“Collective Forgetting” in the News: Racialized Space, Media Framing, and White Racial Ignorance

The news media shapes public perceptions of race and society. Existing research shows that negative portrayals of Black people reinforce and activate existing stereotypes among White readers. Media portrayals of racial issues also influence readers’ willingness to support antiracist policies. This article considers another way that the media influences race and society—by fostering White racial ignorance. Theorists define racial ignorance as the strategic unknowing of systemic racism and indifference to racial matters among White Americans that contribute to the reproduction of White supremacy. This article focuses on how one newspaper portrayed a historically Black area as it transitioned to a White space. I use qualitative media framing analysis to examine how the newspaper created a reality for its audience by choosing what information to emphasize and what to omit. I find that the newspaper presents a racial and spatial reality that rendered the mechanisms of racial inequality and oppression largely invisible. This “collective forgetting” of systemic racism encourages racial ignorance.