ABSTRACT

African-American culture is directly derived from a combination of African cultural values. Therefore, it is not surprising to find illustrates of African cultural values maintained in Black media productions. However, there is an overabundance of stereotyped representations of African culture in the media in general, and Black media more specifically. Stereotyped portrayals of African culture have historically dominated media representations of Africa. In particular, representations of African cultural values in the media have largely casted Africa as uncivilized, savage, ignorant, and impoverished. Contemporarily, Black television dramas and sitcoms rarely make reference to African culture. However, when African culture is represented, it is portrayed in a very stereotypical manner, and these media forms are often hypercritical of African cultural values. It appears that Black media has adopted the approach of mainstream White media and its treatment of African cultural values. That is to say, mainstream media has historically and contemporarily represented African culture as inferior to White culture and not worthy of maintaining. Accordingly, in this same media White culture is elevated, consider superior, and the only culture that should be adopted by all. Television shows such as Blackish, Martin, and Survivors Remorse have represented African culture and African cultural values as outdated and a thing of the pass that has no relevance to African-Americans’ lifestyles today. For other shows, the absence of African cultural values and no reference to Africa illustrate a denial of the significance of African cultural values in the everyday lives of African-Americans. These misguided representations of African culture do not take into consideration the historical, social, cultural, or contemporary role of African cultural values in the lives, religion, language, and culture of African-Americans. Such portrayals further influence the promotion of an inferior African culture, and the constant repetition of such images legitimizes their continued presence in the media, which in turn validates the public’s acceptance of such images. This chapter provides a critical analysis of 21st-century representations of African cultural values in Black media productions and argues that within Black oriented media, African culture reflects century old stereotypes of Africa which are not aligned with the actual practice of African cultural values in the lives of African Americans.