Watching television you would think that black ghettos in the big cities are the poorest and most dangerous parts of America. Well, it is not quite that simple.
In 2007 the four precincts in New York City with the worst rates of major crimes were these:
- Bed-Stuy
- East Harlem
- Midtown South (42nd to 34th Street)
- Lower East Side
Only Bed-Stuy is mainly black. East Harlem is Hispanic, Midtown South is white and the Lower East Side is Asian and Hispanic.
True, taken as a whole the black and Hispanic parts of the city have a higher crime rate than the white and Asian parts. But each part of the city is different. You cannot just go by race or even poverty or even the two together. For example:
- The middle of Harlem, which is mainly black, is safer than Midtown Manhattan, which is mainly white – and far richer.
- In the late 1980s Jamaica, Queens and Harlem were both mainly black, but Jamaica had way more of a black middle-class – and yet it was far more violent.
So you cannot make general rules. Different things are in play in different parts of the city. You have to go case by case.
Likewise, here are the five poorest parts of America:
- Indian reservations
- South-west Texas
- The middle of Alaska
- The Mississippi Delta
- Appalachia
Only the Mississippi Delta is mainly black. Appalachia is mainly white, south-west Texas is Hispanic and the Indian reservations and the middle of Alaska are Native American.
Most people do not even think about these places because you hardly ever see them on television or even hear much about them in school.
The reason black ghettos star on television is because they are the main example of poverty – and of Black America too – if you live in the two places where most of American television comes from: Hollywood and New York.
Most poor people are white. Most poor people do not live in cities, but in places where reporters and film-makers hardly ever go.
And, just as you almost never see the poor Indian reservations on television, so you barely ever see black suburbia either – further strengthening the idea that most black people are poor and most poor people are black, neither of which is true.
And even when television does present poverty it rarely explains it. So people think what they want about bootstraps and all that – a comfortable thing to believe if you are middle-class or rich.
Television is not a mirror of American society. It is not even an imperfect mirror. Television is the creation of a very small number of people – most of them white, male, liberal and well-to-do – who have their own ideas about America. Many of those ideas are not true and many come from yet older Hollywood output, so the thing feeds on itself.
But their picture of America becomes our picture of America – even if the little bit of America that we know first-hand is nothing like what we see on television.
See also:
- Do Poor Whites Even Exist ?!? – AverageBro.com on how racism informs news reporting on white poverty in Kentucky.
- black ghetto
- The Sioux today
- Apple-pie America
- New York
- What white people should know
- black brute stereotype
- television
Most news stations are too lazy to drive out to rural areas and show a different face to poverty. Why should they go out to their way to highlight rural poverty when they have the ghetto around the corner. It saves time and money. Hollywood is just the same as well. It’s quite disappointing since all of this does is further perpetuate the stereotype that all black people/minorities are poor and all white people are rich. That’s not always the case.
Oh and I hate that “pull yourself by your bootstraps” anecodote as if it were that easy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The news media is a powerful tool from fashion, racial, and social concepts embedded society and loosened when convenient.
The same can be said about international media. The idea that a lot of Africans, who have never been to N. America, have about the US is that it is all “Hollywood and glam”. While, the idea that many Americans have of Africa, who have never been anywhere in Africa, is that it is poverty stricken, AIDS infested, and hungry, small malnourished children with blowflies all around them. Both because those are the images we see in the media, on both sides, so you have, on both sides, many stories that often go untold or get little exposure.
I have lived in MS, so I know about the poverty of the delta and the crime rate in central MS (Jackson) is one in the top ten dangerous places to live in the US , though the crime rate has decreased over last couple of years.
I think when people hear of most of the places you named as the most poor of places in North America, they do think of poverty or something to that extent, but other things come to mind first.
Indian reservations, for example, I think of casinos first—then maybe the fact that they are even ON reservations and poverty. MS—most people (based on responses I’ve heard) think undeveloped, countryside, rednecks, civil rights, KKK etc.—then they may think poverty.
LikeLike
According to some MS is now #14, and wiki says #23, and others don’t even place MS in the top 25 but at some point in the pass 5-6 years it was defiantly one of the top ten.
LikeLike
Wow. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
I’ve been trying to tell people the truth for years: Most of the poor people in this country are white. It was always obvious to me: I work in the downtown area of a small to medium CT suburb-that’s still predominately white yet quite diverse-which is filled with homeless people. The vast majority of these people are white. Few are black, a fair amount are “Hispanic” (Puerto Rican mostly) but the clear majority are white.
The media will never report reality. The truth isn’t as appealing, I guess.
LikeLike
I knew about the Native Americans being poor. I also know that most poor people are white. Aren’t they 65% of the population? That means that they are the majority in everything, rich or poor. Also, has anybody told you you should write for a newspaper? Your way of writing is simply amazing!
LikeLike
Thanks, but newspapers are a dying industry! Sad to say.
LikeLike
America is two-thirds white, so white people are the most of anything you can think of, good or bad: homeless people, murderers, millionaires, all of it.
LikeLike
Thank you Abagond. The mainstream media tries to paint poverty with a black face when in reality there are far more nonblacks living in poverty, many in isolated areas of the country. Everytime I watch the news, they almost always put black people as the face of poverty. I live and work in SW Ohio city(Dayton) where there are far more whites in poverty than blacks. When they show poor Black people, they always make a point of putting the stereotypically ignorant Blacks on the set.
What say you?
La Reyna
LikeLike
I notice that too. I think it is because the news directors are white and have stereotyped ideas about race, poverty and crime. They see what they expect to see, not what is there.
When you watch television it is not like looking out your window: you are looking through a camera and someone is pointing that camera.
LikeLike
I’m late getting in on this discussion, but this is a remarkable example of how tv misuses these stats to consistently promote racism. Thank you.
LikeLike
It is never too late! Some of these go on for months, like “thick black women”, which I posted last year on Halloween (October 31st):
LikeLike
hi, Do something to help those hungry people in Africa and India,
I created this blog about them:
on http://tinyurl.com/6bz6t7
LikeLike
You´re in some respects right
But there´s also the stereotype of poor white Appalachia
TV- reporters film poor blacks in inner cities and also film the most run down trailer homes or some shacks which survived deep in the woods.
They prefer in general overweight women so people think in lack of knowledge of the relation between “poverty” and “overweight”, that they aren´t that poor.
The indian reservations are ignored, and the media always tries to understand us, that they´re lazy people who live on alcohol and that the poverty is the result of corrupt indian chiefs. They don´t care about them much, because this would remind them to the genocide on the native folks.
LikeLike
its horrible…most people in society use the TV as their brain. lets face it, majority of america is stupid.
i remember someone once mentioned something about describing race on the news.
they stated that whenever white people do something, hardly ever do they mentioned their race..but if it was a black person, the first thing out of their mouths or in the newspaper, is their race.
it sux what we have to put up with in america, because white people are too ignorant and too comfy in their wrong ways to change.
LikeLike
you got that right.
LikeLike
Do the most watched shows in America even show ghetto black communities? I don’t see that when I turn on the t.v. I don’t think people even really watch so much t.v. anymore. It’s all about Netflix and YouTube.
LikeLike
Even if white people make up the majority of America and impoverished people they do not make up the majority of the prison population it seems.
LikeLike
@Bunny:
Is your first name Bugs by chance?
LikeLike
Bunny sounds a lot like Lara to me.
LikeLike
Gotta love that tired old argument: “Black people make up the majority of the prison population, so that means they commit the most crimes.”
People who spew that nonsense the most are the same ones that ignore all of the reasons and factors behind that skewed statistic…no surprise there!
LikeLike
I wasn’t saying that they necessarily commit the most crimes, but it is a fact. I just think that all issues need to be acknowledged.
LikeLike
I’m not white btw. I’ve been reading this blog for a while but never posted.
LikeLike
@Bunny:
Even if white people make up the majority of America and impoverished people they do not make up the majority of the prison population it seems.
—-
That’s because black people (especially black men) are more likely to be found guilty, given prison time and given the death penalty than whites who are charged with the same types of crimes. Even white defense attorneys do not want their black clients to have all white juries. The situation is even more dire if the person being charged is poor and not able to afford the best legal representation.
LikeLike
Then, Bunny says:
First she says that black people commit crimes, and then, she says she’s not saying it. You’ve contradicted yourself here.
LikeLike
When I said that blacks make up the majority of the prison population I did not say that they commit the most crimes. Read my original comment. Someone replied and read my comment as “Black people make up the majority of the prison population, so that means they commit the most crimes.” I didn’t contradict myself. I understand fully well that juries are biased against blacks and that the American court system is screwed up. Abagond’s comment said that because whites are the majority in this nation they account for the most of everything…and I pointed out that that wasn’t the case.
LikeLike
I did read your original comment, and I responded accordingly. And you DID contradict yourself when you made the immediate statement afterwards.
How is it not the case that whites account for most of everything? Examples please.
LikeLike
@bunny: Heres the thing: the american judicial system does not work and secondly, once they outsourced their prison system in many parts of the country, it became a business. A very dangerous thing indeed.
Why the system does not work? Well, if you have money you get decent representation. If you are poor, you do not. If you are white, chances are you’ll get more easy treatment than otherwise. Example: in some states native americans go to prison for years for incidents which the white participants get at max some months, usually on probaltion. Such as public fist fights etc. Now, if you are poor and black… Get it? It is well documented that blacks get jail sentences for very small drug related incidents where as whites usually get some monetary punishment and/or probation for similar offences.
As for the prison busines, why it is wrong? Well, because it makes money from the prisoners. In some cases the prisoners work for free for private companies, just like they do concentration camps in China. In some cases the prison makes money according to the numbers, more prisoners, more money.
There was a famous case of a juvenile prison some state (forgot the state and county, I think it was in east and north???) where a private company built an juvenile prison in to the county. Everybody loved it, sure money, jobs, tax dollars etc. BUT once they had it up and running, local white kids started to end up in that jail for things nobody had gotten even a ticket before. That raised some questions.
Eventually it was revealed that the local judge owned some stocks of the prison company so it was in his economical interest to send as many kids in jail as possible. Some local politicians were also involved etc. Scandal and an example what happens when prisons come busines.
But what we do not know is this: how many such institutions there are housing minority kids? How many adult prisons are run like that? Who gets the money? Who the heck got the idea of making prisons busines in the first place???
LikeLike
@Bunny:
“I just think that all issues need to be acknowledged.”
@Bunny:
“Someone replied and read my comment as “Black people make up the majority of the prison population, so that means they commit the most crimes. I didn’t contradict myself.’
—-
I took into account both of your comments when I responded. My response was not meant to be accusatory. I mentioned racism because it is indeed an issue that needs to be acknowledged.
LikeLike
Brothawolf: an example is that most people in prison are not white. Sam and Nom de plume: I gotcha.
LikeLike
Bunny,
No one’s not disputing that. I’m just saying that the black population there does not indicate which race in this country commits the most crimes.
LikeLike
Fair enough, brothawolf. Nobody replied to my other comment though…do the most watched television shows of late even feature black poverty at all? Isn’t the internet a more relevant point of reference at this time? Could there perhaps be another post about how the internet in general and blogs can perpetuate some black stereotypes?
LikeLike
Bunny,
Most of today’s television shows hardly have any blacks at all. The only shows that do are reality cop shows, the news, and sitcoms, (most of them from the past). It’s rare to see a new show that features blacks as the main characters in this day and age.
However, the genres of TV I mentioned do feature black poverty, but they never feature the causes of poverty.
The internet is open to everyone unlike television which is controlled by a handful of white men. The internet has a wide range of points of view from other people including blacks. Yes, there will be blacks that will perpetuate stereotypes, but it’s not exclusive to them and stereotypes do not a people define.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Life in Anglo-America.
LikeLike