HISTORICAL VIEW OF AFRICAN AMERICANS IN

HISTORICAL VIEW OF AFRICAN AMERICANS IN

ADVERTISING African Americans have been a part of advertising in America as far back

as ads for the sale of slaves or return of runaways (Kern-Foxworth, 1994). In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, blacks became common in advertising targeted at European Americans, which in this era included all advertising except that in specifically black publications. Often the portrayals were pictorially demeaning (huge lips, bulging eyes, cannibals, mammy figures like Aunt Jemima) and verbally insulting (brand names like Nigger Head canned vegetables and stove polish). Many of these figures thankfully disappeared quietly, but some of these symbols evolved in interesting ways. For example, Aunt Jemima was first developed in 1889 by Charles Rutt with his introduction of the first ready-mixed pancake flour. In the early years, Aunt Jemima in ads (and her spinoff dolls and personal appearances by various actresses) was right off the antebellum plantation, with her characteristic headdress, uneducated speech style, and subservient behavior. Aunt Jemima gradually became less slave-like over the next 80 years, though the greatest change came in 1968, when she wore more of a headband than a slave bandanna and also appeared younger and more intelligent. Only in 1989, in her 100th year, did Aunt Jemima lose the headgear altogether for the first time (Kern-Foxworth, 1994).

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In the United States, media reflected this prejudiced viewpoint before radio or television were ever conceived. One of the earliest movies was Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1903, a film that highly stereotyped African Americans. The controversial film Birth of a Nation (1915) presented the Ku Klux Klan as heroic. Such treatment persisted in films for many years (Bogle, 1973). In 1942 the NAACP convinced the Hollywood studio bosses to abandon the characteristic negative roles for African Americans and to try to integrate them into a variety of roles; this agreement did not produce overnight change, but advances did come eventually

The civil rights movement of the 1960s ushered in significant changes in media (G.L.Berry, 1980). African American models were used in advertising, with none of the feared offense taken by Whites (Block, 1972; Schlinger & Plummer, 1972; Soley, 1983). African Americans also appeared for the first time in leading roles in prime-time TV, most notably I Spy (1965 to 1968) with Bill Cosby, and Julia, the first African American family drama. In addition, there were African Americans as part of the starring ensemble on 1960s drama programs like Mission Impossible, Peyton Place, and Mod Squad.

In the 1970s and 1980s, there were usually some African American characters on TV, although they tended to be heavily concentrated in sitcoms and largely absent from daytime soap operas and children’s programming. Some of these characters were more rounded than early TV African Americans but still retained some stereotypical characteristics, such as the buffoonery and posturing of J.J. on Good Times and George Jefferson on The Jeffersons . In the 1970s, about 8% of prime-time TV characters were African-American (Gerbner & Signorielli, 1979; Seggar, Hafen, & Hannonen-Gladden, 1981; Weigel, Loomis, & Soja, 1980), with less than 3% in daytime soaps (Greenberg, Neuendorf, Buerkel-Rothfuss, & Henderson, 1982). Comparisons of African American and White characters appearing together in the same show reveal many similarities and some differences, with specifics depending on the programs sampled (Reid, 1979; Weigel et al., 1980).

A landmark occurred with the phenomenal commercial success of Roots in 1977. This TV miniseries was based on Alex Haley’s saga of his ancestor’s forced journey from West Africa into American slavery and later emancipation. Although widely praised for both its artistic and entertainment value and its effectiveness in widely publicizing key aspects of the African American experience, Roots was also controversial. Some called it biased for presenting few sympathetic European American characters, whereas others took it to task for making the horrors of slavery acceptable for audiences by transforming a national disgrace into an epic triumph of the family and the American dream (Riggs, 1992). Surprisingly, Roots did not open up many new roles for African-American actors, as many had predicted it would.

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The current media situation is vastly improved from the Amos and Andy days, although some argue that there are still subtle indicators of racism on television (Greenberg, et al, 2002; Taylor, et al., 1995) and still very few realistic portrayals of typical African American life (Riggs, 1992). African Americans are still underrepresented in most TV genres except sitcoms and are largely absent in high-level creative and network administrative positions. Although the phenomenal success of The Cosby Show (1984– 1992) presumably laid to rest any commercial concerns about Whites not watching Black shows, that show’s relevance to the experience of the large majority of less affluent African Americans was hotly debated. Cliff Huxtable and his family were clearly positive role models, but they also enjoyed a lifestyle that was beyond the reach of most African American families (and, for that matter, most of the rest of the population as well).

Although we seldom, if ever, see the racist ads or programming from the pre-civil rights era, some blatantly racist cartoons from as far back as the 1940s are still widely sold in inexpensive video cartoon anthologies; some villains have dark skin, big lips, and even exhibit cannibalistic behaviors. Barcus (1983) found cartoons to be the most ethnically stereotyped of all television genres. Sometimes the bias may be more subtle. For example, two ugly and stupid regular characters in one cartoon are Rock Steady, named after a Jamaican musical genre of the mid-1960s, and Bebop, which was a form of jazz with origins in African American music (O’Connor, 1990).

There are still some biases in news coverage (Entman, 1990, 1992, 1994a, 1994b; Heider, 2000). For example, Romer, Jamieson, and deCoteau (1998) examined 14 weeks of local TV news on three stations in Philadelphia in 1994, They found that people of color (most often African Americans) were disproportionately represented in stories about crime and were more likely to

be presented as perpetrators than as victims, relative to the actual demographics from local crime statistics. This finding was replicated in a study of Los Angeles and Orange County CA local news by Dixon and Linz (2000).

Blacks as Viewers

African Americans of all ages watch more television than Whites, even when controlling for socioeconomic status (Graves, 1996; Kern-Foxworth, 1994). They especially watch more sports, action-adventure shows, and news. They watch shows with Black characters and Black-oriented networks like BET and WB in relatively greater numbers than European Americans do (Goldberg, 2002). However, there is no evidence that other groups avoid such shows because of the African American characters (G. Comstock, Chaffee, Katzman, McCombs, & Roberts, 1978; Graves, 1980), even though children of all races tend to identify more with characters of their own race

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(Eastman & Liss, 1980; Greenberg & Atkin, 1982). Overall, African American children prefer sitcoms, whereas European American children prefer action-adventure shows. Compared to light TV viewers, heavy viewers believe that African Americans and European Americans are more similar, African Americans are more middle class, and racial integration is more widespread (Matabane, 1988). This may be interpreted in terms of cultivation theory to suggest that television mainstreams viewers into the optimistic view that African Americans have “made it” and that segregation and racism are no more.

Effects of African American Portrayals

One focus of research has been on the effects of African American TV portrayals on both European and African Americans (see Graves, 1980; Greenberg, 1986; Greenberg, Mastro, & Brand, 2002, for reviews). Like others, African Americans are more likely to identify with and emulate characters who exhibit personal warmth, high status, and power, Often these models have been White, yet African Americans will readily identify with media Blacks as role models, especially with the more positive ones (Ball & Bogatz, 1970, 1973; Jhally & Lewis, 1992). This can boost children’s self- esteem, especially with regular viewing and accompanied by appropriate parental communication (Atkin, Greenberg, & McDermott, 1983; McDermott & Greenberg, 1985), Sympathetic characters like the Huxtable children or the African American teens on Sister Sister and That’s So Raven thus become potentially very important models for young African Americans. Black viewers remembered positive African American TV characters better than they remembered comparable White characters (Appiah, 2002). Studies of White children have shown that prolonged exposure to television comedies or Sesame Street with regular African American and Latino cast members influences the attitudes of White kids in

a more accepting, less racist direction (Bogatz & Ball, 1971; Gorn, Goldberg, & Kanungo, 1976).

Although everyone identifies more with characters who are perceived to

be like themselves on whatever relevant dimensions (Identification theory), being a minority member makes certain attributes more salient (Distincriveness theory). Thus, one’s race is a larger part of one’s identity for

a person of color in a largely White society than it is for the majority. Similarly, being left-handed, red-headed, or six-foot-six is more salient than being right-handed, brown-haired, or five-foot-nine. Black viewers recalled Black characters better than White characters, while White viewers showed no difference in their recall of White vs. Black characters (Appiah, 2002).

Even a very positive portrayal developed with the best intentions may contribute to misconceptions, however, For example, some White viewers of

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The Cosby Show cited the Huxtables as examples of why affirmative action is no longer necessary (Jhally & Lewis, 1992). If the affluent Huxtables have attained their share of the American dream and they are assumed to be representative of African Americans, then those who haven’t made it must not be trying very hard. Consistent with cultivation theory, White heavy viewers of entertainment TV believed that African Americans were relatively well off socioeconomically, although those who were heavy viewers of TV news believed African Americans to be relatively worse off economically (Armstrong, Neuendorf, & Brentar, 1992).

Sometimes TV can unexpectedly reinforce preexisting stereotypes. For example, more traditional White viewers tended to identify with the bigoted Archie Bunker of the 1970s sitcom All in the Family and accept his racist views, although less prejudiced people decried these views and found Archie’s attitudes offensive or laughable (Surlin, 1974; Tate & Surlin, 1976; Vidmar & Rokeach, 1974; Wilhoit & de Bock, 1976). The same inconsistent reactions were found to the Indian feminist drama Hum Log (W.J.Brown & Cody, 1991).

In contrast to this picture of some progress in the portrayal of African Americans, the media image of another American minority of similar size is far less hopeful.