In 2020 Distorted Representations of Young Black Males Needs to be Challenged at Source

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“At least your son isn’t going to prison” It’s time to tackle the distorted representation of black males in the media,

I am compelled to bring forth this conversation after two negative experiences I had last year relating to my black sons. The first during Christmas lunch with my former manager he remarked that I was lucky my teenage son was going to Uganda for 3 months to work rather than a young offenders institute, and the second was when I took my other son to Kings College Hospital for an EEG, the specialist male nurse remarked that he would soon be old enough to go to adult prison and that he shouldn’t pick up the soap. Astounded and hurt by these seemingly unconnected incidents I instantly made the connection. Negative perceptions of black males has reached fever pitch. People are literally so comfortable with their biases, they feel legitimised to vocalise them even in the presence of a black mother. There are two parts to this article so that I can set the landscape for the conversation to move towards a more solutions oriented approach to tackling this travesty. Part one; let’s explore what we already know about the issues at hand.

Material, historical, cultural, and political structures undoubtedly contribute to shaping and constricting the life chances of black males in the UK. In particular, public perceptions and attitudes toward black males not only help to create barriers to advancement within this society, but also make that position seem natural or inevitable. Among the most important mechanisms for maintaining (or changing) these perceptions is the mass media because it holds significant power to shape popular ideas and attitudes.

I propose to start by outlining how the distortion occurs with the troubling link between media portrayals and lowered life chances for black males. Black males seem to often exist through the prism of either negative associations that are exaggerated across mainstream media platforms — particularly criminality, unemployment, and poverty, or limited positive associations for the most part linked to music or professional sports where physical achievement as well as the aggressiveness that usually goes along with this type of success. While positive depictions maybe inspirational, they still tend to represent a relatively limited range of qualities to the exclusion of a variety of other everyday virtues.

There are so many missing stories whether through journalism, fictional narratives and entertainment it is important to consider the kinds of narratives that are told about them and not told about them- in particular how some of their lives are affected by larger contexts, such as historical antecedents of black economic disadvantage, persist anti-black male bias, and relative disconnection from the social networks that help create wealth and opportunity which can serve to propel the presumption that they’re solely responsible for their own fates in a meritocratic society. Consequently without knowing the broader picture, the average person is often left to assume that black males are innately or culturally inclined towards low achievement, criminality, and broken families.

This was amplified put by Piers Morgan in his 2018 interview with Akala on Good Morning Britain, on the topic of knife crime. He said:

‘There is no doubt that right now the knife crime element of murder in London is predominantly young black teenage boys. So my question for you is there any racial or cultural element to what is going on relating to knife crime in young black teenage boys?.’

To which Akala attempted to set the record straight over and over with facts.

‘In the last 2 years it is still important to remember that the overwhelming majority of murders have not been committed by black teenagers, so for example in 2017 there were 117- or 116 murders, 21 of which were of teenage black boys and in 2018 there were 134 – 24 were of teenagers in general so it’s important to keep that in mind.’

He began his interview saying:

‘Social indicators for violent crime among young working class street gangs have remained consistent for 200 years: relative poverty, maculating, exposure to domestic crime, lack of education.’

In spite of actual facts Akala suggested the press deliberately used race as marker when reporting criminality, which he termed ‘racial virtual signalling’. There is a very real causal link between the media and public attitudes that mean intentional or unintentional distorted narratives produce a generalised misunderstanding of the facts and bias attitudes as a result.

This is a pattern observed in some studies, particularly when amount of media consumption is balanced against amount of real-world experience with black males (or other ethnicities). Media images had more impact on perceptions when viewers had less real-world experience with the topic because there is no counter narrative to engage with. I consider this a mute point given my former manager grew up and went to school in London, and the specialist EEG nurse would have been surrounded by professionals of all ethnicities working in the NHS.

Moreover real-world experience doesn’t account for how some teachers, judges or the police deal with black males as a problem group. Clearly it is deeply entrenched in some people’s psyche and arguably in the fabric of society which can have detrimental effects not only on some black males’ quality of life, but also through an internalisation process that produces what Akala terms:

‘A degree of psychological self-hatred or contempt for themselves that they project onto other people that remind them of themselves.'

Black males are overrepresented as perpetrators of violent crime when news coverage is compared with arrest rates, but they’re generally underrepresented in the more sympathetic roles of being a law enforcer or victim (especially as there is often an inference to being gang affiliated in news coverage). Similarly they’re underrepresented as experts called in to offer commentary (not withstanding sports programmes) and analysis in the news or in roles of leadership, science or technical experts instead tending to appear in roles that put less emphasis on intellectuality.

With that said it is worth exploring how this situation might impact how some young black men think of themselves and their peers. They are obviously also members of the public; therefore they’re not immune to the influence of the media, which they consume too.

How constant negative media might stereotypes of being thugs, criminals, hyper aggressive have a demoralizing impact and or reduce self-esteem. Dealing with negative expectations may also create stress and drain cognitive resources in some contexts leading to the lowered performance associated with “stereotype threat.” Could the very narrow routes to success in professional sports and music imply there are limited options to make a significant impact in society, and how might it feel to be in a position where your fate depends on how you’re perceived by others or on what kind of rapport you have with them. How we see ourselves in society and how society broadly views and deals with us is closely entwined with our sense of belonging, purpose and freedom to be fully recognised, valued citizens.

We know in reality it is not an equal playing field for many of them which manifests in all aspects of life from less attention from some teachers, to harsher sentencing by some judges, lower likelihood of being hired for certain jobs, increased likelihood of exclusion from school and a higher likelihood of being targeted by police day to day.

The concept of ‘Black masculinity’ is also part of the problem which includes being associated with hyper sexuality, violence, misogyny, and or elite athleticism. Yet addressing this issue would require confronting the idea that black males may themselves embrace these stereotypes as a form of resistance to various external limitations on their achievement. What’s more when so called black sources project these same stereotypes caricatured in films, music or other forms of entertainment people of colour maybe more embracing of the stereotypes which is equally detrimental by legitimising and reinforcing negative perceptions as factual.

This is not a one size all fits article; it is a complex issue to discuss without exploring class division and other aggregating factors. Also it would be unfair to portray all black males as having these challenges. I want to open up discussion in part two of this article about how we as a society should challenge at source distorted representations of black males because it’s the right thing to do.