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Promotional poster for Spike Lee's movie Bamboozled (2000) shows an example of blackface.

Stereotypes of African Americans are generalizations about the behavior of African American groups or individuals. They developed in American culture since the colonial years of settlement, particularly after slavery became a racial institution that was heritable. The early blackface minstrel shows of the 19th century portrayed blacks as joyous, naive, superstitious, and ignorant, characteristics related to the way slaveholders in earlier years believed them to be. Such scholars as Patricia A. Turner note "stereotyping objects in popular culture that depict blacks as servile, primitive, or simpleminded and explains how the subtle influences of such seemingly harmless images reinforce antiblack attitudes."^[1] As with every other identifiable group, stereotypes continue today. Blacks are often portrayed as poor, dumb, jobless, lazy, dirty, criminals, and violent. These, as with any stereotype, are somewhat unrealistic thoughts of the culture as a whole.

[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. It played an essential part in shaping American society even before the nation existed independently.^[2] The perception of black people has been closely tied to their social strata in the United States.^[3] In early American history, the primary reason that Africans were in the colonies was as enslaved laborers transported by the slave trade.

[edit] Historical archetypes

[edit] Black-face archetype of minstrel shows

Minstrel shows portrayed and lampooned black people 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 effect 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

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. The book has often been considered to be a slur against Africans.^{[citation needed]} Tigers were common in India but never existed in Africa.

However "Sambo" refers to Black men that were considered very happy, usually laughing, lazy, irresponsible or carefree. This depiction of black people was displayed in films in the 1900s.

[edit] "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.^{[citation needed]} She is compliant in the face of white authority, as in the Aunt Jemima and Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind's Mammy characters, standards of this archetype.

The term Mammy is a variant of mother, used most prominently by black people in the South during and soon after slavery. White people used the term, as well, to refer to black female slaves, servants and caregivers, who often cared for white children of the slaveholder household. It became a general term for black women. White people often used it in a sentimental way, but many black people considered it patronizing or insulting.^{[citation needed]} Today, the term mammy, when applied to a black woman, is considered highly pejorative.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] "Magic Negro" archetype

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.^[4] The term was popularized by Spike Lee, who dismissed the archetype of the "super-duper magical negro"^[5] in 2001 while discussing films with students at Washington State University^[6] and at Yale University.^[7]

[edit] "Mandingo Negro" archetype

This stereotypical concept began during the centuries of African slavery where the male african slaves were said(by the white slave owners) to be animalistic and bestial in nature asserting that in "Negroes all the passions, emotions, and ambitions, are almost wholly subservient to the sexual instinct. . . .” and "this construction of the oversexed black male parlayed perfectly into notions of black bestiality and primitivism."^[8] [1]

Driven by fear of black male sexuality, the law of sexual assault and rape emerged as a tool to fortify white male power and control over their possessions, black women and white women. ^[9]

Rumors of black male sexual prowess continued to simultaneously stimulate and intimidate the imaginations of white America. Henry Havelock Ellis, a sexual psychologist, noted: I am informed that the sexual power of Negroes . . . are the cause of the favor with which they are viewed by some white women of strong sexual passions in America and by many prostitutes. At one time there was a special house in New York City to which white women resorted for these “buck lovers.” The women came heavily veiled and would inspect the penises of the men before making the selection.^[10].

With such societal preconceptions by the majority of the white community gave birth to and further reinforced the 'Mandingo theory' which to several attempts by many doctors and pseudoscientists to "deemphasize the gravitational force of the Mandingo obsession by advancing theories that the larger genitalia coincided with a smaller brain, lower intellectual endowment, and increased lasciviousness.".^[11].

Amongst the pseudoscientists, perhaps the most well known is John Philippe Rushton a psychology professor at the University of Western Ontario, Canada who became controversially popular upon the publication of his book entitles 'Race, Evolution, and Behavior: A Life History Perspective'(1995).J. Philippe Rushton

However, there was a backlash to the popularity of the Mandingo Negro stereotype which led to the rise of several accounts of brutal castration(mutilation of male genital organs)of Negroes across America whereby the "use of castration, in many respects, reveals that the act of lynching represented an attempt to dehumanize and emasculate black men, thereby indirectly reinforcing white male superiority. ^[12][2].

Today, the Mandingo Negro still has a large societal preconception that has spread beyond the borders of America which has been perpetuated particularly by the pornograghic media and the adult industry(and to some extent the tv media). However, in recent years the tv media, especially in UK and USA, is striving the curb this stereotype by asserting white males as sexually superior and possessing larger genitalia particularly in contrast to African americans.^{[dubious – discuss]}

[edit] Stereotypical portrayal in the media

[edit] Early stereotypes

Early minstrel shows lampooned the assumed stupidity of black people. Detail from cover of The Celebrated Negro Melodies, as Sung by the Virginia Minstrels, 1843

Early minstrel shows of the mid-19th century lampooned the supposed stupidity of black people. In 1844 Secretary of State John C. Calhoun, arguing for the extension of slavery, wrote,

^{[citation needed]}

Even after slavery ended, the intellectual capacity of black people was still frequently questioned. Movies such as Birth of a Nation (1915) questioned whether or not black people were fit to run for governmental offices or vote.

In 1916 Lewis Terman wrote in The measurement of intelligence,

^{[citation needed]}

Stephen J. Gould's book The Mismeasure of Man (1981) demonstrated how early 20th century biases among scientists and researchers affected their purportedly objective scientific studies, data gathering, and conclusions which they drew about the absolute and relative intelligence of different groups, and of men vs. women.

Some critics have considered Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as racist due to its depiction of the slave Jim, among other black characters. Some schools have excluded the book from their curriculum or libraries.^[13] The word "nigger" appears numerous times, and is used to describe Jim and other black characters. While the term was contemporary for the period when Twain wrote the book, some modern readers have found it offensive, particularly those who do not understand the book. Other critics have noted that Twain's portrayal of the relationship between Finn and Jim overturned stereotypes of the time, and recognized Jim's humanity and strength.

[edit] Film and television

Political activist and one time presidential candidate Rev. Jesse Jackson said in 1985 that the news media portray black people 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, black people 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: black people 89 percent, white people 17 percent
• Being physically violent: black people 56 percent, white people 11 percent
• Being restrained: black people 55 percent, white people 6 percent^{[dubious – discuss]}

[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 whether black people 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 black people were more likely than white people to be described in demeaning intellectual terms.^[20]

[edit] The news media: criminal stereotyping

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. There is a common misconception that majority of crimes are committed by black people rather than by either white people or Hispanic people. FBI statistics show that the numerical majority of crimes are committed by either white people or Hispanic people. ^[22] However, FBI statistics show that blacks commit more crime than whites or other minority groups as a percentage of the population and on a per capita basis. ^[23]

[edit] See also

• African characters in comics
• Black American Princess
• Blackface
• Black matriarchy
• Blaxploitation
• Coon song
• Ethnic stereotype
• Interracial pornography
• Racial profiling
• Stereotype threat
• Uncle Tom
• Uncle Remus
• How Rastus Gets His Turkey

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Patricia A. Turner, Ceramic Uncles & Celluloid Mammies: Black Images and Their Influence on Culture (Anchor Books, 1994).