Representation of African Americans in media

The representation of African Americans in media has been a major concern in mainstream American culture, and is a component of media bias in the United States. Representation, in itself, refers to the construction in any medium of aspects of "reality" such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or writing as well as still or moving pictures.

Media representation of minorities is not always seen in a positive light; representation of African Americans in particular propagates somewhat controversial and misconstrued images of what African American represent. "Research on the portrayal of African Americans in prime-time television from 1955 to 1986 found that only 6 percent of the characters were African-Americans, while 89 percent of the TV population was white. Among these African-American characters, 49 percent lacked a high school diploma and 47 percent were low in economic status."

Since local news media may be the primary source of learning for many adults, it plays a vital role in policy debates regarding civil rights, the public's general knowledge regarding minority communities, and a broader and more comprehensive worldview. The debate of ownership diversity affecting content diversity also contributes to the idea that in order for African Americans to be well represented in the media, there needs to be African-American ownership in the media.

Little Black Sambo is a 1899 children's book in which the protagonist is a South Indian boy who encounters four hungry tigers, and he surrenders his colourful new clothes, shoes, and umbrella so they will not eat him. The tigers chase each other around a tree until they are reduced to a pool of melted butter; Sambo recovers his clothes, and his mother makes pancakes with the butter. It was said that Little Black Sambo:

"The caricature is one of the most insulting of all anti-Black caricatures. The name itself, an abbreviation of raccoon, is dehumanizing. As with Sambo, the coon was portrayed as a lazy, easily frightened, chronically idle, inarticulate buffoon. The coon acted childish, but he was an adult; albeit a good-for-little adult.

Amos 'n' Andy was a radio-show-turned-television-show from the 1920s through the 1950s about two lower-class African-American men who moved to Chicago, hoping to start a better life. The first sustained protest against the program found its inspiration in the December 1930 issue of Abbott's Monthly, when Bishop W.J. Walls of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church wrote an article sharply denouncing Amos 'n' Andy, singling out the lower-class characterizations and the "crude, repetitious, and moronic" dialogue. The Pittsburgh Courier was the nation's second largest African-American newspaper at the time, and publisher Robert Vann expanded Walls's criticism into a full-fledged crusade during a six-month period in 1931.

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