Speech explores themes in race, media, politics

Robert Entman, co-author of "The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America" and a professor at North Carolina State University, discussed the issues of race and color in politics and the media Monday.\nHis speech, once titled "What Flavor is Your Ballot?" evolved into what he called "Running Away From Race," a presentation in which he discussed issues concerning race, media and political conflicts, and how Americans tend to ignore and push aside racial issues.\nEntman compared political campaigns to a "tightrope." He said candidates work to appeal to the needs of both poor to middle class whites and blacks. Entman said the candidates try to shape their platforms based on the concerns of different races.\n"I feel that (President Bill) Clinton created the formula that successfully generated the Democratic Party," Entman said. "He built his campaign with distance from African-Americans and appealed to issues related to both whites and blacks."\nEntman said issues of interest to blacks and whites include capital punishment and welfare. He said focusing on issues like affirmative action leads to a battle between blacks and whites.\nRacial issues within the media were a crucial aspect to Entman's presentation. He said stereotypes, racial group conflicts, emotional hostility and denial of discrimination are all illustrated in the media. These lead to what Entman defines as "racial animosity." He said racial animosity is composed of the negative feelings and emotions that help feed into the cause of poor race relations.\n"At one point it seems to be that forces of evolution will make (racism) unimportant," Entman said.\nEntman showed short news clips to express the subtle racial messages presented in newscasts. Entman said he gathers his data by the "theory of modern racism," where blacks are visually depicted differently than whites. He spoke on the ideas of whites gaining more power within police departments, whites attaining more legal protection and the theory that police officials are more willing to allow the filming of black suspects in their handcuffs versus the basic mugshots of whites.\nHe then displayed a slide depicting percentages based on how many people perceive social characteristics, such as hard work and laziness, among whites, African Americans and Hispanics.\nEntman said he generally found that people thought whites were more hard-working while blacks were typically more lazy.\n"I want to make everyone more conscious about this stuff," Entman said.\nThe presentation also included humorous anecdotes, personal stories and a question and answer session.\n"I think he did a very good job on covering racial issues and politics," said graduate student Grace Jackson-Brown, head of the Black Culture Center Library. "The audience consisted of a diverse group of students who were very engaged and enthralled with the presentation. Dr. Entman did a good job of keeping their attention and keeping them interested"