How does a white person or a black person identify himself or herself with out using stereotypes that are perpetuated by the media? For example when you think of a black guy in the media you usually think of two things, armed and dangerous. When you think of a white guy in the media you usually think of two things, rich and uncoordinated. These are just a four stereotypes, out of dozens, that come to your mind when you think of black and white people. When you hear of black and white people in the news you usually hear of them in different lights. According to one Katrina coverage blog, “On August 30, Yahoo News printed two photos of people wading through water in Louisiana: the first of a black man with a garbage bag full of stuff he obtained by "looting", and the second of a white couple with bread and soda that they obtained by "finding" those items.”  Why is it that when the same situation occurred for the two different races there were completely different ways of displaying it. Why couldn’t the black man have found thebag of supplies that he had?  According to Barbara Bush, after Katrina, "And so many of the people in the arena here, you
know, were underprivileged anyway, so this--this (she chuckles slightly) is working very well for them."                                                                                                                                 

This infamous media that I keep mentioning is nothing more than television, movies, radio, magazines, newspapers and everything else that displays a message to the masses. You could think of the media as a blender and the milk, sugar, and mint chocolate chip ice cream as the little fragments of truth. When you put the little fragments of truth in the media it has the same effect as the blender. It mixes it into a new concoction that isn’t quite what you put in, but still it’s the same. The media is not bad and I'm not blaming it for the stereotypes placed upon black and

white people, although I have been personally affected by it.

When I first came to Episcopal Academy I was a victim of many stereotypes. I was thought of as ‘gangster’ and being ‘urban’.  Basically they thought of me as hanging on corners, possibly selling drugs, and part of a gang.  I was labeled as the black kid from the ghetto. I was asked a million times if I have ever seen any get shot of seen any one sell drugs. Have I ever beaten any one up? What type of house do I live in. do I own a gun, have I ever shot a gun. These were harmless enough and I decided to play into these stereotypes that people have about me and I told them this

completely made up story of what my daily routine consists of. I told them a story that consisted of something you would see in a movie or things you hear in songs. Some people still believe me to this day even when I tell them that I completely made it up and there is no truth behind it at all. The kids at school have a hard time letting go of the stereotypical image of me because with out it they would actually have to get to know me.

I think that people hide behind stereotypes because they are afraid to know the truth. Have you seen the movie Malibu’s most wanted? That movie has so many stereotypes in it that are not true about black or white people. In the movie being white meant you dressed, talked and acted preppy. In the movie the main character was a white guy who acted like a stereotypical black man. He liked hip hop and dressed the way black men dressed in music videos and talked with slang. The main characters father paid two actors to portray two black men from the Ghetto and scare the black out of him. Throughout the

By: Ted Hall