No, there wasn’t really an award,
this is just an opinion piece. And honestly “black man” can be extended to
almost any ethnic, gender, religious, or miscellaneous minority. The point is people
tend toward using unnecessary adjectives that do not contribute anything more
than subliminally altering the way a story will be received. For instance, the media
always seems to feel the need to specify the ethnicity of victims and
perpetrators of homicide. As if “man gets shot in the park” just isn’t news
worthy unless it was racially motivated. But negative portrayals are not the
only problem. Positive and even neutral stories often use the same unnecessary descriptors.
Have you ever started a story with “this
black guy” or “this old guy” or “this Muslim guy”? Would the story have been any
different if you had said “this person”? Maybe it would have. Maybe we needed
that context to understand the story, but if not, then why did you include it. What
does it say about you that your view of society that you automatically separate
this category of person out from the rest. Maybe you wouldn’t have specified “this
white guy” or “this skinny guy” because those are “normal” descriptors in your
mind.
Personally, I believe positive examples
are the worst offenders, because these are too often used with misaligned intentions.
You think you are doing good by paying praise to a minority, but unless their
minority status contributes to the story, all you are doing is qualifying their
accomplishment as different. Let’s say you came across a headline that read: 84-year
old woman wins marathon. It sounds like you are celebrating their
accomplishment, but you are only including their age because it makes them an
anomaly. Women that age are not supposed to win marathons. This woman is
different. Now compare: black man named surgeon of the year. It sounds like it
is promoting black people as hard working, but really it comes off as a
qualifier again. The reason you are specifying it was a black man was because
black men aren’t supposed to be accomplished doctors. This man was different. He
was “one of the good ones.”
Perhaps I am the only one seeing it this
way, but I really believe we should pull back on specifically calling out
minority accomplishments. We should keep embracing the accomplishments, but we
should normalize them. Just report on all of the great things minorities are
doing the same way you would if a fit 22-year old won a marathon, and if someone
opens the story only to be surprised by the face looking back at them… well
then maybe that person will reevaluate the way they see the world.
-AMS
