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The way the media operate, the images they produce, and the influence they exert significantly affect the life chances of young men of color (YMC). This report assesses the media’s impacts, with a particular focus on the variety of ways they perpetuate negative impressions of young men of color, the reasons that this perpetuation of negative impressions occurs and potential paths to reform and improvement.

Specific issues covered here include:

• The negative biases in portraying YMC across most media-biases that are often subtle (and therefore difficult to notice and counteract), rather than blatant;
• The impacts of the negative images on whites, on white-dominated institutions, on politics and public policy, on society in general, and on YMC;
• Explanations for continuing biases despite improvements in the visibility and depictions of persons of color; and
• Public and private policy changes that might reduce the deleterious influences of the media in this sphere and promote more positive contributions to the lives of YMC and to society at large.