4 Myths About African Americans

Chandler Woenker

4 Myths About African Americans

Many people see balck people as violent, athletic, loud, scary and have many other negative ideas about how they act or their personalities. All of these myths have evolved over years and are rooted in a person seeing one or a few black people that fulfill these myths, so they assume or think that most act a certain way. Just because a person sees a few extrovert black people who may be a little loud or are great athletes, they think that all black people must be like that. These beliefs are faulty because as human beings, we all act different and have different tastes in things such as clothing, entertainment and how to spend our free time. African Americans like every other race, act, appear and think differently than others belonging to the same race and are not all the same.

The first myth that I am going to cover is the myth that black fathers are less involved and not as good fathers as other races. This myth is very bad because it harms African American males' reputations and makes it out seem that they do not care about their children and cannot be a good father because of their skin color. In a study done by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it was found that this myth is not true at all. According to the study, concerning children under 5, African American Fathers cooked or shared more meals with their children compared to Whites or Hispanics. The same study concluded that African American fathers took their children, five through eighteen years of age, to and from daily activities and helped them with their homework more compared to White or Hispanic fathers.

The second myth is that all African Americans hate the police or all law enforcement. Not every black person hates the police, just because the media may interview or portray it that way, does not mean it's true. The media makes it seem that way because they will be sure portray the most controversial cases or people that fulfill that myth. Just because some African Americans speak out against police brutality and the protection that some of the involved officers receive does not mean that they hate all law enforcement. Obviously, the lives of law enforcement officers' matter, they are very important in ensuring the safety of all citizens. In some cases, this just is not the truth and when African Americans critique law enforcement, people want to place a tag on the making them out to be law enforcement haters.

The third myth is that African Americans are superiorly athletic than any other race. This statement is untrue because it is basically stating that if two equally trained and physically equal athletes were to compete in the same physical athletic competition, it is more than likely that the African American athlete will do and compete better than the other athlete of a different race. If this competition were to be held, it would be a toss-up between the athletes and would not depend on the color of their skin but some other attributes such as competitiveness or will to win. Many professors, doctors and sociologists have that there is no such thing as “black athletic superiority” in sports.

The fourth myth is that African Americans are far more likely to commit crimes and that they are the main source of violent crimes aimed at whites. This is not true but because the media portrays it this way and highlights the cases where African Americans commit crimes and especially the violent ones where the victim is white. The Department of Justice found out through a study that most violent crimes involve the same race. This means that the assailant is usually the same race as the vitim that they committed the violent crime against. “Some 57 percent of crimes involving white victims were committed by white perpetrators, while only 15 percent were committed by blacks, and 11 percent by Hispanics.” (Neiwert)