The Propaganda of Media Influencing Racism

The topic of racism has been very prevalent in the media for centuries. Stamped: Racism, Anti Racism, and You, a nonfiction book written by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, exposes the media’s propaganda throughout history. The media shapes racism, sways people’s opinions, and these actions are shown throughout the history of racism. Although many people believe the media does not make propaganda or promote racism.

First, the media has been intensely shaping racism in recent years. As a response to the government’s mismanagement in aid to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, “A poor Black community would be flooded and destroyed. No one did anything” (Reynolds, 237). The author expresses that the journalists and scientists knew about a major storm hitting that area but, they did nothing to stop it because it was a “poor black community” (Reynolds, 237). It was a racist decision and action and no one thought anything of it. This occurred in 2005, and ‘color-blind racists’ were prevalent throughout America and one of the biggest was the media. “Spinning tales of looting and gruesome,” these were children and families the media was talking about, which were ripped from their homes and put into a shelter. The media took advantage of the weakness created by the hurricanes. The media held nothing back to take the opportunity to describe the victims as savages, ironically their response was savage.

Nearing toward the later 2000s, people are speaking out about the police brutality in the black community. This subject also sheds negative and positive light on the issue. With raging political views, comes different narratives people put out to the world. Bias opinions and news outlets show their from perspective, meaning they can twist any story to work to their advantage. “Anything to smear Black people in the media” (Reynolds, 242). This also means that the media will take any opportunity to put the black community in a tight corner, with no options to have the advantage to speak out. 

Secondly, the media has been influencing the population on the topic of racism, especially since the creation of the internet. Influencing can be a great tool, BLM is an example of it. BLM is a group that is a direct response to police brutality and hate crimes towards the black community. Different groups such as BLM helped people in need and with the peak of the internet, information gets around quickly. That also means that any type of information, from either political side, gets its light. No groups of people are restricted when it comes to the internet. But, even though the antiracists took any opportunity to represent the black community, “they were enraptured by the pride of the victory for black spoke...shown all those disbelievers, who said that electing a Black president was impossible, to be wrong” (Reynolds 241). The black community kept showing the world and America their progress. They showed that they could elect a Black president and that he was the symbol of hope and progress. Even though this was huge progress people continued to die; children, men, and women. The police and vigilantes were getting away easily with killings and BLM finally rose up. It continues even today with a long list of innocent killings of the Black community.

Although the media does not always spread propaganda or promote racism it has helped give a voice to the unheard. The unheard Black community and antiracist that have and still work on fighting for equal rights. From the newspapers to the internet the antiracists have always been pushing righteous and humane perspectives against society and racists. The media and internet are the biggest help to the unheard, even though it is also the biggest help to the oppressors. 

Even though the media does not always spread propaganda or promote racism, it has and still will shape racism and sway people’s opinions. The author indicates that people are the ones that determine if racist ideas will keep being projected over and over again throughout time. Anyone can change ideologies and perspectives by listening and looking for trustworthy sources and good media outlets that do not have a trend of bias and racist ideas.