I thank you all for supporting me on this journey and with my series #SlayUnapologeticallyWithStantara especially with last weeks topic on Mental Health. I love this community and I pray that it may continue to grow in God’s favour. This weeks topic is a very very sensitive topic for me, especially as someone who advocates positivity. But as I always preach and as one of my personal main goals for myself, is the importance of having these conversations because they need to be had.
With what’s currently occurring in the media with heroes such as #GeorgeFloyd #Ahmaud and many more who unfortunately have been killed due to the discrimination of the colour of our skin, as a black teenager all I see is History repeating itself and often I sit down and wonder what we can do to help. Racism is a large issue and there are many factors driving it, but when thinking of solutions to change we have to think of the mental as well as the physical as Racism is not Born it’s Taught, so even though I know it’s not my job to make people see their wrongs and this alone won’t end racism, I write this as a hope to inspire and educate; with this discussion being on how we can help to change the media as one of the many things that needs to be improved in order to be changed !
So first, with every topic, I like to define the term. With research I actually learnt that racism is built upon various terms, these including bias, prejudice and stereotyping, in order for us to self reflect as well as teach us how the media can use these, with image examples from (credit to : psych learning curve) Stereotyping: overgeneralisation of an entire group.Bias: fixed change in perspective.Prejudice: unfair attitude. Discrimination: unfair or negative treatment of individuals belonging to a particular social group. I realised that these opinions occur when we try to fit a whole group with certain expectations of them due to information from different sources such as: our family, media, or even our own experiences.
How this is shown in the media and what needs to change
An example of how this can be shown in the media are articles that wrongfully represent racial incidents or entire social groups, which could be a factor to racism to its consumers ( US ) who may not have enough knowledge about that social group and result in them being biased etc. However a way of dealing with this is realising what these terms of being bias, prejudice etc look like so that we can acknowledge them within the media, asking questioning such as: What is my current personal view on this issue ? What is the perspective of this article or opinion? Are there similarities in attitudes such as bias such as the ones we have discussed? before finalising our opinion. Are we ourselves showing signs of prejudice ? etc. Instead of being prejudice, the media can show more accurate representation of cultures to promote unity and empowerment rather than discrimination. In fact this is one of the many reasons why I chose to study Media At Alevel because I believe that the way we consume media can play a fundamental part in our lives and opinions . Yes it’s not a full change but it’s definitely a start.
As highlighted earlier. Racism is a large issue and not only in America where recent racial incidents have occurred, but everywhere. We have to remember that this is not a “Their problem, it’s an Our problem” we are all humans and if there’s anything that I would like to say to future generations is that I helped to educate. The protection we want for the youth comes not by ignoring a social justice issue but by educating ourselves and having open conversations and self reflection on when we are in the wrong are just one of the steps that it takes in helping this issue.
Inspiring hope and activism
Image of another hero #IeshiaEvans
A picture that spoke to me in many words. An image that related the theme that I wanted to convey of 1. blacks not being a threat, but also of the bravery and hope for The future. “Peace, Love, Power #blacklivesmatter “ – Ieshia Evans
Starring Stantara 