How can media be oppressive when it comes to race?

Recently and for a relatively long time, racism has been quite the topic to debate in all its forms and different applications. Firstly, to define racism and its effects, it must be understood that there must exist an institutionalized oppression and discrimination of a specific race for it to be considered racism. Thus, if I insulted a white American by making fun of the color of their skin or their mental abilities (since this is a rather common joke) it cannot be considered racist unless such a “joke” has actual consequences on Americans, such as not being hired by foreign countries, in which case it would turn into discriminatory action and thus be considered racist. In terms of media, especially the visual kind, racism can be easily implemented using several tools. One such tool, mentioned in the book “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People”, is that of repetition especially used in Hollywood movies (Shaheen, 2003). According to the author, Hollywood movies have forever painted Arabs as terrorists or extremists or terrible people who objectify women etc. In fact, according to the book, “Only five percent of Arab film roles depict normal, human characters”. The repetition and recreation of such movies has led to institutionalized discrimination of Arabs, aka racism, especially in the US where Arabs are likely to be the first suspects of a bombing or any similar terrorist act whenever found near it (Shaheen, 2003). This unfortunately holds true for other ethnicities as well, as seen in terms of police brutality towards black and Hispanic people.