Trends in Racism Reporting Essay Example for Free

Trends in Racism Reporting Essay Racism in reporting seemed to have peaked during the 1950s.   Perhaps the reason for the peak was that the whites and the blacks in America had shared a master-slave relationship in the past.   The Civil Rights Movement had called for changing the status quo.   The demand for equal rights for the blacks was met with resistance, however.   This is the reason why an article published in The Birmingham Post-Herald in 1955 quotes a white sheriff thus: †¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"We haven’t mixed so far down here and we don’t intend to (â€Å"10 Jurors Picked as Till Trial Opens†). †Ã‚   The sheriff was, of course, describing the relations of the white race with the black race (â€Å"10 Jurors Picked as Till Trial Opens†).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The above mentioned news article is actually a report on a trial.   All of the jury members selected for the trial were white men.   Eight of the men were farmers and one of them was a laborer.   There were â€Å"eight Negro reporters† present at the trial, but all of them were â€Å"segregated at a separate table (â€Å"10 Jurors Picked as Till Trial Opens†).†Ã‚   Considering that the theory of racism is based on the assumption that a race can be superior to another race for any number of reasons, the news report of the 1950s describes blatant racism.   So, even though the blacks had worked as laborers for the whites in the past, for the reason that the blacks had served the whites as slaves, they could not be members of the jury even if one of the jury members was a white laborer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Contrary to the stance of the whites with respect to the blacks described in the above mentioned article, a news article published by The San Francisco News in 1942 describes the value of the Japanese Americans to the economy of the United States.   The author of the article, â€Å"Jap Ban to Force Farm Adjustments,† states that the internment of the Japanese Americans would adversely affect the agricultural produce of California.   The article refers to the Japanese Americans as â€Å"[f]ast and efficient workers (â€Å"Jap Ban to Force Farm Adjustments†).†Ã‚   Even though the work of the Japanese Americans on Californian farms had required â€Å"the most arduous form of ‘stoop labor,’† the article mentions that the white farmers would be able to handle it, but not as well as the Japanese American workers (â€Å"Jap Ban to Force Farm Adjustments†).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Stoop labor is defined as â€Å"[b]ack-bending manual work (â€Å"Stoop Labor†).†Ã‚   If the news article published in 1942 had clearly stated that the white farmers will not be able to replace the Japanese Americans on the plantations because the latter were engaged in stoop labor which the white farmers simply would not engage in; it would have been obvious that the reporting is racist.   However, this is not the case.   Rather, the Japanese Americans are lauded for their efficiency in the news report, as some of them were capable of tending to forty to fifty gardens at a time (â€Å"Jap Ban to Force Farm Adjustments†).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Even though the Japanese Americans had been interned during World War II, the whites did not seem to look down upon them or consider them inferior.   On the other hand, the blacks were obviously considered inferior because they had served the whites as slaves.   These differences of perceptions are made clear by the news reports. Works Cited â€Å"10 Jurors Picked as Till Trial Opens: 3 Veniremen Dismissed Because of Link with Fund to Defend Accused Men.† The Birmingham Post Herald. 19 Sep 1955. â€Å"Jap Ban to Force Farm Adjustments.† The San Francisco News. 4 Mar 1942. â€Å"Stoop Labor.† Answers. 2007. 10 Dec 2007. http://www.answers.com/topic/stoop-labor.