Exam 4: Contemporary Racial Framing: White Americans

A recent study examined Los Angeles media news broadcasts in regard to their portrayals of crime perpetrators. Researchers compared media coverage with official criminal data for the years 2008 and 2012. The researchers:

What is simianisation and what is its link to contemporary white-nationalist groups?

Explain the creation and reinforcement of old anti-black stereotypes and imagery from the dominant white racial frame in terms of media cultivation theory.

Studying popular Grand Theft Auto video games, Jessie Daniels and Nicolas Lalone have shown how mostly white male game-makers incorporate racist stereotypes of Americans of color, such as making most black and Latino characters "gang bangers."

Explain what Joe Feagin and Kimberley Ducey mean when they write: "Our individuality is decidedly a part of a collective movement."

Explain mocking and joking about African Americans in terms of the following elements of the white racial frame: i. beliefs aspect (racial stereotypes and ideologies) ii. integrating cognitive elements (racial interpretations and narratives) iii. visual and auditory elements (racialized images and language accents) iv. "feelings" aspect (racialized emotions) v. inclination to action (to discriminate) vi. strong positive orientation to whites and whiteness (the pro-white subframe) vii. the strong negative orientation to racial "others" who are exploited and oppressed (anti-others subframes)

Explain sociologist Herbert Blumer's declaration that prejudice is "rooted in a sense of group position."

Rada and Wulfemeyer examined on-air announcers' comments of 'the player as athlete' and 'the player as person.' Of the 18 negative statements made about a player's off-field intelligence, character, or personal interest stories, all 18 were directed toward African Americans.

Recent research suggests that the apparent decrease in anti-black images, prejudices, and stereotypes amongst whites from the 1930s to the present reflects to a significant degree increased white concern for social acceptability.

Reviewing existing research, Jessie Daniels and Nicolas Lalone have concluded that over recent decades the gaming world has been heavily white-oriented in the:

Explain how gaming subculture's dismissive attitude toward critiques of the obvious racism in and around the games reveals how powerful the white racial frame remains in society.

Today, white support for the principle of school integration is well below 10 percent, while endorsement of strong government intervention to insure racial integration is far higher.

One major 1990s poll found that the majority of those questioned wrongly believed that the poorest people in the U.S. are _________ and that most welfare recipients are _________.

Researchers have found:

This U.S. president reportedly said that white southerners opposed to school desegregation were "not bad people. All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big overgrown Negroes."

In survey research, whites often use a variety of hedging phrases (e.g., "I agree and disagree") to apparently downplay racist views.

You overhear a group of classmates arguing that whites actually suffer more than blacks from racial bias. They ask you what you think about "reverse racism"? Drawing on the section titled "Imaging the White Self" in Chapter 4, enlighten them.

Group isolation increases bonding and conformity to traditional norms of the in-group; the stronger one's attachment to the in-group, the greater the likelihood of prejudice and stereotyping directed at out-groups. Explain why this general phenomenon is especially serious when members of a particular group, like white Americans, have great privilege and power over other racial groups in society.

Rada and Wulfemeyer examined on-air announcers' comments of 'the player as athlete' and 'the player as person.' Of the 18 negative statements made about a player's off-field intelligence, character, or personal interest stories, none were directed toward white Americans.

In the 1960s, a majority of white respondents polled said they disapproved of a fair employment practices law.