Media

Media

"The typical roles are all too often the black sidekick of a white protagonist, for example, the token black person, the comedic relief, the athlete, the over-sexed ladies' man, the absentee father, or, most damaging, the violent black man as drug-dealing criminal and gangster thug" -Darron T. Smith, PhD.

Impact of Media

• False sense of connection
• Media has the greatest impact on the perception without having actual real world experiences

The New Jim Crow

Kalief Browder

• Arrested in 2010 at 16 years old for robbery
• Spent 3 years in Rikers Island waiting for a trial that never happened
• 2 years at Rikers Island was spent in solitary confinement
• Tried to committ suicide multiple times
• Severely beaten by inmates and prison guards
• Acquitted of the charges
• Sent to several mental institutions
• Committed suicide
• Known as a thief by the media

Trayvon Martin

• From Miami Gardens , Florida , lived with mom
• Visited father in Sanford Florida
• Ten-day suspension from Krop Senior High School
• Found drugs in his book bag
• George Zimmerman, watch man
• Calls 911 to report “a suspicious person" in the neighborhood. He is instructed not to get out of his SUV or approach the person. Zimmerman disregards the instructions. Moments later, neighbors report hearing gunfire. Zimmerman acknowledges that he shot Martin, claiming it was in self-defense. In a police report, Officer Timothy Smith writes that Zimmerman was bleeding from the nose and back of the head.”
• Zimmerman argued his “stand your grounds”
• An all female jury
• Zimmerman was found not guilty

Michael Brown

• Michael Brown initially was reported for stealing cigarillos from a convenience store in Ferguson
• It was initially called a "strong armed robbery"
• An officer identified him as matching the description a few minutes after the robbery happened
• Witnesses reported an altercation
• Shot 12 times
• Darren Wilson not indicted

Amadou Diallo

• Immigrant
• Diallo fit the description of a rapist and thief
• Fired 41 shots, hit Diallo 19 times
• Called a peddler in the newspaper

Dylann Roof

• Attended Bible Study
• Waited for the people to start praying, pulled out a gun, began to shoot them
• This was the largest mass shooting at an American place of worship
• Called a "suspect" by the media
• TERRORIST

Brock Turner

• Three counts of felony sexual assault
• University - Swimmer
• Found guilty of three felonies: assault with intent to

rape an intoxicated woman, sexually penetrating an

intoxicated person with a foreign object, and sexually

penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object.

• Sent to 6 months in jail + 3 years of probation
• Released after 3 months
• Got a reduced sentence because he had a bright future
• Had to register as a sex offender.

Drew Peterson

• Retired Bolingbrook Police Sergeant
• Convicted in the murder of his third wife - sentenced 38 years
• Suspected for the killing of his fourth wife, Stacy Peterson
• Inmate testified that Peterson wanted to kill the prosecutor who sentenced him, and admitted to killing fourth wife
• Faces a sentence of additional 60 years for trying to kill the prosecutor