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Recently I found myself on a panel with an educated and pleasant black female scholar, who impressed me as thoughtful until she began whining about the media. A preponderance of images of young black men in handcuffs, walking out of courtrooms or being lowered into squad cars, she said, was responsible for creating a widespread picture of black males as monsters and criminals. She even had sociological studies to cite to back up her claims.

Having closely observed the media for more than 40 years, I consider that absolute hogwash. Since 1960 and the Kennedy years of white upon white upon white, we have made amazing progress in integrating American images on television programs and in commercials. There are now all types of black people depicted on TV shows and in film and in magazines. If we begin with the world of commercials, which outnumber all shows because there are more products for sale than there are television programs, one does not get the impression that the marketing world is interested in projecting negative images of black people, or any other people.

Black people are shown at every level of society short of abject poverty, from the blue-collar world all the way up to corporate meetings where, male and female, they stand on par with whomever surrounds them. In commercials advertising children's products, one sees a cross section of American kids now -- white, Asian, black, Hispanic. These children are shown with their parents, usually in what would be called middle-class surroundings. There are images of senior citizens, or multi-generational families, white, black, brown and yellow.

Afro-Americans even advertise deodorant these days, as well as sanitary napkins, bras and just about anything else you can imagine. This kind of product pitch is more revolutionary than you might think. Thirty-five years ago, an inside civil-rights movement joke was that America would have almost totally recovered from racism when black people were used in hygiene ads, since racist stereotypes clustered around the notion that Negroes were dirty and smelled bad.

That black women in particular now advertise the gamut of female products, from lingerie to tablets for menstrual relief, means that they are no longer seen as the giggling subhuman accompanist needed to underline the sensitive femininity of the white woman. Now the Negro female is seen as just another woman, not just a comical servant or she-creature whose womb is so hot she can barely walk down the street with it covered by her clothes for fear of collapsing from the erotic combustion.

The same is true of the black man, who is now depicted as just another guy who might be trying to get his mail somewhere fast, who might be in a board meeting, who could be a supervisor in an auto plant, who might be driving a FedEx truck, who is just as interested in a cold beer as anybody else, who has to deal with his wife, his children and his parents and in-laws, who has the bucks to buy an expensive car, who might be found camping, or behind the computer choosing mutual funds. In other words, in the world of commercial images, the Negro man is seen as another member of a society that constantly boasts through advertising of just how easily you can live the good life if you have the appropriate bucks.

Next page | So where are black people most likely to be depicted as thugs?