatized people no matter their status or accomplishments. These stigmas have the potential to roll them of their individually and debilitate their attempts to break out of the stereotypical roles. Blacks are the repository for the American fear of crime. Ask anyone, of any race, to picture a criminal and the image will have a black face. The linked between blackness and criminality it’s routinized by terms such a â€Å"black-on-black crimes† or â€Å"black crimes†. I also have to mention the ‘black brute stereotype arise in the early 1870’s. Such stereotype is one of the pictures white Americans have in their heads about black men: as savage, violent amazingly strong and not caring about right and wrong. Even today according to my findings , blacks are three times more likely to be physically threatened, harmed or killed because if their race than whites. So this idea of whites as peaceful and blacks ad threatening to white is not rooted in fact. It is rooted in something else. Yes, there are black men who are violent and savage, who do unspeakable things. But there are white men like that too. In either case they are hardly common enough to reasonably determine one’s ideas about the ordinary people of their race. Rap Music and its influence in African American males Rap music celebrates vulgarity. Indeed, it markets vulgarity; that is its product. It is the vulgar excesses of rap-the profanity, the over-sized jewelry, the naked acquisitiveness, the sexual aggressiveness-that are its hallmarks. New media attention on rap music seems obsessed on instances of violence at rap concerts, rap producers’ illegal use of musical samples, gangster raps’ lurid fanatics of cop killing, and female dismemberment, and Black Nationalist rappers suggestions that white peoples are devils disciples. It seems that rappers to notice the influence they have in people mostly African American people, and by say this type of things they send an incorrect message to their fanatics and other people in general. In most of the songs you can find a high level of aggravated language, images, and high crimes scenarios. . According to the authors of these songs, they just make it for the entertainment of their fans without thinking of the image they are given of their people and themselves. One question and many answers from our society I took the duty to find out the perception that common US citizens have towards African American males, by submitting a question on (answersyahoo. com) people from all around our country answered to my question. The following are the answers to my survey. †¢ People poisonous stereotypes the black males with the â€Å"5 Ds†Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬Å"Dumb, deprived, dangerous, deviant, and disturbed†. †¢ Lazy & uneducated †¢ Drug dealers †¢ Poor †¢ Hate other races †¢ They are dirty †¢ Loud, obnoxious, rude My Opinion. For these reasons and many other African American males are consider dangerous for our society. But stop and think for a minute, are they all really dangerous or this is only a big misunderstanding? Can we judge them all as a whole, or there are some of them that can be excluded of being stereotyped as â€Å"dangerous†, â€Å"criminal†, etc? In my opinion we cannot judged them all as a whole and we should also try to understand the reasons behind their actions. We have to learn how to be open minded and see things from different perspectives. We also have to realize that not everything that we see and listen in the media is always the truth, there is always a second part of a story and most of the time we fail to look for that second part. African American behavior has been shaped by us (society) because of our mistreatment towards them and our racism†¦ I believe if we change the way we look at them and express about them, they will change their behavior and we no longer will have to use the statement of â€Å"dangerous† when referring to a African American male. Conclusion. To conclude to this issue in question I just have to say ‘Black or white, God gave us the opportunity to succeed, and regardless of the situation we are dealt, we can all live the life we imagined. After s days of research I can’t say there is a wrong or right theory about African American males because everyone has their own way of thinking and their own opinion. But just to add ‘the world would be shocked to know that the majority of black men make the right choices and build successful families and careers every day in America, yet are rarely discussed in the headlines’. Bibliogaphy.