How Black people and Minorities are Portrayed in Media

 

How Black people and Minorities are Portrayed in Media 

        I recently took the BuzzFeed quiz that check a person’s privilege. My results were 13/100. Which to them means that I am underprivileged. I have known this all my life. I did not need a quiz to know that. I was just curious as to the questions that was asked.   This quiz got me thinking of the multiple times that have been on social media and the things that people would way. 

        There was a time that I posted how I missed going to mariachi practice in the mornings at school. I went to a performing arts school in downtown Dallas that was very diverse, yet I was the only Afro-Latina there. When I posted it, people thought I was being culturally appropriating Hispanic culture. I thought that this was crazy to think so because my mom is Dominican, yet it happens every day in media. 

        I had a meeting with Dr. Bland at UNT, and I told her that the first thing that people see is my blackness and that I will always be viewed that way because of first impressions. The world is filled with different kinds of people, yet because we are different shades of the melanin spectrum there is automatic pronounced protestation in how we are portrayed. 

        It is important to see a diverse journalist because we are all around the world. This gives the impression that the news organization have pushed efforts with diversification. People outside the United States do not know that we have Historically black media outlets because of the country’s history in exclusion of black people in the journalism sphere. 

        I will continue to advocate for myself and the diversification efforts because the next generation needs to see themselves. I know it can be hard to fight a media outlet preconceived ideas of how they should run, but it is also important to know as journalist, you do not have to stay at a company that you don’t align yourself with. Directors and editors can change anyone’s work to fit the organization’s theme, but you can break the mold with standing up or yourself and others.