The Black/Jamaican Criminal: The Making of Ideology

Abstract

This thesis examines the process of racialization and criminalization of Black/Jamaicans by one of Toronto's leading daily newspapers; The Toronto Sun (herein called "The Sun." The framework for this study is based on two related aspects to the theory of anti-Black racism: (1) That anti-Black racism is a particular form of systemic and structural racism in Canadian society, which historically and contemporarily has been perpetrated against Blacks. Anti-Black racism has meaning and saliency in the perpetuation of dominant and hegemonic systems of whiteness and the marginalization and banishment of Black/Jamaicans from Canadian society; and (2) That the naming of anti-Black racism is a form of resistance against dominant and hegemonic systems of Whiteness and the building of agency and social transformation against racism and other forms of oppression. The research methodology applies a hybrid of textual analysis to news reports produced by The Sun during 1993 and 1994 to 30 and 236 articles respectively, on Black/Jamaicans involved in crime. The study shows the ways in which (a) the language and discourse selected in these news reports reproduced existing stereotypes and racist ideologies about Blacks and crime. (b) the examination of The Sun's reports revealed the way in which media discourses related to Jamaica, immigration and race promulgates racial ideologies in which Black/Jamaicans are othered. (c) The consequences of othering of Black/Jamaicans is social exclusion or marginalization within Canadian society and banishment by way of deportation, more often than not, to Jamaica. Finally, the study recommends changes in the reporting and depiction of Black/Jamaicans as criminal by The Sun and other media outlets. The study also calls for the building of a unified Black community together with its allies to take resistive actions against this ideology of the Black/Jamaican criminal and against anti-Black racism.