The Role of the Media in Racial Inequality

Racial inequality continues to be an ugly sore festering in the heart of twenty-first-century America, despite claims that it has become a post-racial society. Whiteness has always been a central element in racial oppression, it is particularly salient in the post-civil rights era of formal (though not material) equality because it serves to underwrite perceptions, understandings, justifications and explanations of the social order that perpetuate distortions in the social system that are a legacy of our nation’s history. As an element in a comprehensive theory of racial oppression, a critical theory of whiteness contributes an account of key sociocultural mechanisms of the functioning and reproduction of racial oppression. The role of media has been significant in in constructing them and perpetuating them in the society.

As Kellner (1997) explains, “Media images help shape our view of the world and our deepest values; media stories provide the symbols, myths, and resources through which we constitute a common culture and through the appropriation of which we insert ourselves into the culture.” A critical theory seeks to identify the concrete possibilities contained in the present in order to reshape the social order so that it possesses a greater degree of justice, if not perfect justice. Given that whiteness is implicated in all dimensions of the social world, it would be ineffective, and perhaps even reactionary, to insist on its outright abolition as an immediate practical goal.

Instead, the critical theory of whiteness implies that the structures of whiteness that generate racial oppression need to be exposed, challenged and re-formed. This theory implies that the responsibility for change, the responsibility to engage, challenge, unmask, disrupt and attack the structures of whiteness that shape all aspects of modern social systems, lies with each and every member of those social systems. Last year in August, the ‘Unite the Right’ rally, also known as the Charlottesville rally or Charlottesville riots, was a white supremacist rally that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia, from August 11 to 12, 2017.

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Protesters were members of the far-right and included self-identified members of the alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and various militias. The marchers chanted racist and anti-Semitic slogans, carried semiautomatic rifles, swastikas, Nazi symbols (such as the Odal rune, Black Sun, and Iron Cross), the Valknut, Confederate battle flags, Deus Vult crosses, flags and other symbols of various past and present anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic groups. Within the Charlottesville area, the rally was often known as A12 or 8/12. The organizers' stated goals included unifying the American white nationalist movement and to oppose removing a statue of Robert E. Lee from Charlottesville's Emancipation Park.

This paper intends to explore and understand the issues of white supremacy by analyzing the editorials, opinions and news stories of the newspapers since the of announcement of Charlottesville Rally on 30th May 2017 (the announcement of Charlottesville rally) to leading the Charlottesville riots on 12th August and the stories until 31st August 2017. The study used the thematic analysis approach to understand the following questions about white supremacy and the issues related to it. How did the editorials/opinions/news stories in three national newspapers portray the White Supremacist movement, Charlottesville, VA rally, riots and the related stories during the time frame of 30 May up to 31th August 2017? Importance of the Study Firstly, Media holds significant influence in our daily lives and it infiltrates our perceptions and understanding with continuous messages that impact our belief and value systems. It becomes important to look at whether or not media also impacts race and racism in our society.

In America the issues with regard to white supremacy and racism has a long history. Along with the progress and prosperity of the nation, the socio-cultural, and politico-economic situations of the people became better, but the practice of racism or reign of white supremacy continued. The role of media in maintaining, reinforcing and perpetuating its presence in the society cannot be denied. This study adds to the knowledge of portrayal of white supremacy in the American press in the context of Charlottesville event in Virginia. Secondly, white supremacy is comprised of habits, actions and beliefs. It is not necessarily reliant on the specific intentions of its actors, practitioners or beneficiaries. Of course, there are “active” racists whose intentions, words, and deeds are meant to advance a racist agenda.

However, implicit and subconscious bias, as well as taken for granted stereotypes and “common sense,” can also serve a white supremacist order. Ultimately, intent is secondary to the unequal outcomes across the color line that individuals benefit from and perpetuate. White people are viewed as individuals where the bad behavior of one white person does not reflect at all on the merits of the group. By comparison, African Americans and other people of color are not afforded that freedom. Ultimately, for white supremacy one’s “Americanness” is naturally linked to one’s whiteness, while the loyalty, and sense of civic belonging assigned to people of color, is contingent until proven otherwise. The study will enlighten whether the concept of white supremacy is visible today in a same way as it has been in the history.

Thirdly, the belief that America is somehow better than its white-supremacist history is sometimes an excuse masquerading as encouragement, and it’s part of the reason the K.K.K. is back in business. What happened in Charlottesville is less an aberrant travesty in a progressive enclave than it is a reminder of how much evil can be obscured by the appearance of good. This wasn’t the first white-supremacist rally held in Charlottesville in 2017, and it likely won’t be the last.

On Saturday, the self-promoting white supremacist Richard Spencer, a proponent of oxymorons (“peaceful ethnic cleansing”) who is also a University of Virginia graduate, filmed himself saying, “Your head’s gonna spin, how many times we’re going to be back here . . . We’re going to make Charlottesville the center of the universe.” The white supremacists have successfully pushed a narrative that they chose Charlottesville because it represents progressive values. Ostensibly, this is all a protest over the impending removal of a large statue of Robert E. Lee. Jason Kessler, the organizer of Saturday’s rally (and another U.V.A. graduate), calls Charlottesville a “very far left community that has absorbed these cultural Marxist principles advocated in college towns across the country, about blaming white people for everything.”

In fact, Charlottesville, while it is a home to many progressive people, skillfully models the exact sort of coercive propriety and self-exculpation from the legacy of American racism that has allowed white supremacy to publicly reemerge. With the Charlottesville incident again, the issues on White supremacy and racism has become talk of the nation. It would be significant to know the way newspapers dealt with the issue and how the people in common view white supremacy view it. Now it be important to understand the meaning and concept of white supremacy so that it will help us understand what exactly happened in Charlottesville incident.

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