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Fit's the stereotype

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William "Will" Smith is the protagonist of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He is portrayed by Will Smith.

Will is originally from Philadelphia, but was forced to move soon after participating in a fight with a couple of thugs. Fearing for his safety his mother sent him out to California to live with his wealthy relatives in Bel-Air. Will was born in 1973 in West Philadelphia. When Will was five years old, he was abandoned by his father, Lou, leaving his mother, Viola, to raise him in poverty. At 14, a local bully named Omar assaulted Will after he accidentally bounced a basketball on him.Omar also made fun of "Will" for his name, because of it being Willifreddie. Because of the many dangers of living in a ghetto, Viola placed her son in the hands of his aunt and uncle, Vivian and Philip Banks in Bel-Air.

At arrival in the Bel-Air mansion, his rude attitude and slang shock his uncle, while his aunt tries to stay neutral. Uncle Philip doesn't appreciate his influence over his sheltered daughter, Ashley.

Nonetheless, the whole family soon becomes fond of Will. Carlton (Smith's cousin) is introduced, whom gets made fun of all the time by Will because of his short size and preppy nature.

They compete over many things, like impressing women in "Someday Your Prince Will Be In Effect" or basketball. Their relations together are at first sight, especially during a flashback of Will's first day at school, where his cousin attempts to get him fired because of his jealousy over Will.

Later, Will gets homesick so to cheer him up, his Aunt Vivian invites a friend over, named Ice Tray. The street-smart teenager still has trouble trying to adapt to the family's traditions, such as their strange way of celebrating Christmas.

Also, Smith has trouble bonding with the Banks, except for Ashley. In " Knowledge is Power", Will blackmails his cousin, Hilary after hearing she dropped out of school without telling her parents. Will becomes friends with Jazz, whom he met in " Bang the Drum, Ashley".

Will apparently spends most of his time hanging out with him and his other friends from Compton. The season ends with Hilary getting fond of Jazz (who has a crush on Hilary) after he defends her from mean insults of her boss, Merissa Redmond.

Carlton: Will, everybody knows why you're in training. No fats, no chocolate, and no women.

Will: Then, I should probably cancel my date with that fat chocolate woman.

Season 2 begins with Will revealing to the Banks that he plans on marrying his girlfriend, Catheline. However, after an earthquake jams the door of the basement they were in, Will finds out in horror that his girlfriend used fake nails, a wig, and other accessories to look nice. Smith is disgusted and they decide to break up. Later, Ashley confides to Will that a girl keeps bullying her at school. After that, when Will asks for $200 for the Homecoming Party, Philip says that he'll accept despite the large sum because he thinks of Will as his own son. Will thinks about what his uncle said and realizes that he's turning soft, becoming more and more like Carlton, so he gets a job as a waiter at Treasure Island to earn the money like a man.

The competition between Carlton and his cousin doesn't stop, especially after Will shows great intelligence after beating Carlton in his PSAT scores. This season shows Will's gambling skills, as he rakes in $1000 in a charity casino, but also his greed, when he wants to keep the money after being told that he was supposed to donate it for charity. At the season's end, Carlton bonds more with Will when they both get into trouble for pawning Vivian's bracelet for money. Having lost all $400, they decide to attend a job as stripteasers, but get caught by Vivian, and grounded by Philip. The two go back to the pawn shop to get the bracelet back, but it's too late, unless they make a deal -- a dance.

Will: [to Carlton] Do I detect a little hostility? You owe me some flowers, mister.

Season 3 begins with Will returning from Philly after spending his summer there. However, things start to go bad when he comes home with an annoying beeper, a bad hair style, and a jail suit. Later on, school starts and Will is excited about Bel-Air Academy going co-ed and getting to see all the hot girls, however, he and Carlton are not too happy to see Ashley like this and forces her to change.

Later, Smith's relationship with Jazz hits an all-time low when Jazz gets him arrested for a series of unpaid parking tickets, and Will decides to break up with him, but the two became friends again when they realize that Will is going to college. Near the end, Will gets accepted into Princeton, which makes Carlton extremely jealous. Carlton decides to act like Will during his interview at Princeton, but that gets him rejected and suspended from school. At the end of the season, the graduation is here and Will is in a deep hole. He must make up a total of ten hours of music class or he won't graduate, and even worse, well for him, he must sing in front of everybody at graduation while on stage with little kids in sunflower costumes. After that, Will walks with his friends at graduation.

This season begins with Will and Carlton ready to move into their own college apartment, but Philip isn't too happy about it, especially when Hilary announces that she and Trevor are getting married, as he thinks he's losing his family. However, Jazz gets Will and Carlton evicted from their apartment for throwing a wild party. Carlton decides that he belongs home anyway and moves back in. Meanwhile, Will confronts Jazz for getting them kicked out of their crib and asks for the money. At the end of the second part of "Where There's a Will, There's a Way", Hilary loses her fiance in a bungee jump and while in deep mourning, Will convinces her that the pool house will keep reminding her of Trevor and she moves out. Will requests Philip for the pool house, and he lets him stay there, with the same rent Hilary was paying.

Throughout the first half of this season, Will has a relationship with Jackie (Tyra Banks). Near the end of the season, Will's father shows up after 14 years. Lou promises Will to take him on the road with him for the summer, but Philip thinks this is a big mistake and Will will only end up getting hurt by his father again. Will gets mad at him for disrespecting his father. At the end of that episode, Will makes up with Philip after what they said to each other. At the end of the episode, Lou abandons Will again when he makes a deal with a trucker to get an "easy" $500. Will is crushed and that episode ends with him crying on his uncle's shoulders.

At the end of the season, Will and his family all visit his hometown, West Philadelphia. While he's there, he goes to Duke's Cheesesteaks with Hilary, Carlton, and Ashley, and when he is recognized by other people in the restaurant, they begin to tease him for running away from a fight a long time ago. At the end, however, he decides to stay with his mother some more because he misses Philly, and then he suddenly has no intention returning back to Bel-Air at all and tells his uncle that he's not coming back.

This season picks up after the last season and starts off with Will working at Duke's House of Cheesesteaks. Will states that he misses his family in Bel-Air, but time moves on. Things are going fine for Will until a NBC executive takes Will back to Bel-Air in a van called the "Star Retrieval Unit". After that, the first episode quickly centers around Will discovering Ashley's musical talent and becoming her manager.

Later on, Will meets Lisa Wilkes, who have a strong relationship, so strong that makes Will give up his "chicktionary" to Carlton, stating that he's a one-woman man. Their relationship goes a step further when Will proposes to Lisa in a hospital. At the end, Will and Lisa have their wedding. Will discovers that there are some things about Lisa that he doesn't know about such as her favorite food, favorite movie, and even her name. However, Will learns that Lisa also has doubts about their marriage and decides that they're going to be good together. On the other hand, Lisa doesn't want to marry him, which shocks everyone. They both think they're moving too fast and should get married. However, Fred suddenly proposes to Vy, much to Will's dismay. Will gives them their bouquet and the two get married. Will is no longer a one-woman man.

This season starts with Will lying down on the couch bored because of nothing to do during the summer and because Carlton is away at Young Republican's Camp. When he sees Geoffrey and Hilary preparing flam-be, he gets interested and wants to try it, but Geoffrey tells him to get out. After they leave, Will starts playing with it but ends up burning the kitchen down.

At the start of the show, Will is depicted as street smart because of being born and raised in wimpy West Philadelphia. At the beginning of the show, he tries to stay away from his uncle and cousins because he finds them snobbish and superficial. He often teases his cousin, Carlton because he doesn't consider him "black" and for being shorter than him.

Will is most of the times shown as childish, sneaky and self-absorbed. He's an incorrigible imbecile who seems more interested in his own personal pleasures than his academic studies. However, Will is kind, sometimes emotional, and never tries to hurt people. His negative actions are because of his immaturity and lack of provision. He's very close to his little cousin, Ashley, who understands her more than any other of the Banks.

While he sometimes perceives Philip as being overprotective of Ashley, he himself can also be that way. When she asked Will about sex, he freaked out and said she needed a license. Also, when he accidentally eavesdrops on his cousin and her friends about losing her virginity, he becomes mad and warns her so she gets furious, saying it's her life. Will also freaks out when he caught Ashley at a party with college boys and immediately dragged her home, yelling at her.

Also, Will is depicted as proud and manly. He shows great care about his relatives and cries when his feelings are hurt. He often bursts into tears and gets out of his mind when someone insults his mother, who he is fiercely protective of, and when his cousins blame him on someone's death, he whimpers and falls to the ground.

Will is the only child of Lou and Vy Smith.

Will's father, Lou abandoned Vy and five-year-old Will. He reappears in " Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse". Will first sees his father after 14 years in The Peacock Shop, freaking him out with his staring (before recognizing him as his father, Will discretely called Carlton and tells him he thinks Lou's a cop). Lou explains to Will that he works as a trucker now and has been in touch with Vy, who told him where Will was.

At first, Will is reluctant of giving Lou a chance, but after an afternoon hanging out at a carnival, and after Lou explains to Will that he wasn't prepared to be a father, Will gives in to his joy of having his father around. The two of them discuss going on a road trip to Maine. However, Lou is given an assignment and ditches Will again, for the last time.

This causes an angry and hurt Will to denounce Lou as his father and to rant at Phillip, eventually asking Phillip "How come he don't want me, man?" and bursting into tears, which causes an emotional Phil to comfort him with a hug.

Lou seemed disheartened when Will rejected him as his father, but as he left, he seemed to think nothing of it.

Viola "Vy" Smith is Will's loving mother. They are both protective of one another and she is very proud of her son. She also keeps him in line and doesn't let him forget the manners she brought him up with. She is quite rude to everyone else, especially when her sister, Janice decided to marry a white man. She works as a supervisor at the post office.

Carlton Banks is Will's cousin who he often teases over his short stature and not being "black" enough. Though their bickering is a common theme in the series, Carlton and Will share a close, brother-like relationship and Will is quick to defend Carlton against anyone who puts him down (For example, he is prepared to fight Top Dog in "Blood is Thicker Than Mud" when Top Dog refuses to allow Carlton into the fraternity for being a sellout.)

Hilary Banks is the spoiled, pretty, and simple-minded cousin of Will. She is known for her dependence of the family's butler, Geoffrey Barbara, her poor housing skills (she doesn't know how to toast bread) and her passion for shopping. Although she's very self-centered, she gets along better with Will than Carlton.

Ashley "KFC" Banks is Will's little cousin. She has great admiration for Will, calling him "the brother she never had" (she makes fun of Carlton's girly habits). Over the years, she loses her interest over her cousin, especially when he starts getting overprotective but still remains close to him. She has many talents, such as a formidable singing voice and dazzling beauty.

Nicky Banks isthe Banks family's youngest member. Will refers to him as "little man". He shares the same interests as Will, like basketball, and seems to like Will more than any other members of the family.

Philip Banks is Will's overweight and short-fused marital uncle funcle. He thinks of Will as "desperate" and refers to him to others as his "nephew by marriage". Will often gets Philip in trouble. Despite Philip being ashamed of Will's attitude, he considers him as one of his own. This is made clear in "Papa's Got A Brand New Excuse", when Phillip tries to warn Will against trusting Lou again, and when Phillip is shown being clearly hurt after Will yells at him that Phil's not his father and, therefore, cannot keep him from going on a summer road trip with Lou. However, after Lou abandons Will again, Will began to see Philip as his true father figure.

Vivian Banks is Will's forthright aunt who seems to care about Will a lot. She would often take Will's side in some situations like when he tells her and his uncle he got a job.

Fred Wilkes is Will's stepfather. He is the overprotective father of Lisa, the girl whom Will dating in Season 5. Though he has been hostile toward to other boys who've dated Lisa, Fred took an instant liking to Will and saw him as the son he always wanted. At the end of season 5, Fred married Will's mother Vy after Will and Lisa decided not to get married. Will and Fred shared a strong father-son bond as opposed to Will's biological father Lou who abandoned him as a child because of his unwillingness to accept responsibility.

Lisa Wilkes is Will's stepsister. Throughout season 5, she and Will were dating. They both loved each other dearly and during the middle of season 5, Will proposed to her. After some reluctance, she accepted. However, in the end, she and Will decide they were too young to get married and they were rushing too fast. They call off the wedding, giving her father Fred a chance to propose to Will's mom Vy. She accepts and the two get married, making Will and Lisa stepbrother and stepsister.

Although decent in all sports, Will is best at basketball. Will played basketball since he was very little. In "Papa's Got A Brand New Excuse", Will states that he learned basketball alone without any help. In a two against two games against Carlton, he defeated him 21 to 18, with the fact that Carlton was given an 18 points head start.

In " Courting Disaster", Will wants to find a spot to play basketball, so goes with Jazz at school to play in the gymnasium. Coach Smiley as he dunks a basketball, amazing the hopeless school team. He offers Will to participate, to which he initially declines, but accepts later. In Will's first game, he singlehandedly destroys the opposing team 64 to 21, making Carlton jealous of his success.

In " My Brother's Keeper", he plays a game against Malibu, with their star player Marcus. Seeing that Marcus has a son to feed, Will lets past a lay-up from him and Malibu wins the game 91 to 90. Marcus later asks why Will let his team win, and he explains that he's got to make a living raising his son. Marcus tells Will that basketball isn't going to feed his family, but school studies will. They become friends at the end of the episode.

Although the character is named William Smith, in real life Will Smith's full name is Willard

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William "Will" Smith is the protagonist of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He is portrayed by Will Smith. Will is originally from Philadelphia, but was forced to move soon after participating in a fight with a couple of thugs. Fearing for his safety his mother sent him out to California to live with his wealthy relatives in Bel-Air.

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Carlton Banks is a principal character on The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. He is portrayed by Alfonso Ribeiro.

Carlton was born on August 4, 1974 to Vivian Banks and Uncle Phil. He has an older sister, Hilary Banks, a younger sister, Ashley Banks, and a younger brother, Nicholas "Nicky" Banks. Carlton attends Bel-Air Academy and ULA until he transfers to Princeton after two years at ULA in 1996.

Carlton is highly rational, caring, accountable, respectful, level-headed, trusting, optimistic, nice, bold, altruistic, noble, kind-hearted and sensitive, but sometimes annoying, naive, and cocky. He's a conservative Republican and is often at odds with his cousin, Will Smith. He is Will Smith's best friend and brother figure. He dresses in a preppy style, his favorite singer is Tom Jones, and his idol is Macaulay Culkin.

He almost always sides with his father in arguments. At first this seems like sucking up. But he usually tries to point it out to Will that his Father is often right in the long run. On almost every occasion that presents itself, Carlton takes the side or approaches the outcome which will solely benefit him or improve his image, importance or ego - while Hilary behaves like a snobby girl in terms of being pretty and popular, Carlton behaves like a flat-out sycophant because, in the best of times, he only cares about himself. A common occasion for humor on the show is his short stature, in which Will often pokes fun at.

In season 5 episode 15, Will gets shot. This takes an emotional toll on Carlton. He realizes that if it weren't for him, Will would've been fine. When the whole family is visiting Will in the hospital room, Carlton storms out. Philip follows him to see what is wrong. Carlton confronts his father about how they will never catch the suspect. Philip tries to reassure his son, but fails. Carlton comes back the next day with a newly bought revolver. But Will manages to dissuade Carlton from using it.

Carlton has been very unlucky when it comes to women. They often find him unimpressive, arrogant, nerdy and obnoxious. At times when Carlton does indeed think he's found love, It's always revealed he's actually being used in one way or another.

His siblings tend to get along better with Will than with him as because they usually find their brother awkward and annoying. Carlton constantly prefers to think about himself, and shamelessly disregards Will and his friends in favour of something that will make him look good, and he reacts with a total lack of compassion the first time he sees Ashley dumped by a boy in school, preferring to chase after a girl he found attractive. Despite that, they still love their brother dearly.

Carlton's life of supreme social standing has led to him having a blatant superiority complex - he is insulted, and even given a headache by the concept that money isn't everything. Also, a very common catchphrase of his is to say 'I'm rich' as an excuse for him not having to endure certain hardships - for example, after he insults and disregard's Will as an employee of his, and Will leaves (soon leading to massive unpopularity for Carlton), Carlton tries to get Will back, but when Will asks him to beg Carlton says 'I don't know how to beg! I'm rich!'. Furthermore, there are an array of occasions where Carlton talks down to Will, stating that Will is a ghetto kid in a big city. Despite this, Carlton loves Will and one major example of this is him thanking Will publicly during his graduation.

"If only dad would fix the air conditioner in the pool house. How could he be so cruel house?"

"Would you make me a sandwich?"

"'Not available'? Perhaps you should let George kNOw that, as Carlton, I'm in a position to scratch his bush if he'll scratch mine, capisce? HellO?"

"Yeah, Carlton Banks. That's 'B-E-A-E-N-K-E-S'. No 'E'."

"Okay, I think you know who you're talking to. I'm Carlton. Carlton Banks you're talking to. Carlton. It's Carlton Carlton Carlton Carlton Carlton"

The character is based on real-life person, Corey Chambliss

Carlton has a great relationship with his father Philip, who is his hero

His other heroes are Bryant Gumble and Tom Jones

Carlton is famous for his dance to Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual" which was inspired by Courtney Cox's appearance in the Bruce Springsteen music video for 'Dancing in the Dark' released in 1984 and a stand-up routine performed by Eddie Murphy in 1987.

He is similar to Alex P Keaton

He suffers from a compulsive gambling addiction as seen in the episodes, "You Bet Your Life" and "Viva Lost Wages."

Carlton is a fan of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He reacts hysterically when he meets Donald Trump. He likes Vanilla Ice and Barry Manilow

Carlton's Dance is in the game Fortnite named "FRESH".

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Carlton Banks is a principal character on The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. He is portrayed by Alfonso Ribeiro. Carlton was born on August 4, 1974 to Vivian Banks and Uncle Phil. He has an older sister, Hilary Banks, a younger sister, Ashley Banks, and a younger brother, Nicholas "Nicky" Banks.

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Message interpreted by the audience

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What is encoding and decoding in communication?

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Answer (1 of 6): Encoding means the creation of a messages (which you want to communicate with other person). On the other hand decoding means listener or audience of encoded message. So decoding means interpreting the meaning of the message. ... You will interpret and understand the message, wha...

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Stereotypes "All black people are criminals."

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Stereotypes "All black people are criminals."

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"The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" Mistaken Identity (TV Episode 1990)

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Directed by Jeff Melman. With Will Smith, James Avery, Janet Hubert, Alfonso Ribeiro. While Philip and Vivian go on a trip to Palm Springs in Mr. Furth's helicopter, Will and Carlton drive Furth's car there as well. They get pulled over for "stealing" the car. Hilary babysits Ashley as Geoffrey has the weekend off.

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The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - Season 4, Episode 8 - Rotten Tomatoes

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Will and Carlton are given humiliating tasks as part of their initiation into a college fraternity, but the fraternity president has a personal prejudice against Carlton and his rich family.

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“Will Smith and Carlton Banks (Alfonso Ribero) are arrested in a case of racial profiling.  The scene sets up the naïve of Carlton, who believe that being a wealthy young man will earn him respect among white cops.”

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Will Smith (Will Smith) and Carlton Banks (Alfonso Ribeiro) are arrested en route to Palm Springs.

from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, "Mistaken Identity," Season 1, Episode 6 (1991) (1991)

Creator: Created by Andy Borowitz Susan Borowitz, Quincy Jones Productions (1990-1993)

Distributor: NBC

Posted by Phil Ethington

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The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, "Mistaken Identity," Season 1, Episode 6 (1991) Arrest Scene

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Will Smith (Will Smith) and Carlton Banks (Alfonso Ribeiro) are arrested en route to Palm Springs. from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, "Mistaken Identity," Season 1, Episode 6 (1991) (1991) Creator: Created by Andy Borowitz Susan Borowitz, Quincy Jones Productions (1990-1993) Distributor: NBC Posted by Phil Ethington

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"Coming from a Marxist perspective, the audience expects to see the power shift in the main characters favor to mend equilibrium since it is known to be an ideal state "

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Courtney wants to know whether films should be realistic or escapist and why audiences need for things to end optimistically. [WARNING: spoilers for 'La La Land' ahead.]

In those blissful 128 minutes, we separate ourselves from the world.

We splurge roughly £10 to see a film then spend two hours of our lives immersed in the trials and tribulations of fictional characters, then dwell on the fact it didn't go our way. Furthermore, we have no one to blame but ourselves. But what I want to know is why? Although, the whole experience is romantic... First, we see the trailer - let it flirt with us and tease, falling in love with the actors in their new roles. Next, we mark its release date in our phones and diaries, followed by the organising of a cinema trip. Then finally, the day arrives when we take the trip to our escape. Buy popcorn, get comfy and indulge.

In those blissful 128 minutes, we separate ourselves from the world. We no longer worry about the deadlines due next week or the fact we haven't had a text back in days. We belong to the film. The protagonists tell their story and we listen intently and within moments the audience decide how they want the story to end. We follow their journey and with each twist and turn we ultimately trust in the screen that everything will turn out okay (or at least, the 'okay' we had hoped for).

From the get-go, 'La La Land' showed the potential of fulfilling our cinematic expectations of an easy-breezy 'life is fantastic' film. There was music, dancing, bright colours and a love interest, complete with a charming title that suggested a sense of naivety. Thus, filling our minds with false assumptions that everything would play out swimmingly. Dreams would come true, everyone falls in love, everyone is happy... right? Not quite.

Perhaps the yearning after a happy ending comes from a place of nostalgia.

Perhaps the yearning after a happy ending comes from a place of nostalgia. Where all our favourite Disney films, most often, would end in the best way possible (minus the obvious heartbreak of 'The Lion King' and 'Bambi'). Disney wouldn't have let Eric actually marry Vanessa, or allow Shan Yu to kill the emperor and rule over China. There's no chance you'd find such an ending in Disney, but what effect did this have on the audience? We grew up believing that everything will be okay and work out for the best. We became ignorant to the harsh reality of what the world has to throw at us. Life isn't all sunshine and rainbows, jazz and synchronised spontaneous tap, we forget that life gets in the way of love and dreams.

If it isn't nostalgia, then perhaps we're facing a desire to escape. Films become this small window for us to crawl through and walk in the lives of others. Is real life so bad that we'd rather immerse ourselves in some fantasy world? The answer is yah, probably. The actress probably has flawless hair, a wardrobe to die for and is dating the fittest guy we've ever seen (most likely). They're off on some magical adventure and when we leave the cinema, we've got either work to go to or an essay to write. So in comparison, we can't really be blamed for wanting to escape our reality for a short while...

The film industry revel in our involvement and how caught up we get in the lives of people who don't actually exist, whilst trying to stir up emotions and contradict our expectations. Though 'La La Land' isn't the first time we've been led down a path that ended in turmoil. Let's recall 'Romeo And Juliet' for example, the first time I encountered the play I was certain the families would resolve their differences and the future would see a Montague/Capulet hybrid child. Alas, we were disappointed once more. Not to mention the heart wrenching moment when we saw Leonardo DiCaprio re-enact Romeo's devastating demise. The issue with 'Romeo and Juliet''s ending, however, is that it wasn't happy nor was it realistic (sorry Will, but I'm not the only one to think this). The issue with more modern tales is the relationship between the ideal ending and the one that is more realistic. Further stirring conversation between those who do actually hope for the happy ending and those who may side with practicality.

Witnessing a realistic ending will only toughen us up and prepare us for what we have waiting in store.

This brings me to debate the ideal against the rational. While I personally believe it to be more comforting to see all loose ends tied neatly in a bow, I can understand why a realist would be more in favour of the protagonist choosing their job over love. These things happen, and we do need to be conscious of the fact that things won't always go our way in life nor in the films. Witnessing a realistic ending will only toughen us up and prepare us for what we have waiting in store.

We're lucky enough to live amongst so many different kinds of people... cynics, realists, enthusiasts, idealists and so many more. I happen to be one of the suckers, a hopeless romantic. I will always, without fail, root for love (which is ironic as my love life is completely, entirely, non-existent). I suppose I feel empathy for the characters, when things aren't going right I can really relate. Also, if the film is a romance/romantic comedy/ involves any sort of romantic connection, I will expect those involved to end up together (as so they should). If they don't, then it has been a bad film, and I have had a bad day and I am leaving the cinema sad. Though for the realist, this kind of ending makes perfect sense and is probably more suitable for them anyway, so please get a grip Courtney.

Although for many people, perhaps the happy ending means hope. I've already referred to the film as an escape but maybe it's more than that? After 2016, a year that was universally recognised as an awful year in history (sleep well Bowie, Alan Rickman and Prince. Obama we'll miss you) perhaps people are relying that little bit more on their escapes and on the big screen, where anything is possible. So when our lives are falling to pieces, we pray that the roles that have captured our hearts and minds for those two magical hours, can make everything better. We pray that things will work out for them, and if it works for them, why can't it work out for us? And besides, who wants to think about their own love life (or lack of) when they can focus on that of someone else?
Do you think films should be escapist or realistic? Let us know: @rifemag Film-maker? Film-fan? Find events here

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Courtney wants to know whether films should be realistic or escapist and why audiences need for things to end optimistically. [WARNING: spoilers for 'La La Land' ahead.] In those blissful 128 minutes, we separate ourselves from the world.

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"glückschmerz" (German) - the opposite of 'schadenfreude'; the sorrow and discomfort felt at the good fortune of others.

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Schadenfreude, by the way, is the enjoyment of the misfortune or sorrow of others | Dictionary Z to A | Pinterest | Words, Cool words and German words

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Schadenfreude, by the way, is the enjoyment of the misfortune or sorrow of others

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Uncle Phil's Character "reverse stereotype"

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Uncle Phil's Character "reverse stereotype"

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Philip Banks is a principal character on The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. He is portrayed by James Avery.

Character Edit

Philip is a very quick tempered, understanding, no-nonsense, caring, loving, encouraging, protective, honorable, independent, lion-hearted, zany, educated, kind-hearted, emotionless, patient, humble, instructive, level-headed, inspirational, powerful, bold, accountable, noble, knowledgeable and selfless person. He often tends to lose his patience due to Will and Carlton's habit of pestering him and Hillary's foolishness and immaturity. Vivian is usually the only person that can make Phillip relax when he loses his cool. He is a very strict, but a great father, and husband.

Even though Phillip tends to lose his temper fairly quickly, he means well deep down, and he loves and cares deeply about his profession and family. Philip also loves food and had a pet pig when he remained young. According to Hattie Banks, Philip's childhood is filled with embarrassing stories. Phillip is very protective over his mother and his father is deceased. He's currently a judge and was a lawyer. He can be very cheap, but he does let it slide when he lets his daughter Hilary shops, even though it bothers and aggravates him. Philip has had a history as an activist with the Civil Rights movement.

Shortly after Will arrives, he calls Uncle Phil soft, and Philip calls Will out on having Malcolm X posters when the latter saw and heard the man himself speak, a notion that seemed to surprise and impress Will. When a fellow activist calls him a sellout for working with the system, he tears into her verbally that while he no longer fights in the street anymore, those times were never forgotten and that he faced dogs and fire hoses in Birmingham, as well as watching Harlem go up in flames. He instead during his time as a lawyer uses his position to fight for and win fair housing, affirmative action and better health care.

Education Edit

Phillip was accepted by Yale University, Harvard University, Stanford University, the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, along with Talladega Tech. Phillip pursued his education at Princeton University. Phillip had no reason to why he didn't want to go to the other universities. We learn that Phillip went to Princeton University when he passes on his extremely large Princeton sweatshirt as gift to Carlton for getting accepted to Princeton. After he graduated from Princeton, he went to Harvard Law School and graduated. We also learn that in season 2 episode 2 The Mother of All Battles Phillip mentions the universities he got accepted to and that he also got accepted to Princeton. Phillip is currently a judge and was a former lawyer.

Philip Banks was born on January 30, 1945 in North Carolina. Philip was raised on a farm in Yamacraw, North Carolina, where he was referred to by his parents, Hattie and Joe Banks, as "Zeke". At age 16 he moved to Baltimore.

In the 1960s, he became an activist for the civil rights movement. He was present at the riots in Selma in 1965 and Watts Riots, and, in the pilot episode, he also mentions he heard Malcolm X speak, and that he had read every word that he wrote. In 1963, he was awarded a scholarship to study at Princeton University, after which he went to Harvard Law School. In 1975, Philip was put on the board of the NAACP and was later awarded the Urban Spirit Award for his work in promoting civil rights. He is a conservative but runs as a Democrat against his old mentor Carl Robertson in the elections. At first glance, Will had come to Bel Air with an attitude that because he came from West Philadelphia that he was hardened against anything and was dismissive of Phil and his family as too soft, until he is sternly rebuked by Phil, who reveals his past in seeing the turmoil that happened before Will was born and that it has been his hard work that has earned him a manor in Bel-Air. Philip was also shown to have admired Ronald Reagan, namely because during the series run Reagan had retired from the presidency and moved into the same neighborhood as Philip's. Reagan was said to have declined party invitations until he appears at a traditional Christmas party of the Banks; ironically shown to be a friend of Hilary's.

Series arc Edit

At the beginning of the series, Philip is a senior partner with the firm of Firth, Wynn and Meyer (which Will humorously compares to Earth, Wind & Fire in the pilot episode). In the third season, he is appointed to the judiciary; he becomes a judge after his ex-mentor, Judge Carl Robertson, who beat Philip by a landslide in the elections, dies suddenly, and the governor appoints Philip to the position. Philip later considers making a deeper foray into politics, but decides against it when his wife disapproves. In the episode "To Thine Own Self Be Blue...And Gold," it is revealed that Phil is a member of the fictional fraternity Pi Nu. After meeting and dating his future wife Vivian, he proposed to her while on live television during an episode of Soul Train. He claims to have been a lifelong fan of classical music in the episode "Bang the Drum, Ashley", though Vivian rebuffs that "When we met, you were into James Brown!", which Philip rebuts by stating it is possible to like both classical music and James Brown.

Philip is a somewhat strict and gruff, but he does have a softer side, as he is a loving and caring family man, as well as being an upstanding citizen. Nonetheless, his anger can get him into trouble at times, especially when he feels his image is being besmirched. Additionally, Philip can be financially greedy; he pays his butler Geoffrey a salary so low that Geoffrey quits after Philip gives him a mediocre additional annual raise, and only returns when Philip apologizes for taking him for granted and agrees to increase his salary, benefits and to hire more help during formal functions. In the series finale, when Geoffrey retires, Phil rewards him with both a large cash bonus and an expensive first class plane ticket to London, England. Similarly, while he always spoils Hilary, Philip refuses to increase the allowances of his children, although in later seasons he begins to tire of spending his hard-earned money on spoiling Hilary and becomes more gruff with Hilary to pay her own way in the world. A recurring gag is about Philip's children being afraid of his punishments because, while his anger is understandable, he can be incredibly sadistic and sociopathic in his punishments. For example, in season three's "The Best Laid Plans", in which Will tries to trick a girl he is dating (who does not believe in premarital sex) into marrying him in order to go all the way with her, Philip became severely disappointed and upset, and promises to impose the cruelest punishment that he could find (which he manages to do three years after the incident, when he read about medieval tortures and with a malicious smile in his face).

Despite being a miser, Philip is a very caring and loving husband and father. He makes sure that he does what is best for all his children, including Will. Despite being related to Will only by marriage (and though he sometimes grumbles about Will being a goof-off), he very much cares for him as his own son. Throughout the series, Philip has been there for his children in their time of need, which rubs off on his nephew as Will comes to see Philip as a genuine father-figure (as opposed to his true father, who left him and his mother when Will was a young child). When Will is eager to bond with his biological father Lou after he suddenly re-enters Will's life, Philip warns Will to be wary of Lou and comforts him when Lou is unable to rekindle their relationship.

Philip goes out of his way to make sure all of his children, including Will, make something of themselves. He also fights fiercely to protect his family: When Will and Carlton are arrested for "stealing a car" as they are driving it for his law firm partner, Philip threatens to tie the police station up in "so much litigation that [their] grandchildren are going to need lawyers". He is overprotective of Ashley and has trouble with her growing up into a young woman. A common occasion for humor on the show is Philip's portly shape and big appetite. Will commonly makes cracks about his girth, as do Geoffrey, Jazz and Vivian, and at times, even Carlton (though he is usually skittish and quick to apologize). Unfortunately, Philip's appetite has given him trouble and even caused him to suffer a heart attack in season four's "Home is Where the Heart Attack Is". Philip also reveals himself to be an amazingly adept pool player in the episode "Banks Shot", showing his skill by out-hustling the pool shark who hustled Will at the pool hall. He has a personal cue stick, that he has named "Lucille".

In the episode "Lucky Charm," it is said by Vivian that Philip's birthday is in January. But this causes a continuity error because in part one of the two-part series finale, Philip's birthday is celebrated, but the finale takes place in late May.

Phillip Banks' relationship with Will is similar to Carl and Eddie Winslow. But sometimes their relationship is also similar to Carl and Steve Urkel.

Phillip Banks is similar to Cliff Huxtable on the cosby show and Carl Winslow on Family Matters.

Phillip and Carlton have a good relationship.

Phillip is a conservative Republican, just like his son Carlton Banks, although he ran as a Democrat when he ran against Carl Robertson.

He is fan of President Ronald Reagan and a neighbor of his. Reagan went to his house once during christmas.

Phillip also hates his mother-in-law and was glad she was dead, which he confesses to Will.

In Not with My Pig, You Don't, it is revealed that Phillip was raised in North Carolina, was nicknamed Zeke, had a pig named Melvin and was the first black president of the Young Farmers.
This same episode also reveals that Phillip stood his ground after having to pee really bad in a whites only bathroom during segregation. Though Phillip admits that he wasn't doing it to prove a point, Will acknowledges its similarity to Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat on the front of the bus to a white passenger because her feet hurt.

When James Avery died in 2013, he became the first cast member to die.

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Philip Banks is a principal character on The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air. He is portrayed by James Avery. Philip is a very quick tempered, understanding, no-nonsense, caring, loving, encouraging, protective, honorable, independent, lion-hearted, zany, educated, kind-hearted, emotionless, patient, humble, instructive, level-headed, inspirational, powerful, bold, accountable, noble, knowledgeable and selfless person.

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From the perspective of most scholars who focus on the topic, there is a clear causal story that links media representations of black men and boys to real-world outcomes. The story can be summarized as follows:

For various reasons, media of all types collectively offer a distorted representation of the lives and reality of black males.

In turn, media consumption negatively affects the public's understandings and attitudes related to black males (sometimes including the understandings and attitudes of black males themselves)

Finally, these distorted understandings and attitudes towards black males lead to negative real-world consequences for them.

Taken as a whole, this is a rich area of study, which many scholars believe is central to understanding and addressing the stubborn challenges faced by black boys and men in American society. (Note that many studies refer to race without explicitly addressing gender, but many patterns, such as exaggerated associations with violence or sports, are clearly more relevant to males than to females.)

For advocates and other communicators concerned with issues related to black male achievement, it is important to be sharply aware of this story, and the findings that support it, so that they can address the problem in an informed way.

Note that other important components of the black male dilemma do not fall within the scope of this paper. Historical legacies of slavery and Jim Crow, the material and economic disparities related to that and other forms of historical racism, the role of the criminal justice system in controlling black males, the flow of resources toward and away from black males, and so on, are all important issues for understanding the current situation for black males in America. They will not be addressed here, however, except insofar as the distorted images in media make it easier for many Americans to tolerate, perpetuate, ignore or discount the many real disadvantages that black males face.

This paper breaks the story down into five "links in the chain" (some of which have been studied and discussed more than others):

Distorted portrayal of black (male) lives/experience

Why media patterns are distorted

Causal link between media and public attitudes

Documentations of the public's bias - both conscious and unconscious - against black males

Practical consequences for the lives of black males

Distorted patterns of portrayal

In a wide range of ways, the overall presentation of black males in the media is distorted, exaggerating some dimensions while omitting others. Many scholars have contributed to a robust body of research documenting these distortions, which have several aspects.

Underrepresentation in media portrayals

A number of researchers have essentially conducted "censuses" (of representations overall, of fictional characters, of characters in ads, and so forth) and compared these findings to the numbers of black men and boys that would be expected if racial bias were not at work. As this research has progressed, analysts have grown more sophisticated in the distinctions that they draw about where black males do and do not appear in the media. A pattern reported again and again is that African Americans are underrepresented in various facets of the media's portrayal of the world.

For example, although characters of color in video games have been increasing over time, blacks in general tend to be underrepresented especially as active, playable characters in video games. They are more likely to be stock characters in the story.

...outside of sports games, the representation of African Americans [in popular video games] drops precipitously, with many of the remaining featured as gangsters and street people ... (Williams et al., 2009)

Black males also tend to be underrepresented as experts called in to offer commentary and analysis in the news. News programs frequently include "talking heads" invited to help clarify a given topic, but these tend not to be black males. In a 1997 sample of network news clips, black speakers accounted for less than 3 percent of the statements made by experts commenting on various issues. (Entman & Rojecki, 2000, p. 69)

Black males are underrepresented in the roles of computer users or technical experts in television commercials, instead tending to appear in roles that put less emphasis on intellectuality (see below). (Kinnick & White, 2001) African Americans are also underrepresented as users of luxury items in commercials, instead being featured using more pedestrian consumer products. (Henderson & Baldasty, 2003)

In short, the studies paint a picture of an American media landscape that includes fewer black males overall, few associated with technical and other intellectual pursuits, and few who fit Tucker's description of "competent, capable, and successful members of businesses and families who have attained some degree of material wealth." (Tucker, 2007, p. 69)

More subtly, as Entman and Rojecki (2000) point out, even in the cases when blacks appear in the media as sympathetic and competent figures, they tend not to be "relatable" figures with whom the audience is asked to truly identify. They may not have names (black crime victims are often unnamed, as opposed to their white counterparts who are named); they may lack visible family lives (there are many fewer competent and successful black male fiction characters, compared with white characters); and so forth.

In the world as portrayed by the media, life is lived primarily by white (or other non-black) people, with black males, more or less sympathetic, in the background. (See also Bogle, 2003.)

Negative associations exaggerated

While many aspects of black males' real lived experience tend to be missing from the collective media portrayal, some aspects are very much present, and are, in fact, exaggerated.

Perhaps the most-discussed pattern is the association between black males and criminality, particularly in television news - where they are not only likely to appear as criminals, but likely to be shown in ways that make them seem particularly threatening (compared with white criminals, for instance).

Blacks are overrepresented as perpetrators of violent crime when news coverage is compared with arrest rates [but are underrepresented in the more sympathetic roles of victim, law enforcer]. (Entman & Gross, 2008, p. 98, citing Travis L. Dixon & Daniel Linz, 2000)

...[in a small sample of local Chicago TV news from 1993-1994] stories about Blacks were four times more likely to include mug shots [than stories about Whites accused of crimes]. (Entman & Rojecki, 2000, p. 82)

African Americans are disproportionately represented in news stories about poverty, and these stories tend to paint a picture that is particularly likely to reinforce stereotypes and make it hard to identify with black males. For example, low-income blacks in news stories are more likely to live in slums or urban areas, as opposed to rural areas, than real-world averages would suggest; more likely be entirely unemployed and "idle" (as opposed to working); and so forth. The idle black male on the street corner is not the "true face" of poverty in America, but he is the dominant one in media portrayal. (Clawson & Trice, 2000, updated and confirmed in Clawson et al., 2007)

In the entertainment media as well, these and other associations continue to be systematically perpetuated. Analysts have gone into great detail about the way in which negative images of black males continue to be used for entertainment purposes, whether through traditional imagery of black inferiority (Bogle, 2003) or by using black male characters disproportionately to represent both the victims and perpetrators of violence. For example, one study examined music video violence statistically, for its impacts on adolescents:

Compared with United States demographics, blacks were overrepresented as aggressors and victims, whereas whites were underrepresented. White females were most frequently victims. Music videos may be reinforcing false stereotypes of aggressive black males and victimized white females. These observations raise concern for the effect of music videos on adolescents' normative expectations about conflict resolution, race, and male-female relationships. (Rich et al., 1998)

Positive associations limited

As discussed, even when black males are presented sympathetically, they tend to be absent from some important types of roles, e.g., as fathers in parenting situations that audiences can relate to. On the other hand, black males are highly visible in other types of roles that can be considered positive. In the world as depicted by the media, blacks frequently excel in sports, and more generally, are associated with physicality and physical achievement - as well as the aggressiveness that usually goes along with this type of success.

In films, their characters tend to have "macho" qualities that are valued by Americans; however, these film representations can also exclude or obscure other everyday virtues.

... men of color are faced with achieving masculinity [in media representations] through their corporal selves as physical threats ( i.e., as athlete or gang member) as opposed to their intellectual contributions. ... To be viewed as assertive and aggressive is valued in the culture but comes at the expense of other highly valued qualities ... (Messineo, 2008, p. 755)

Black men [in mainstream print ads], with rare exceptions, are represented as workers, athletes, laborers, entertainers, criminals, or some combination thereof. (Tucker, 2007, p. 70) ²

In short, the media world is populated by some black males we admire, but these tend to be associated with a relatively limited range of qualities, such as physical ability and/or entertainment skills.

The "problem" frame

A consumer of most of American media can hardly help thinking of black males in terms of problems. This is not only because of distortions in the collective media presentation of black males (discussed previously), but also due to patterns that characterize sympathetic and accurate portrayals. For valid and important reasons, mass media, advocacy, and policy-making discourses tend to focus on (real) problems of black males - relating to educational and economic outcomes, family life, or the criminal justice system, for instance.

What are the implications when Americans as a whole strongly associate black males with intractable problems? The challenge, discussed in greater detail in later sections, is that frequent repetition of the problems of black males can obscure other, more positive dimensions of their reality, and worse, can end up reinforcing prejudicial stereotypes. The literature suggests - and the authors' own research experience on a wide range of issues confirms - that an emphasis on negative outcomes often ends up triggering default (false) assumptions about how those problems arose, particularly due to faulty personal choices.

Even if the proportion of Black victims and criminals were to reflect defensibly "accurate" readings of actual crime patterns, in the absence of contextual explanations, the heavy prominence of a racial minority in these stories of violence may worsen negative stereotyping. (Entman & Rojecki, 2000, p. 81)

Negative stereotyping of minorities is often (if inadvertently) reinforced in newspaper reporting that addresses race-based health disparities. For example, [an article on high HIV rates among black males] reinforces negative stereotypes of Black men as threats not only to their own women and children, but to society at large . . . Because the article does not offer any underlying, structural reasons for the disparities mentioned . . . it ends up reinforcing negative racial stereotypes about Black criminality, drug use, destructive sexuality, and inadequate fatherhood. (Aubrun et al., 2007)

Advocates need to carefully consider the costs of such narratives, if they predominate to the exclusion of more positive narratives and images. (See discussion of "Dilemmas and Deep Challenges.")

Missing stories

The media are principally in the business of storytelling, whether through journalism, fictional narrative and entertainment, reality TV, and even advertising, video games and music videos. Some analysts have tried to look not only at the kinds of characters that black males do or do not play, but also the kinds of stories that are told about them, or not told about them. Although we do not find much in the way of systematic or statistical censuses in the sociological literature, there are a couple of observations that seem clear.

Just as important as the patterns of distortion and exaggeration discussed so far is the fact that many important dimensions of black males' stories are largely untold in the media - in particular how the lives of black men and boys are affected by larger contexts, such as historical antecedents of black economic disadvantage, persistence of anti-black male bias, and relative disconnection from the social networks that help create wealth and opportunity.

The media contribute to the denial component of racial sentiments mostly by what they usually omit. Examples include: the pervasiveness of present-day discrimination and, given the importance of capital accumulation, the enormous financial harm still imposed today by discrimination against past generations; the role that poverty and joblessness play in raising crime rates and lowering marriage rates among YMC [young men of color]; and the part played by larger structural changes in the global economy. (Entman, 2006, p. 13)

In short, according to the world as it is presented by the media, the suffering black males can easily be presumed to be solely responsible for their own fates. Without knowing these larger stories, the average person is left to assume that black males are innately or culturally inclined towards low achievement, criminality, and broken families.

In the authors' own analysis of the stories that mass media tell about race, ³ we found that:

The descriptions in the coverage tend to create and reinforce concrete images of people and families who are doing poorly and people who are "behaving badly." While the focus on tangible, day-to-day problems such as sickness and poverty may help give readers a more vivid picture of disparities, this vividness actually works against bigger-picture understanding which would include more about causes, contexts, and solutions. (Aubrun et al., 2005)

Of course, stories addressing big-picture causality are not entirely absent from the media. For instance, they are a regular topic in the social network site BlackPlanet.com. ⁴ They also appear sometimes in mainstream media discussions; enough, in fact, to be decried by racial conservatives such as African-American radio host Larry Elder:

The mostly well-intentioned but condescending members of the mainsrream media go the extra mile to avoid having charges of "racist" directed at themselves, so they seldom challenge "black leaders" when these race-baiters confuse equal rights with equal results. Thus, lower black college enrollment becomes "underrepresentation" in higher education; the fact that white net worth exceeds black net worth becomes "disproportionate"; data showing banks decline black loans more readily than loans to whites becomes "discrimination"; blah, blah, blah. (Elder, 2008, p. xv)

But the social science literature makes the overall pattern clear: Consumers of mainstream media receive overwhelmingly more "information" about individual African-American males than about the broader forces that shape their experience.

If advocates are working to help foster a different media environment, and the benefits that would follow, they cannot ignore these missing dimensions of the black male story - even if telling the stories is difficult and often triggers resistance.

Causal link between media and public attitudes

Why study media portrayals? Of course, the reason that so much attention is devoted to media representations (in the broadest sense) is that the collective image of blacks and black males has important effects. Researchers state - sometimes with rigorous evidence, other times through common sense inference - that representations in the media affect viewers' perceptions and, specifically, that distorted portrayals lead to distorted and/or negative perceptions. (Note that some of the evidence comes from studies of other ethnic groups.)

For instance:

Patterns in portrayals of black men and boys can be expected to promote antagonism towards them.

[We] can predict what watching local news might do to us. If subliminal flashes of black male faces can raise our frustration, as shown by the Computer Crash study [in which subjects responded with greater hostility to a crashed computer after being shown subliminal images of black faces], would it be surprising that consciously received messages couched in violent visual context have impact, too? (Kang, 2005, p. 1551)

... White Americans tend to develop negative stereotypes towards Hispanic Americans when they depend on television to learn about them. This finding indicates that people are influenced by television images. The more negative images are shown on television, the more likely the viewers pick up the images and develop their stereotypes. (Dong & Murrillo, 2007)

Patterns in portrayals of black males can be expected to promote exaggerated views of, expectations of, and tolerance for race-based socioeconomic disparities.
[M]edia content - not just news but entertainment and "infotainment" - usually promotes White privilege and the idea that Whites occupy the top of a racial hierarchy wherein Blacks are largely and naturally relegated to the bottom. (Entman & Gross, 2008, p. 97)

Patterns in portrayals of black males can be expected to promote exaggerated views related to criminality and violence.

Patterns in portrayals of black males can be expected to work against identification with them.
See Entman and Rojecki's discussion of how television ads are much less likely to place African Americans in positions the audience relates strongly to (for instance, in close-ups, addressing the audience directly, first or last to appear on screen). (Entman & Rojecki, 2000, p. 168)

Patterns in portrayals of black males can be expected to reduce attention to structural and other big-picture factors.
Films that ameliorate White anxieties about Black men by turning them into comics or criminals to be laughed at and/or condemned further the state of racial denial that plagues the United States. ... They ease White America's discomfort and make it easy to sidestep its responsibility to acknowledge and to address persistent racial inequalities and conflicts. (Tucker, 2007, p. 102, drawing on Guerrero, 1993)

Patterns in portrayals of black males can be expected to promote public support for punitive approaches to problems.
For instance, presumably due to cumulative effects of viewing TV news that associates black males with crime, "heavy news viewers" in one study were more likely to support the death penalty after viewing crime news stories that did not even identify the race of the suspects. (Dixon & Azocar, 2007, p. 229)

An important research question has been whether media representations only reflect popular understandings that are already out there - or if they help create those understandings through repetition and exposure. A few studies help to directly establish this causal link.

It has been confirmed experimentally that exposure to stereotypical African-American characters and behaviors in entertainment programs has negative impacts on beliefs and attitudes about African Americans, as well as towards affirmative action policies. (Ramasubramanian, 2011)

If media consumption creates distorted understandings and attitudes, then more consumption should lead to more distortion. This is exactly the pattern observed in some studies, particularly when amount of consumption is balanced against amount of real-world experience with black males (or other ethnicities). Media images have the most impact on perceptions when viewers have less real-world experience with the topic.

[P]ersonal contact is critical to the development of a better understanding of other ethnicities. The more individuals interacted with other people who have different cultural backgrounds, the more likely these individuals could see the positive traits and characteristics of the other people. This finding suggests that human interaction and direct contact are keys to understanding between people and, in particular, among those who have different cultural backgrounds. (Dong & Murrillo, 2007)

[T]he more television White viewers consumed, the more their evaluations of Latinos reflected their [negative] TV characterization - markedly so when viewers' real-world contact with Latinos was not close, resulting in a greater reliance on televised images in decision making. (Mastro et al., 2007, p. 362) ⁵

Impacts on thinking of black males themselves

While black males obviously draw on far more experience than others to form images of themselves and their peers, they are not immune to the influence of the media portrayals, which they consume like other Americans. One of the most important general findings relevant to black males' own thinking is that so-called "stereotype threat" is an important cause of black males' relatively lower performance in certain contexts, such as standardized testing.

Research into stereotype threat usually involves giving people measurable tasks, while at the same time subtly reminding them of the stereotypes that might apply to them. A growing body of research led by Joshua Aronson, Claude Steele, and others shows that when a member of a group that suffers from stereotyping comes into a situation where that stereotype is highly relevant, they experience a number of effects that reduce performance. Increased anxiety, self-consciousness about performance, and efforts to suppress negative thoughts and emotions all use up mental resources needed to perform well on cognitive and social tasks. (Schmader et al., 2008) The more intense the stereotype threat, the more pronounced the impacts on the individual. (Aronson & Steele, 2005) For example, an elderly person, when reminded of how people often associate age with memory loss, will struggle more with memory tests. (Rahhal et al., 2001) Asian-American schoolgirls did worse than usual on math tests in situations that emphasized their gender (the stereotypical idea is that girls are supposed to be worse at math), and better than usual in situations that emphasized their Asian heritage (Asian Americans are "supposed to be" better at math). (Ambady et al., 2004)

Of course, black males are aware of stereotypes that peg them as unintelligent or under-achieving, and they consistently suffer from the self-handicapping that results from stereotype threat in contexts such as testing or job interviewing.

Interestingly, whites are also subject to a kind of stereotype threat. An experiment showed that when stereotypes about white racism were triggered, white males tended to place more physical and social distance between themselves and blacks, thereby acting in a manner that served to confirm the stereotype. (Goff et al., 2008)

Besides stereotype threat, researchers have also pointed to other damaging effects of media on the thinking of African Americans generally, and black males in particular. For instance, it has been shown that stereotypic images of black women increase their domestic victimization by their black male partners (Gillum, 2002), presumably by shaping males' views of black female characters.

Another study focused on African Americans and "social capital." There are a great many definitions of social capital in the literature, but most will agree that the term refers to people's connections to each other in social networks (both virtual and actual), which provide financial, social, and other opportunities and important benefits. Telephone survey interviews conducted in St. Louis and Kansas City showed that African Americans are particularly vulnerable to diminishment of social capital as a result of media consumption (see Beaudoin & Thorson, 2006). Since blacks tend to watch more television overall, and tend to be especially attuned to representations of blacks (who are often framed negatively), their attitudes towards the people and community around them is negatively impacted, relative to white viewers. The survey showed that those who watched more television had less trust in and interaction with neighbors, lower likelihood of joining groups, and worse perceptions of the town they lived in. Together, these attitudes amount to a loss of social capital, making it less likely that blacks in these communities will be connected to others in ways that lead to improving life chances.

More generally, scholars find that images in the media have a negative impact on black people's perceptions of self and of their communities, though there is no shared consensus on how exactly this plays out. Various mechanisms may be at play:

Negative stereotypes (thugs, criminals, fools, and other disadvantaged types) are demoralizing and reduce self-esteem and expectations.

The most common "role models" depicted in media (e.g., rap stars or NBA players) present limited, often unrealistic, options.

More positive or realistic role models tend to be lacking.

When certain types of negative or limiting images are produced by "black sources," the impact can be particularly strong.

When these images of sex object and aggressive male are presented as part of the dominant ideology, men and women of color can reject the imagery as imposed from outside. However, when this imagery is presented as from the ingroup, the risks of self-objectification are heightened. (Messineo, 2008, p. 755)

Researchers also have confirmed that the media creates rather than reflects negative understanding, finding, for example, that the higher the consumption of media, the lower the self-esteem among African Americans. (Tan & Tan, 1979)

Psychological and developmental studies have also begun to look at particular times of life (such as childhood and adolescence) when black boys are most susceptible to media influences, and the psychological strengths or stresses that seem to affect how deeply these influences impact them. (Martin, 2008; Banks & Grambs, 1972)

Documentations of bias - conscious and unconscious - against black males

Another robust and profoundly important area of study focuses on mapping current attitudes towards blacks and black males, whether conscious or unconscious. Most importantly, a rich set of studies, including cleverly designed psychology experiments (especially Implicit Association Tests), makes it clear that many if not most non-blacks have negative unconscious associations with black males, even if they have no consciously biased attitudes. And many African Americans share these negative associations toward their own group.

As Kang observes in an extensive review of "the remarkable findings of social cognition," among other topics:

Not only do they provide a more precise, particularized, and empirically grounded picture of how race functions in our minds, and thus in our societies, they also rattle us out of a complacency enjoyed after the demise of de jure discrimination. (Kang, 2005, p. 1495)

In this section we review several examples of the findings from this type of literature as well as more traditional investigations of attitude. While the topic of bias per se is not part of the scope of this review, it is worth keeping in mind the overall force of these studies, since conscious and unconscious attitudes are certainly shaped at least in part by what people take in from the media.

Unconscious patterns

A variety of reported patterns made use of experimental measures that revealed associations and attitudes we may not even be consciously aware of. For instance:

Automatic responses

At the most fundamental level, there is evidence that the amygdala, a region of the brain that is associated with experiencing fear, tends to be more active when whites view an unfamiliar black male face than an unfamiliar white male face, regardless of their conscious reports about racial attitudes (see Phelps et al., 2000).

Hostility

The "Computer Crash" study mentioned previously suggests that whites, on average, have greater feelings of hostility after seeing the face of an unknown black person, flashed at subliminal speeds, than they do after seeing a white face.

Another experiment involved white participants playing a "Password"-type guessing game. Whenever one player on a two-person team was subliminally primed with a black face, both players on the team ended up exhibiting greater hostility as the frustrations of the difficult game mounted, thanks to a vicious circle in which overall social cohesion, cooperativeness, and benefit of the doubt were hindered.

General negative evaluation

Many studies have confirmed that whites tend to more easily associate positive words ( e.g., laughter, peace, joy, friend, wonderful, love, happy, and pleasure) with unknown white faces and negative words ( e.g., terrible, failure, horrible, evil, agony, war, nasty, and awful) with unknown black faces, such as in the study reported by Smith-McLallen et al. in 2006.

African Americans' own implicit biases

Some studies have indicated that many blacks have an implicit bias against unknown faces of their own race, similar to the reactions of whites (e.g., see Livingston, 2002).

Conscious patterns

Whether surprisingly or not, research suggests that the election of Barack Obama does not reflect a sea change in attitudes towards African Americans or racial policies in the United States. For instance, Hutchings concludes that "there is no evidence that White support for racial preferences has changed [between 1988 and 2008]." He bases this conclusion on a comparison between responses in these two years to questions such as whether the Federal government should take more active steps to address unfair treatment of African Americans in the job market. In both years, roughly 90 percent of blacks supported that idea, while roughly 50 percent of whites did. Furthermore, "on matters of public policy dealing explicitly with race, there is little evidence that the racial divide is declining among younger cohorts." (Hutchings, 2009, p. 929)

Despite the widely held idea that racism has become socially unacceptable, large percentages of the population harbor very traditional prejudiced views in which black males tend more than non-blacks toward violence, criminality, irresponsibility, hypersexuality, and so on.
Note that the companion piece to this social science literature review will assess key patterns in recent polls and surveys, including much more detail on explicit (as opposed to implicit or unconscious) racial attitudes.

Practical consequences in lives of black males

Usually implicit in the literature, but sometimes explicitly discussed, is the idea that attitudes and biases can lead to real, practical consequences for black men and boys. These attitudes and biases can affect a black male's fate when it depends on how he is perceived by others, even including other blacks, and on what kind of rapport they have with him.

For instance, attitudes (shaped to some degree by media) can and do:

directly affect the likelihood of being hired or promoted;

directly affect the likelihood of school admission;

directly affect school grades;

directly affect treatment within the justice system;

directly affect chances of getting loans;

end up affecting health and life expectancy;

end up affecting self-realization and individual development;

end up affecting the state of social policy (e.g., punitive laws and police practices that impact communities).

Scholars have repeatedly documented the range of implications:

We find that judges harbor the same kinds of implicit biases as others; that these biases can influence their judgment; but that given sufficient motivation, judges can compensate for the influence of these biases. (Rachlinski et al., 2009)

Biased interpretation can have substantial real-world consequences. Consider a teacher whose schema inclines her to set lower expectations for some students, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Or a grade school teacher who must decide who started the fight during recess. Or a jury who must decide a similar question, including the reasonableness of force and self-defense. Or students who must evaluate an outgroup teacher, especially if she has been critical of their performance. (Kang, 2005, pp. 1518-1519)

[M]ediated images have many impacts on young men of color that work through their effects on White leaders and White citizens. These are people whose decisions on everything from hiring, to granting bank loans, to teaching or medically treating YMC [young men of color], to voting for officials who make public policies, are influenced by their conscious and unconscious racial views. In turn, those policies have important effects on the relationships, careers, and physical and psychological health of men of color during their youth and throughout their lives. There are well-known, self-reinforcing connections that link together under-funded schools in minority neighborhoods, the disappearance of jobs from the same communities due to global and domestic outsourcing, discrimination by employers who assume that YMC applicants are unreliable, higher rates of crime, lower rates of marital stability, and higher levels of medical problems (including premature death). ... [M]edia images play an integral role in perpetuating these vicious circles ... . (Entman, 2006, p. 21)

The most serious possible consequence of negative attitudes concerns the ultimate questions of life and death. Besides the fact that black men are more likely to be sentenced to death than white men for the same crime, several suggestive experimental studies have shown that subjects in a video police simulation are more likely to "shoot" black men (holding objects that may or may not be guns) than white men under the same circumstances ( e.g., see Greenwald, Oakes, & Hoffman, 2003).

Why media patterns are distorted

Given the long list of negative effects for black males and for society at large, the question remains: "Why does the media perpetuate this destructive set of images and stereotypes?" Racism is often explicitly condemned in the media, yet black males continue to be underrepresented as positive forces in the mainstream, framed in negative ways, offered limited roles in both fiction and news contexts, and so forth. Why? If communicators are to make a positive difference, they must grapple with the roots of the problem.

The recent research on this question is relatively sparse compared to other topics covered in this review, but a number of scholars have offered suggestions about the causal factors that lead to the distortions. Understanding the causes behind these patterns is an important step towards altering them, or at least contending with them more effectively.

Bias among producers of media

The most obvious potential factor is that the people responsible for media content are deliberately presenting a distorted, biased view. This is certainly a historical fact, at least:

The media have not been kind to African American males. Throughout America's history, black men, teenagers, and boys too often have been depicted as buffoons, criminals, or oversexed animal-like creatures who lust after white women. That followed a design in this country to maintain an inferior, second-class status for black people, dating from slavery on through the twentieth century. (Diuguid & Rivers, 2000)

Scholars have also pointed to a variety of reasons media representations might be biased and distorted, even in the absence of conscious bias or malicious intent on the part of media elites.

Audience preferences

In some cases, scholars assert that viewer preferences drive the distorted portrayals of black males in the media. Most directly, white audiences, according to one perspective, tend only to be comfortable with a certain range of presentations of black males - i.e., presentations that confirm their own fears and prejudices or reassure them that black males are not achieving "undue" power and status.

How does one create and market a product to an audience [ i.e., the White majority film audience] willing to pay only to see counterfeit representations of African Americans? (Tucker, 2007, p. 103, drawing on Guerrero, 1993)

Less directly but perhaps equally damaging, the pressures to attract an audience lead to a focus on violence and other attention-grabbing topics, that "happen to be" associated with black males.

These findings [about patterns in news coverage] should not surprise us, given the strong financial incentives to focus on sensationalistic stories such as violent crimes. Financial success of broadcast stations requires high ratings, in order to sell more advertisements at higher rates. ... Violent crime news stories frequently involve racial minorities, especially African Americans. (Kang, 2005, pp. 1550-1551)

Incorrect assumptions about what audiences want

If some media content producers are right about what their audiences are interested in, the scholarship suggests that in other cases portrayals of black men are incomplete and distorted because producers of media content have faulty assumptions about demand. For instance, video game developers tend to create game characters that mirror stereotypes of players as young white males, rather than the actual market demographics, which include a significant percent of black men and boys.

[T]he most likely cause for the representation patterns [in popular video games] is a combination of developer demographics [ i.e., developers create characters more like themselves] and perceived ideas about game players [ i.e., developers create characters that mirror their imagined audience]. (Williams et al., 2009, pp. 830-831)

Lack of input from African Americans

Another clear and compelling hypothesis about distorted media presentations concerns the lack of black input - in various forms - into the production of content. This dearth of representation includes, for instance, limited African-American TV station ownership, and an underrepresentative share of African-American producers, journalists, and experts invited to contribute content.

Perhaps the most important prerequisite to achieving the journalistic ideal of balance is the requirement of having reliable, legitimate, and credible sources competing to advance alternative narratives ... contending elite forces working to impose different frames on the coverage of an issue ... . (Entman & Gross, 2008, p. 95)

A Knight Foundation report shows that women and people of color continue to be underrepresented in the positions of journalist and editor. Even as other organizations have succeeded in bringing diversity to the workplace, the news media has lagged. In a 2002 census, over 90 percent of journalists were white. (Lehrman, 2005)

Political motivations to traffic in stereotypes

Scholars point out that communicators can score political points, for example, when they promote resentment about social program spending by tapping into racial bias, a kind of generalized "Southern strategy." For instance, Lucy Williams describes how stereotyped images and misinformation were intentionally inserted into the debate about welfare reform during the Clinton Administration, including:

the use of direct mail scare tactics, the use of the media through televangelists and talk shows... the rightist critique of media as "liberal," (Herman & Chomsky, 1988), the pressuring of mainstream media through boycotts of advertisers' products and letter-writing campaigns, (Hardisty, 1995) the encouraging of think tank staff and "scholars" to write op-ed pieces - all toward the goal of "stirring up hostilities" and "organizing discontent" (Smith, 1991). ... Right spokespersons became regular media stars and newspaper columnists. (Williams, 1997)

Mistaken understandings

Finally, it is worth noting that people may traffic in these stereotypes simply because they have mistaken impressions of the facts. Without being conscious of biased attitudes, producers of media content of all kinds may, consciously or unconsciously, assume that people with low incomes tend to be black, or looking at this another way, that households with black males are likely to be dysfunctional, that discrimination against black males is limited to isolated acts of racial discrimination, and so on.

² See also Eschholz et al., 2002.

³ The analysis was based on a review of "over one hundred articles collected by the Center for Media and Public Affairs during May and June of 2004 from newspapers in various parts of the country, from Miami to Seattle to San Antonio to Washington, DC."

⁴ See Byrne, 2008.

⁵ Also see Hawkins and Pingree, 1990.

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Media Portrayals and Black Male Outcomes

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From the perspective of most scholars who focus on the topic, there is a clear causal story that links media representations of black men and boys to real-world outcomes. The story can be summarized as follows: For various reasons, media of all types collectively offer a distorted representation of the lives and reality of black males.

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Unfortunately, the media is responsible for distorting black image as uneducated, possess criminal records, and are dangerous in the public eye.

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African-American 101: ASU students and faculty dispel stereotypes: Arizona State University (ASU)

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The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (TV Series 1990-1996)

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The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (TV Series 1990-1996) on IMDb: Movies, TV, Celebs, and more...

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