The representation of African Americans in speech, writing, still or moving pictures has been a major concern in mainstream American culture and a component of media bias in the United States.
Such media representation is not always seen in a positive light and propagates controversial and misconstrued images of what African Americans 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." This under-representation has reversed, however, according to a 2018 report from the Department of Social Sciences at UCLA, which states that, despite making up less than 13 percent of the US population, "Blacks were over-represented among actors in broadcast scripted shows in 2015-16, claiming 17 percent of the roles."
Since local news media is a primary source of information for many people, it plays a vital role in policy debates regarding civil rights, the public's general knowledge of minority communities, as well as 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.
Examples of misrepresentation
Little Black Sambo is an 1899 children's book where the protagonist, a South Indian boy, encounters four hungry tigers. To avoid being eaten by the tigers, he surrenders his colorful new clothes, shoes, and umbrella. 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. Sambo was depicted as a perpetual child, not capable of living as an independent adult". It was said that Little Black Sambo "demonstrates rigid, reductive stereotyping, but it was seen as harmless entertainment in 1935. This clip helps show the tremendous cultural shift that has occurred, as this kind of representation is no longer acceptable.
"The coon 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.
Another prominent caricature is that of “Uncle Tom,” named for the titular character in the 1852 anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. In the novel, originally, Tom is an enslaved man who is kind, loyal, devout, and upright. However, once adapted into productions, Tom's positive traits were stripped to make the character more palatable to white audiences. In the stage portrayal, Uncle Tom was made to be excessively loyal to his white masters, docile and childlike. Tom's original physicality changes from Stowe's original version, which was a strong, stable character, to a more acceptable, feeble, elderly man. In opposition to the ‘coon’ caricature, which white viewers loathed for laziness, “Uncle Tom’s” were adored for their docile, nonthreatening nature and fierce loyalty to their white employers/owners. Over time, the roles black men were allowed to play in cinema were restricted to that of either the ‘coon’ or “Uncle Tom.”
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.
Al Jolson, a Lithuanian-born vaudeville comedian and blackface "Mammy" singer played a "fumbling idiot" stereotypical African American in a comedy. Although he did bring African-American culture to the spotlight, another blackface performer at the time, Bert Williams, found the performance both vulgar and repressive.