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The media have represented young African-Americans men to be violent, gangsters. This representation has many implications for the lives of all black Americans as they have to overcome these stereotypes to be treated fairly and justly. Today's society needs to get rid of these misconceptions and stereotypes if we want to solve these problems, we need to listen to the cries of people protesting and truly question whether someone in the media is being represented fairly and not let how they are portrayed affect how they are treated in real life.

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This song speaks about the injustice and violence that occurred in Ferguson, the lyrics are about the injustice African-American citizens face everyday and how the police and media represent young black American's to be like. This song effectively captures the implications that the difference between the representation and reality of young African-American men.

There are so many cases of unarmed black American's having been shot, even when the police tell them to stop and put their hands up, and when they do, they still get shot. This issue is highlighted in the lyric "Shot down with his hands up, that's what occurred". When someone puts their hands up when the police tell them to, they are doing it to surrender, showing that they are obeying the police's commands. The police are then supposed to arrest the person, not shoot them. Because of the misrepresentation in the media people have prejudice towards black American men, if these victims were white, they would not have shot them. The line "shot down with his hands up" is very significant because it relates to the movement of #BlackLivesMatter, a movement standing up for the right and the lives of black people. While protesting many people in this movement use the phrase "hands up don't shoot" which originated after the Michael Brown shooting on August 9th, 2014 where he was shot with his hands in the air.

The representation of young African-American men is that they are thugs or in gangs etc.. people have this misconception and use the common excuse that "I thought he had a gun" and for many cases this excuse works even though there is no evidence of a gun or anything that looked like a gun. The lyric "They never go to jail for Trayvon over Skittles, Mike Brown Cigarillos" reflects America's justice system. Many black Americans can no longer trust their justice system that was put in place to in theory give the equal treatment for the law. However this is not the case as many people guilty to shooting unarmed black men avoid being convicted even though when Trayvon's shooter claims he had a gun and the only thing police found in his pocket were skittles. And Mike Brown's shooter tried to portray him as a violent, dangerous criminal when he was only stealing cigars, which is not worthy of being murdered over while he had his hand up.

More and more cases continue to come up in America and nothing is done. Our police in New Zealand do not carry guns on them, but instead use other strategies to maintain a situation or arrest a criminal. However in America too many of the police's first instinct is to reach for their gun, pull the trigger and think about the situation later. The lyric "Stole by the system, black men we pay the toll" really emphasis the implications that this representation has because black men are paying the toll for the way they are represented in the media. Also the lyric "I am Michael Brown, cause I stand for what he stand for" shows the community of African-Americans, they are all together to stand up against the way they have been represented and the injustice that they face. "I am Michael brown" is another slogan used during protests because anyone could be next, they are stating that because the media has represented them all to be thugs that any one of them could be the next victim of a shooting. This is the sad truth that black Americans are facing in today's society.

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Don't Shoot - The Game ft various artists

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Don't Shoot - The Game ft various artists

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"2012 was taped for the world to see, Set us back 400 years, this is modern slavery."

Rapper Kendrick Lamar delivered a stunning performance of his songs 'The Blacker the Berry' and  'Alright' at the 2016 58th Grammy Awards, he sings about how the misrepresentation of African-Americans affects them and about all the injustice they have been faced with. Also inspired by the death of Trayvon and other young black males who lost their lives in recent years, he pays a tribute to them in this performance. His song Alright has been one of the anthems for the Black Lives Matter movement and other protesters. The lyrics saying that this is "modern slavery" is a powerful message questioning how far we have come as a society. Even today African Americans are facing daily struggles and being treated with injustice. He begins the piece with Kendrick himself walking towards the audience in a blue shirt with a prison like set design. This prison setting has a strong message of all the African American people treated unfairly by the US justice system. A system many people believe has always been against them. Kendrick's dancer and himself are bound with chains on their wrists which represents them being chained by a society, held back by the stereotypes and misrepresentation. This performance represents all the African American in jail for crimes they did not commit as they are chained by the word "thug" before they are born.

Since he performed this at the Grammy's it reaches a very wider audience than Kendrick Lamar's usual audience. White people seeing this performance would have a different reaction to the African-Americans viewing this performance. Black men watching this performance can relate to the struggles their race is faced with that is portrayed with the chains and costumes, because they can see this is how the media has portrayed them to be and this is how they are represented. This performance has a powerful message to young African-American men and after watching this they could feel empowered and want to make a difference in changing the way they are being misrepresented in the media. For white audiences this may be the only time their views on how black men are being represented are challenged and they may question whether they themselves are subconsciously stereotyping people based on what they see in the media.

Recording Academy CEO  Neil Portnow said in an interview after watching Kendrick's performance "Lamar is one of those artists that have a point of view in terms of bringing things to the public for conversation and creating awareness and a dialogue," And this is exactly what Kendrick did with this performance. He brought the issue of racism and social injustice in the eyes of the public in pop culture where it would otherwise go not talked about. Creating awareness is an important first step in creating change in society, I hope that in the future these issues are resolved and we can accept other people for who they are.

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This comic is a representation of how the media outlet portray black people to be. There was a recent news story about the Ferguson protests highlighting the fact that the people protesting were "setting things on fire and looting stores" in the streets. Many people criticized the media for not focusing on the reasons behind the protests and did not bring up the issues that the protesters were protesting against. Instead the media was just looking for ways to portray these people to be thugs so it will be "newsworthy". This may also show that the problems facing Black American are being ignored by many people, because of the bad representation and stereotypes a lot of white Americans do not take them seriously and do not try to listen to the issues they are facing. They are fighting for justice, fighting to end police brutality, stopping profiling and crying for help but the news doesn't show this part and instead says the are creating riots in the street.

This comic may initiate African American men to be angry because of how accurate this to the reality around them. Many TV channels focused on the looting and riots in Ferguson rather than the cause of their protests. This makes them angry because they feel their voices will never be heard because the media only wants to see thugs and how erratic black people are not how badly they are treated by the justice system.

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These two comics represent how this misrepresentation has affected African-Americans. Instead of having a normal conversation about the "birds and the bees" with their children, black American have to have a talk with their children about guns and the American justice system. They are taught from a young age that they must not wear hoodies, not listen to loud music or act like "thugs" or else they are at risk of their lives. The reality is that any African American is at risk of being shot at for no reason by police, this implication comes from the way the media has represented a huge group of people into one small group. The next comic says that if black American get stopped by police they shouldn't "talk black", argue, or act nervous because these are some of the excuses used by people who are trying to defend themselves when they are accused of murdering an unarmed black person.

This representation of black men seen in this comic negatively affects them because even from when they are born they taught not to do things like wear hoodies, "talk black" or listen to rap music for fear of being attacked and even killed. This  exact situation has happened to too many young African-American men, this has caused many protests in America including slogans like " Am I next?" and "I am Trayvon/Mike Brown" because any black American is at risk everyday because of how badly they are represented in the media which has caused people to have negative views on every black person. People think the worst of a situation involving a black person like seeing a gun when there was none. This shows there is a massive problem in America where too many Black Americans are being shot and not getting the justice they deserve because someone "thought he was reaching for a gun" "was feeling threatened" or because "he was showing aggression". These are just some of the excuses and defenses used by police and other white citizens in regards to them shooting an unarmed black person.

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These two comics depict the different ways in which the media portray white Americans and black Americans. In the first one the white American is shown to have a gun and knife, tattoos, a banana and a crazy, intimidating look on his face but the caption says "motorcycle enthusiast involved in kerfuffle". This shows how the media portray white Americans to be committing not as bad crimes and that they are not thugs. However the black American, wearing just a hoodie and holding a black lives matter sign is a "thug inciting a riot". This shows how bias the media can be and plays a major part in the way in which African-Americans are portrayed in the media. The news is a common show that people watch with their families so this may be the only time some people see African-Americans and so they developed an idea based on the way the media represents them as. Instead of "Person stands up for justice in protest" the media says he is a "thug inciting a riot" the choice of words used to describe black Americans plays an important part in creating stereotypes for people.

The second comic shows that when a black American has a gun he is a "thug" whereas when a white American has a gun he is a "patriot". This representation negatively affects the African American population. If they are labeled as thugs they are not treated as equal people.

The word thug has been associated with black men for a long time. However the dictionary definition of the word thug is "a violent person, especially a criminal." It has no association with race at all however people have been calling black men thugs based on the misrepresentation they see on the media. This affects African-Americans negatively because they are seen as criminals before the even commit a crime.

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The first time we hear about Jordan Davis and his friends is from Michael Dunn, who claims to have been using self defense when he shot at Jordan after they got into an argument in their cars at a gas station. Jordan and his friends are being represented as thugs and are being portrayed to be a threat to Michael Dunn, since they were listening to "thug music" and "gangsta rap" a few of the words Dunn used to describe the songs they were listening to in the car. The media is very much responsible for this representation Dunn is making out Jordan's friends to be, he has been conditioned to think a certain way about African-Americans because of the way they represent them in various text. Jordan's dad points out in the film that Dunn probably does not have any black friends so the only time he is exposed to these people is on T.V, through music videos and other media texts. He believes the stereotypes to be true and has prejudice towards African-Americans so when he hears Jordan's friends playing loud rap music he associates them with the people he has seen in the media and thinks they are gang members. Dunn has stereotyped the boys based on their race, clothing and music based on the African-American men in the media. This is also why Dunn claims that he saw a gun that did not exist, he figured if these boys were wearing hoodies and were listening to loud music that they must have a gun. A possible message this image that Dunn paints about Jordan and his friends is that people in America still hold prejudice against African-Americans, people are still stuck in their ways of believing that we are all not equal. This is because Dunn even when convicted of attempted murder still believed he had the right to shoot a gun at these teenagers, he grouped Jordan and his friends as thugs and he was offended by the music they were playing so he judged them on that and their clothes rather than on themselves.

This contrasts from the first time we see Jordan's friends as they appear in court to give their statements. The boys are dressed in smart shirts, ties, and speak respectfully and properly in court, they are representing themselves for the people they are, normal young men who lost their best friend. The film shows footage of his friends playing basketball with jordan's dad, they are just like any other regular teenagers, not "gangster rappers" but they are all well mannered and having fun. Through archive footage we see a glimpse of Jordan's upbringing and learn that Jordan had a normal life, his parents truly care for him and he grew up to be a regular kid who liked rap music. This image represents to me the realistic view among African American men because they are just regular kids who have their family that have raised them to be proper young gentlemen

Michael was angry over this rap music, in his eyes it was the type of music that thugs listened to, even though anyone can enjoy rap, no matter their race, how they dress or act. There are many implications of the difference between the representation and reality of young African-American men, because someone like Dunn sees this group of people being portrayed to be violent, thuggish men and when they meet someone in real life they already have the presumption that if their clothing and behavior reflect the representation in the media that means they must be violent thugs. Then people feel threatened by them, and scared for their life and rather than stopping to think and examine the situation their first reaction is to grab their gun and "defend" themselves. This has come up time and time again in the news that another young, unarmed black person has been shot because the shooter "thought they had a gun" or "told them to turn their music down". This representation has negatively affected our society and this film gives an important look of how black American men are actually like, not how they are seen in the media.

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The dominant representation of young African-American I found among my texts of music performances, films, song lyrics and comics were that they were negatively portrayed as "thugs" and gangsters who were violent, intimidating and . They are commonly portrayed in a stereotypical gangsta clothing with backwards caps, hoodies, gold chains and sagging pants. In the film 3 1/2 Minutes Ten Bullets young African-American men were portrayed to be "thugs" listening to loud hip-hop/rap music and were supposedly threatening a white man with a gun he thought the group had. This whole representation continues through into rap music including Don't Shoot by the Game and Kendrick Lamar's Grammy performance. These rappers mention make music about how this representation affects the whole population of young African-American men and how harmful this can be in our society.

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Don't Shoot Lyrics - The Game Ft Various Artists

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Stanford Prison Experiment Official Trailer

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3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets Official Trailer 1 (2015) - Documentary HD

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Subscribe to TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/sxaw6h Subscribe to COMING SOON: http://bit.ly/H2vZUn Subscribe to INDIE TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/1F9OK9b Like us on FACEBOOK: http://goo.gl/dHs73 Follow us on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/1ghOWmt 3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets Official Trailer 1 (2015) - Documentary HD In 3 1⁄2 MINUTES, TEN BULLETS, two lives intersected and were forever altered.