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REALITY TV NEGATIVELY PORTRAYS AFRICAN AMERICANS SPURLEY 1
Reality TV Negatively Portrays African Americans
AMIR Argumentative Paper
Dawnechia Spurley
Spring 2017
REALITY TV NEGATIVELY PORTRAYS AFRICAN AMERICANS SPURLEY 2
Reality programs have dominated television networks since their rise in popularity began
in the early 1990s with MTV’s The Real World. Now at its peak of growth, reality television
evokes ideas of social order and cultural norms to its audiences, while perpetuating racial
stereotypes in society (Tyree, 2011). Many of the reality shows that are on television are full of
drama and depict a particular stereotype among African Americans that are not portrayed with
other races. According to race relations expert Nadra Kareem Nittle, there are four different
types of stereotypes of Black people on TV. They are the Magical Negro, Black Best Friend,
Thugs, and Brash Women (Riley, 2014).
There are a surplus of TV shows that reinforce negative stereotypes of people of color
and plague the airwaves. A great number of these are reality TV shows that focus around
African-American entertainers. Wikipedia defines the Magical Negro as a supporting stock
