Stereotypes of blacks

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This article discusses stereotypes of Americans of African descent present in American culture.

Contents 1 Overview of Black Stereotypes 1.1 History of Black Stereotypes 1.2 Black Stereotypes: Then and Now 1.3 Inaccurate Black Stereotypes 2 Historical archetypes 2.1 Blackface archetype of minstrel shows 2.2 "Sambo" archetype 2.3 "Mammy" archetype 2.4 "Magic Negro" archetype 3 Stereotypical portrayal in the media 3.1 Early stereotypes 3.2 Film and Television 3.3 Sports 3.4 The news media: criminal stereotyping 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Overview of Black Stereotypes

[edit] History of Black Stereotypes

The idea of "race" in the United States is based on physical characteristics and skin color and has played an essential part in shaping American society even before the nation's conception.^[1] The perception of black people has been closely tied to their place in the United States historically. In early American history, the primary reason for Africans in the colonies was the slave trade.

[edit] Black Stereotypes: Then and Now

Top Ten Stereotypes of Black Americans [2] Year 1933 1995 1 Superstitious Athletic 2 Lazy/Slovenly Rhythmic/Musical 3 Happy-go-lucky Unintelligent/Ignorant/Stupid 4 Ignorant Poor 5 Musical Loud 6 Ostentatious Criminal 7 Very Religious Hostile 8 Dirty (physically) Very Religious 9 Naive Loyal to Family 10 Unreliable Dirty (physically)

In the 1930's, studies found a high level of consistency among adjectives used to describe Black people. Furthermore, most of these adjectives were negative, and included terms such as superstitious, lazy, and ignorant. Today’s stereotypes are not much different, and include unintelligent, loud, poor, unable to swim, and criminal. Stereotypes can also be “positive” terms, although this does not make them less damaging to their targets. Current stereotypes of African Americans include athletic and musical/rhythmic.^[2]

[edit] Inaccurate Black Stereotypes

Many of the black stereotypes do not correspond with reality. Here are a few important examples.

• Most black people are not poor and most of America's poor people are not black. On TV, blacks are depicted as poor nearly twice as often as their true incidence; blacks actually account for 29% of America’s poor, although many might assume the incidence to be in excess of 50%. ^[3]

• Because blacks tend to be stereotyped as criminal, many people are surprised to learn that criminality among African-American youth is significantly lower when it comes to the use of tobacco, alcohol or drugs than either whites or Hispanics. ^[4]

• Although blacks are stereotyped as dirty, African-Americans often exhibit more concern about cleanliness than do whites.^[5] Blacks spend more money on cleaning supplies and comparable amounts on personal care products as whites. ^[6] Black women engage in more feminine hygiene practices than whites. ^[7]

[edit] Historical archetypes

[edit] Blackface archetype of minstrel shows

Minstrel shows portrayed and lampooned blacks in stereotypical and often disparaging ways, as ignorant, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, joyous, and musical.

Blackface is a style of theatrical makeup that originated in the United States, used to affect the countenance of an iconic, racist American archetype — that of the darky or coon. White blackface performers in the past used burnt cork and later greasepaint or shoe polish to blacken their skin and exaggerate their lips, often wearing woolly wigs, gloves, tailcoats, or ragged clothes to complete the transformation.

[edit] "Sambo" archetype

Main article: Sambo (racial term)

This stereotype gained notoriety through the 1898 children's book The Story of Little Black Sambo, by Helen Bannerman. It told the story of a boy named Sambo, who outwitted a group of hungry tigers. The original text suggested that Sambo lived in India, but this fact may have escaped many readers, and the book has often been considered to be a slur against Africans. Notably tigers were common in India (and endangered now) but had been extinct in Africa for thousands of years.

[edit] "Mammy" archetype

Main article: Mammy archetype

Characteristics of "Mammy" include dark skin, a heavyset frame and large bust, and overall matronly appearance, complete with an apron around her waist and a kerchief on her head. She is overweight and dressed in gaudy clothing, as well as genial, churchgoing, and spiritual to the point of delusion — "Lord have mercy" is a common phrase associated with this archetype. She is compliant in the face of white authority, as in the Aunt Jemima and Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind's Mammy character, standards of this archetype.

The term Mammy is a variant of mother, used most prominently by blacks in the South during and soon after slavery. Whites used the term, as well, to refer to black female slaves, servants and caregivers, as well as a general term for black women. When in common use by whites, the word was often used sentimentally, but many blacks considered it patronizing or insulting. Today, the term mammy, when applied to a black woman, is considered highly pejorative.

[edit] "Magic Negro" archetype

Main article: Magical Negro

The magical negro (sometimes called the mystical negro, magic negro, or our Magical African-American Friend) is a stock character who appears in fiction of a variety of media. The word "negro", now considered archaic and offensive, is used intentionally to emphasize the belief that the archetype is a racist throwback, an update of the "Sambo" stereotype.^[8] The term was popularized by Spike Lee, who dismissed the archetype of the "super-duper magical negro"^[9] in 2001 while discussing films with students at Washington State University^[10] and at Yale University.^[11]

[edit] Stereotypical portrayal in the media

See also: Race and intelligence (media portrayal)

[edit] Early stereotypes

Early minstrel shows lampooned the supposed stupidity of blacks. Movies such as Birth of a Nation questioned whether or not black people were fit to run for governmental offices or vote. Secretary of State John C. Calhoun arguing for the extension of slavery in 1844 said,

“

Here (scientific confirmation) is proof of the necessity of slavery. The African is incapable of self-care and sinks into lunacy under the burden of freedom. It is a mercy to give him the guardianship and protection from mental death.

”

Even after slavery ended the intellectual capacity of black people was still frequently questioned. Lewis Terman wrote in The measurement of intelligence in 1916,

“

(Black and other ethnic minority children) are uneducable beyond the nearest rudiments of training. …There is no possibility at present of convincing society that they should not be allowed to reproduce, although from a eugenic point of view they constitute a grave problem because of their unusual prolific breeding.

”

Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been often cited as racist due to the depiction of the slave Jim, among other black characters, which has led to schools banning the book.^[12] The word "nigger" appears numerous times, and is used to describe Jim and other black characters. While this is not surprising for the time, it is understandibly offensive to modern readers, particularly African-American students, who may have been required to read the book in high school.

[edit] Film and Television

See also: Acting white

According to Robert M. Entman and Andrew Rojecki, authors of the The Black Image in the White Mind, in television and film black characters are less likely to be the "the intellectual drivers of its problem solving." Entman and Rojeki assert that media images of blacks may have profound effects on the perceptions by both blacks and whites about black intellectual potential.^[13]

Political activist and one time presidential candidate Rev. Jesse Jackson said in 1985 that the news media portray blacks as "less intelligent than we are."^[14] Film director Spike Lee explains that these images have negative impacts "In my neighborhood, we looked up to athletes, guys who got the ladies, and intelligent people," said Lee. "[Now] If you're intelligent, you're called a white guy or girl."^[15]

In film, blacks are also shown in a stereotypical manner that promotes notions of moral inferiority. In terms of female movie characters shown by race: ^[16]

• Using vulgar profanity: blacks 89 percent, whites 17 percent
• Being physically violent: blacks 56 percent, whites 11 percent
• Being restrained: blacks 55 percent, whites 6 percent

[edit] Sports

In Darwin's Athletes, John Hoberman writes that the prominence of African-American athletes encourages a de-emphasis on academic achievement in black communities.^[17] Several other authors have said that sports coverage that highlights "natural black athleticism" has the effect of suggesting white superiority in other areas, such as intelligence.^[18] Some contemporary sports commentators have questioned if blacks are intelligent enough to hold "strategic" positions or coach games such as football.^[19] In another example, a study of the portrayal of race, ethnicity and nationality in televised sporting events by journalist Derrick Jackson in 1989 showed that blacks were more likely than whites to be described in demeaning intellectual terms.^[20]

[edit] The news media: criminal stereotyping

The Black Image in the White Mind illustrates ways in which negative media images of African Americans are disproportionate and arguably harmful to race relations:^[16]

• A mug shot of a black defendant is four times more likely to appear in a local television news report than of a white defendant.
• The black accused is two times more likely to be shown physically restrained in a local television news report than when the accused is white.
• The name of the accused is two times more likely to be shown on screen in a local TV news report if the defendant is black, rather than white.

According to Lawrence Grossman, former president of CBS News and PBS, TV newscasts "disproportionately show African-Americans under arrest, living in slums, on welfare, and in need of help from the community." ^[21] African-Americans are misrepresented for several reasons. Although FBI statistics show that most violent crimes involve others of same race, there is a common misperception that black-on-white crimes are more common. ^[22] Black-on-white crimes are over-represented on news shows because the majority audience can better identify with white victim. Emphasis on deviance generates higher ratings for TV networks by playing on people's fears. However, these images of blacks (and whites) on TV newscasts do not represent reality and negatively impact the way we think about race and race relations.

[edit] See also

• African characters in comics
• Blackface
• Coon song
• Ethnic stereotype
• Ethnic stereotypes in pornography
• Stereotype threat
• Racial profiling
• Uncle Tom
• Uncle Remus

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Robin Eisenbach. The Color of Television: A Multicultural Look at the Effects of Television. University of Oregon Media Literacy Online Project. Retrieved on 2006-12-08.

• "Still I Rise !": The African-American Woman, and Her Struggle with the Jezebel and Mammy Stereotypes

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