The YAAAMS website was created for the purpose of raising questions, provoking thoughts, and exposing differences (subtle or blatant) concerning the treatment of African-Americans in the media. It’s imperative that changes be made to ensure that African-Americans receive equal exposure and have a say in their future image. Since African-American constitute 15% of the U.S. population, you’d expect many national and local television stations to be tailored to our needs and interests, but that’s not the case. There are Zero black owned national and regional television networks, while other minorities have many. A handful of Corporations control 95% of all media outlets. A small number of people control the image of millions of African Americans.
For years, the media has portrayed many African- Americans as criminals, gangbangers, welfare recipients, sex and drug addicts, and other unsavory characters. This negative coverage is part of the reason why there is a negative image of African-Americans. More importantly, there’s another thing at work here: It is not so much what others think of us, but what many of us are thinking of ourselves. African Americans have limited control of what they watch, yet Statistics show African Americans watch a lot of television.
- Nine out of ten African American households subscribe to cable and/or satellite TV services.
- African Americans watch 74.4 hours of cable television programming per week.
- African Americans watch 50% more television than any other segment of the population.
- African Americans spend more than four billion dollars a year on cable television services.
- African Americans are broadband cable’s fastest growing market segment.
- African Americans represent 25% of all premium cable service (HBO, Showtime, Etc.) subscribers, subscribing at twice the rate of any other market segment.
- African Americans spend a majority of their family’s entertainment dollar on cable services.
- African Americans watch cable news network’s 28% more than any other group, seeking an alternative to the stereotypes perpetuated by broadcast news.
Which media do various ethnic groups rely on more heavily for news?
We have a whole generation of young African-Americans thinking that the only thing they can be is a professional athlete, actor, singer, rapper, comedian, or gangster. These roles constitute most of what we see of young African-Americans in the media. There have been improvements in the media over the years, but a lot of damage has already been done. The negative images are unconscious stereotypical traits that are embedded deep in the mind. Thus an African American President with and Ivy League education or any “successful Black” can’t erase the negative images, because their associated with “Whiteness” and not seen as typical of their race.
Many young African-Americans are unaware of how the media influences their day-to-day lives. The website seeks to point out the importance the media when it comes to the socialization of young African-American culture and image. Sociological theory says that there are agents of socialization that have various effects on our families, schools, peers at different stages in our lives. These theories also say that because of easy media access and cheap entertainment, the media has become a great contributor to socialization—even more than peer groups and school for young African-Americans.
That’s why this website is important. Until the mid-1980s, African-American youths were closing the education gap with their white counterparts. Then in the late 80s and early 90s, test scores for young African-Americans began dropping and crime in African-American communities began to rise.
What happened? It couldn’t have been a black thing, because black people have always been black, but somehow, things got worse for some black communities, during that time.
One of the biggest contributors was low self-esteem among young African-Americans. All of the difficulties—the drug abuse, the gang activity, and all the others—can be traced back to a larger problem of low self-esteem. The media isn’t totally to blame for society’s ills, although it’s a major contributor to low self-esteem. All self-esteem begins at a personal individual level. However, we’re going to focus on the contributions that various forms of media have made to lower the image that African-Americans have of themselves.
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