The Stereotypes Of African Americans In Film

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In America, African Americans have always been stereotyped as more inclined to engage in criminal activities. The image depicted is that of African Americans wearing a facemask with only eye and mouth opening with guns strapped inside their leather jackets or tight jeans. The stereotypes have therefore painted a grossly incorrect picture of African American men as violent, aggressive monsters who rob and rape carelessly. As a result, innocent African American youth have wrongly been prosecuted and sentenced to capital punishment even when they are innocent. In stereotyping the African American men as criminals who derive pleasure from inflicting pain on other members of the society, especially the white people, the stereotype has been grossly unfair. The stereotyping has denied the African Americans men the access to fair trial in the judicial system as most of them are incarcerated in their…show more content…
For instance, the Acer eccentric advertisement with tiger woods has been a global success. An increase of the African American middle class over the past decades has incredibly increased their purchasing power. As a result, American producers have to formulate advertisement campaigns that respect the aspirations of the African Americans and their distinct social history. The Hollywood writers and directors largely enforced the violent and aggressive stereotype of African American men. Despite the movies gaining massive fanatical following, they always depicted the African American men as aggressive people who engaged in criminal activities for heroism. For instance “a time to kill” by Samuel L. Jackson is a perfect example. These grotesque caricatures are not accurate representations of the African American men and contribute to the proliferation of negative stereotyping. However a movie like “I am legend” by will smith can be used to counter this

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