Racial stereotypes have been continuously reinforced through popular culture

Evidence

Sadly, none of this is new. Throughout this country’s history various justifications for the status of black Americans have been put forward. Black people were incapable of civilization, prone to crime, lacking in intelligence, generally lazy, and sexually promiscuous. The list goes on and on. These stereotypes stood in the place of actual black people, and popular culture reinforced them. Americans absorbed these images of black people with characters like Stepin Fetchit and shows like Amos ‘n’ Andy. Today we see similar images on Cops or with shows like Love & Hip Hop. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 108

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Radio’s racial stereotypes reinforced blacks’ second-class status — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 320; Radio won white Protestant attention through stereotypes of blacks and Jews — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 325