GFS panel considers media as prism for racial stereotypes

by MIKE BENIGNO

“So you’re the enemy,” a woman said to me when I introduced myself while walking through the side door of the Germantown Friends School auditorium two weeks ago, running late.

It was a friendly joke, but I questioned myself for a moment as I sat down in the front row of the school auditorium — the only reporter present at a panel discussion on race and the media.

My job is like anyone else’s, but I’m a reporter. I write about what other people do.

And then I try to pay the bills — emphasis on the word try.

My presence here at this meeting will allow other people to read about what these folks say tonight, I tell myself. But we’re talking race and the media, here.

And I’m the only media.

I tried to psych myself up for a verbal beating, to be honest. But before I could do that, the lecture started.

The GFS Parents’ Association sponsored the event, which brought four prominent speakers before an audience of about 60 students, parents and educators, exploring the role media plays in creating popular racial images. Not to mention the impact of those racial images on the belief systems of children — what they think about important issues, what they think about other people, and what they think about themselves.

“Media permeates our home and our environment,” Linda Wright Moore, the moderator of the discussion, began. “It’s not tangible, but it’s powerful.”

Moore is a GFS parent, and she’s had a 30-year career in journalism, as a writer and on television. She’s the director of communications at Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth, a child advocacy group for children in the Philadelphia area.

She made reference to the major role the media played documenting the American civil rights struggles of the 1960s, and asked the panel to discuss ways the media either distorts or portrays racial roles in 2005.

“If we listened to the media and paid attention to the media all day, we’d be very sick, very disturbed individuals,” said Jay Clifford, Ph.D., a certified psychologist who works with children in several Philadelphia schools.

Clifford said he’s worked with at-risk youth in the past, and he’s often been struck by the level of influence television has on children. He said he’s seen child after child whose parent has had an idea how to help his or her child, but the issue of concern is mainly time.

“People don’t have time — time to plan for the future, time for health, and family,” he said, adding that parents should also take the time to find ways to address the onslaught of negative images portrayed in the media on a daily basis.

Ludy Soderman, dean of students at Agnes Irwin School, agreed.

Speaking on the images of Puerto Rican women she’s seen on television, Soderman said she’s often felt uncomfortable while watching actors portray people of her own ethnic heritage.

“The women are hot mamas or whores, and the men are violent and have no patience,” she said, laughing with the audience. “I’ve seen very few positive things on television about who I am.”

Jacqui Sadashige, Ph.D., sitting to Soderman’s side, commented on Asian stereotypes she’s seen — mentioning countless portrayals of the “quiet Asian,” and endless instances of what’s come to be spoken of as the “model minority,” the stereotype that labels Asians as an exclusively hard-working and success-driven.

While she criticized television portrayals, she said there is also certain sense of irony because people understand that television can be bad, but we still feel like we need it.

The fourth person on the panel, Arlene Bennett, M.D. is a fifth generation Philadelphian, a retired pediatrician and practicing psychiatrist.

She concurred with Sadashige, bringing her own experience growing up around other young people from single parent families to the table. She said she remembers friends from single parent families as individuals who were extremely driven and extremely responsible — an image that, all too often, is drastically different than their unpredictable, unstable image on television.

But then the group paused; hesitated, really.

It took a while to uncover white stereotypes.

“White stereotypes do exist,” said Sadashige. She said whites are too often portrayed as racist people, or as people from particular social classes, factors that can also change the way whites see themselves.

“People aren’t really interested in watching a half-hour show that’s really an intense look at 30 minutes of a person’s life,” she said.

Clifford questioned trends in the nation’s distribution of financial, social and political power, and said the constant lack of consistent, admirable leaders fosters a cycle that lessens youth desire to take on leadership roles as adults.

He said children aren’t being taught by what they see on television anymore, referencing the recent Paula Abdul American Idol scandal. He asked the audience to consider how much publicity surrounds such a scandal, and to also check the possible underlying motives.

“We have the undying belief that things we see on television are real, but we have no idea what’s going on backstage to keep that show in the number one spot,” he said.

The panel agreed that one good way to address these issues is to watch television with your children, and to encourage active viewing by asking kids to question what they see in front of them.

“Kids get it,” Sadashige said. “They see patterns and they begin to understand what’s going on. We can raise children to be smart consumers.”

Bennett said child awareness of media stereotypes could also be brought about by helping children understand it’s OK to be confused.

“We have to begin to make children comfortable with uncertainty, with a lack of security, which can lead to fewer stereotypes,” she said.

When the lecture ended, I realized my worries about having to defend myself in front of a room of people who were angry at the news media were uncalled for.

Nobody followed me out to the parking lot, and there were no angry parents who came up to me to answer for the wrongdoings of other reporters or newspeople.

And then I wondered whether other schools offered lectures like this one to discuss these issues with their own parents, regardless of which part of town they live in.

And then I worried about how to approach this article.