A heck of a lot of people in the United States did not expect Barack Obama to be the Democratic nominee for President. Amongst all of his disadvantages, being Black has to rank as the most important. Race is the third rail in U.S. politics and still casts a pall over electoral politics. But, Obama has secured the nomination. Was the television series “24″ responsible?
It seems absurd on its face that a fictional character like President David Palmer in the spy series “24″ could have a real impact on the Presidential nomination contest. But, America is a place where television, film and real-life are intertwined like no other. And, in American cinema and television, Blacks have more often than portrayed drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes, and criminals than politicians, doctors, lawyers and businessman. Here are a few tidbits about the portrayal of Blacks in American media, both positive and negative.
- The first media portrayal of a Black President was James Earl Jones in “The Man” in 1972.
- In 1974, Beverly Johnson was the first Black model to make the cover of American Vogue.
- The Cosby Show, featuring an upper middle class Black family, was the top-rated show on American television in the 1980s.
- On the other hand, a Yale study from 1997 showed that national news magazines like Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News pictured Blacks 62% of the time in stories on poverty, although only 29% of people below the poverty line were Black.
- Black TV characters are more likely to be found in sitcoms than drama.
- A mug shot of a Black defendant is 4 times more likely to appear in a local television news report than of a White defendant.
- Race-unidentified perpetrators of crime are rated as having a high likelihood of being Black by Americans.
This composite of Blacks in the media is a far cry from Amos ‘n Andy. To be sure, there is still media bias. But, against this backdrop of American media portrayal came the first long-running series to have a Black man portray the President of the United States. Dennis Haysbert played the American President for five seasons on the acclaimed and award-winning series “24.”
As formal segregation has receded, Blacks have found an increasing number of roles as qualified, competent professionals in shows like Grey’s Anatomy, 24, The Cosby Show, and ER. The ‘David Palmer’ role has to rank amongst these as a defining moment in the portrayal of Blacks in American media — just in time for Barack Obama to run for President.
So, what do you think? Did David Palmer pave the way for Barack Obama?
Sources
Media and its Portrayal of Black Americans, About.com
Precedent for black president in U.S. film and TV, Jerusalem Post
Media portrays most poor people as black: study – Yale University study, Bnet.com
Media Psychology, Travis Dixon
Beverly Johnson biography, answers.com
Black TV characters more likely to appear on sitcoms and comedies, study finds, Bnet.com
Related posts:
