Profile of Omotayo Banjo

As a first-generation American, a child of Nigerian immigrants, Omotayo’s sense of identity was shaped by her parents, the food she ate, and the language she heard more than her skin color. “I lead with culture, instead of something as arbitrary as race,” Banjo said. It was when she went to college that she began to understand how people perceive her. “Within the context of being in America, my skin color meant more to other people.” she said.

For Banjo, the nuances of identity are complex and layered. They involve race, culture and tradition. They encompass not just how we others, but how we see ourselves. She specializes in the intersection of race and media. She looks at how race and culture are represented in the media, and how different audiences perceive those representations.

In her 2013 article “For Us Only?”, published in the scholarly journal Race and Social Problems, Banjo explored discrepancies between black audience enjoyment of black films —written, directed, and starring primarily blacks — and their perceptions of perceived stereotypes.

The study that Banjo conducted revealed that though black audiences might enjoy black entertainment, her participants were still concerned with how other — specifically white — audiences might negatively interpret stereotypes on screen.

In this study and others, Banjo looks at the wider picture of identity in media; how it’s more than how we see ourselves, but how we think others see us.