The mass communication department, in an effort to bring attention to issues of diversity in the media, hosted speaker Nicolas Peart in a program entitled “Why Do They Think I’m a Thug? Media Stereotypes of African American Males.” He was the second speaker in the Media and Diversity speaker series.

Peart estimates that he has been stopped and frisked between five and 10 times by the NYPD, who were falsely under the impression that he was part of some type of illegal activity.

“You don’t stop crime by stopping someone with no intention of committing a crime,” said Peart.

People of color have been the subject of unnecessary stop and frisks.

According to Dailyoftheday.com, “Two percent of the 700,000 people who were stopped and frisked in 2011 actually possessed contraband of any nature. Of those 700,000, 80 percent of them were African American and Latinos.”

African Americans have often been targeted based solely on their appearance as being “thugs,” and people who need to be stopped in order to prevent crime, although that is rarely the case.

“I felt that being stopped and frisked became a right of passage for the black community,” said Peart.

Peart suggested this stereotyping of African Americans comes partially from the media; there is a common trend of African Americans being portrayed them in a harmful light.

“I’m not happy with how black men are portrayed in the media,” said Peart.

“[These images] have consequences in real life,” said mass communication professor Dr. Anthony Kelso, who has been instrumental to the Media and Diversity events.

Peart sees this negative portrayal play out frequently in his everyday life, and after having enough he decided to speak out.

“Anytime I was stopped, I would write about it,” said Peart.

Using media is how Peart was able to get his story out. He sent in an op-ed article to the New York Times under the title “Why is the NYPD After Me?” After his article went viral, he was able to generate a conversation on the topic, which significantly helped his cause.

Since the New York Times article, he has spoken with many media outlets, including NPR and MSNBC.

“I was amazed by how many people hadn’t heard about it,” said Peart.

The mass communications department wants to bring awareness to issues like this and has created the Media and Diversity program to start a discussion about discrimination in mainstream media.

This is the first year of the three-week long event, in which different speakers come talk about their experiences with discrimination in their everyday lives.

“As a department, and I’ve kind of taken a lead on this, I just think these are really important issues, and media is such an important part of our lives,” said Kelso.

The final event of the year is called “You in the game? Sports, Media, and LGBTQ Athletes.” It will be held in LaPenta End Zone April 3rd at 5p.m.