When talking to people about race in the media, they tend to get a bit uncomfortable. It seems like it is a topic that everyone knows about but not many want to talk about. Growing up in the era of social media boom, diversity and the way diversity is covered is something that is at the forefront of our minds. I asked many people what they thought about it and I got many of the same responses, "it's bad," or "it isn't done right." 8/10 people I asked said that they thought that diversity in the media could be improved. The other 2 people thought that people overthink it and the media does a fine job.
While I can see both points of the argument, I agreed with the 8 people more. Diversity in the media isn't done right and needs to be fixed. As a half black kid growing up, I remember being very confused about where I stood in society. I remember watching the news and thinking that I didn't want to be associated with the black side of me because all I saw was African- American criminals. This was only corrected when I asked my parents if I had to be black. The diversity vilifies some races, while praising others.
Emilee, one of the people I interviewed, agreed heavily with this sentiment. While being a white woman, she always felt as though media didn't do a great job of showing people of color. "Whenever you look at news stories of black people that did crimes its always a mugshot, however when you see a news story of a white person that did a crime, they have a nice posed picture, why is that?" I asked her how she thought race should be covered, and many of the other people I asked had similar sentiments, "If they are going to show people who did crimes, everyone needs to have the same picture. They need to stop showing black people and other people of color as villains. This hurts those communities of people in a way that some people may not even realize."
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