Stereotypes of African Americans
Stereotypes of African Americans are beliefs about the culture of people with partial or total ancestry from any black racial groups of Africa whose ancestors resided in the United States since before 1865. These stereotypes are largely connected to the racism and the discrimination faced by African Americans. These beliefs date back to the slavery of black people during the colonial era and they have evolved within American society over time.
The first significant display of stereotypes of African Americans was in the form of minstrel shows. Minstrel shows boomed at the beginning of the nineteenth century; these shows were theatrical plays that used white actors who performed in blackface and wore torn attire to portray African-Americans in order to lampoon and disparage black communities. Throughout history, more stereotypes became popular to dehumanize African American communities further. Some nineteenth century stereotypes, such as the sambo, are now considered to be derogatory and racist. The "Mandingo" and "Jezebel" stereotypes portray African-Americans as hypersexual, contributing to their sexualization. The Mammy archetype depicts a motherly black woman who is dedicated to her role working for a white family, a stereotype which dates back to the origin of Southern plantations. Society has also depicted African-Americans as having an unusual appetite for fried chicken, watermelon, and grape drinks.
In the 1980s as well as in the following decades, emerging stereotypes of black men depicted them as being criminals and social degenerates, particularly as drug dealers, crack addicts, hobos, and subway muggers. Jesse Jackson, a prominent civil rights activist, acknowledged how the media portrays black people as less intelligent, less patriotic, and more violent. Throughout different media platforms, stereotypes became far-fetched, such as The magical Negro, a stock character who is depicted as having special insight or powers, and has been depicted in American cinema. However, in recent history, black men are stereotyped as being deadbeat fathers and dangerous criminals. There is a frequent stereotype in America that African Americans are hypersexual, athletic, uncivilized, uneducated and violent. These general and common themes in America have made young African Americans labeled as "gangsters" or "players" who generally reside in the "hood".
A majority of the stereotypes of black women include depictions which portray them as welfare queens or depictions which portray them as angry black women who are loud, aggressive, demanding, and rude. Others depict black women having a maternal, caregiving nature, due to the Mammy archetype.
Laziness, submissiveness, backwardness, lewdness, treachery, and dishonesty are stereotypes historically assigned to African Americans.
In the United States, whiteness is associated with goodness, morality, intelligence and attractiveness while blackness is stereotyped to be the opposite of these traits. It should be noted however that these views reference literally the colors on the spectrum and not human skin tones.
African Americans are also stereotyped to be prone to violence and are stereotyped to be hostile and unfriendly.
African Americans are considered loud, obnoxious, aggressive, rude, low class, primitive, dirty, talkative, religious, mentally inferior, ugly, overly assertive and having bad attitudes.
African American stereotypes are similar to the discriminated Roma in Europe. Roma also stereotyped as criminal and musically talented. These stereotypes were created and reinforced by the white media.
History
Stereotypes of African Americans originates from European colonialism and the Atlantic slave trade. White Americans used negative stereotypes to justify the lynching of Black men and the rape of Black women. White people also used stereotypes and deemed the black race inferior to justify Jim Crow laws and racial segregation. English colonists considered blacks racially inferior and used black slaves for slavery to gain wealth and to main White supremacy. These European racist ideas formed African American stereotypes.Historical stereotypes
s became a popular form of theater during the nineteenth century, which portrayed African Americans in stereotypical and often disparaging ways, some of the most common being that they are ignorant, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, joyous, and musical. One of the most popular styles of minstrelsy was Blackface, where White performers used burnt cork and later greasepaint, or applied shoe polish to their skin to blacken it, also exaggerating their lips, and often wearing woolly wigs, gloves, tailcoats, or ragged clothes to give a mocking, racially prejudicial theatrical portrayal of African Americans. This performance helped introduce the use of racial slurs for African Americans, including "darky" and "coon". Blackface performers would often portray black people as lazy, ignorant, superstitious, having a high sex drive, cowardly and as thieves who are prone to thievery.File:Minstrel PosterBillyVanWare edit.jpg|right|thumbnail|250px|This reproduction of a 1900 William H. West minstrel show poster, originally published by the Strobridge Litho Co., shows the transformation from "white" to "black."
The best-known stock character is Jim Crow, among several others, featured in innumerable stories, minstrel shows, and early films with racially prejudicial portrayals and messaging about African Americans.
Black women and Black men were both stereotyped to be lascivious and their bodies were sexualized during the slavery era. African American men were stereotyped to be lascivious, sexual monsters who often preyed upon and lusted for white women. This stereotype justified the lynchings of Black men.
Jim Crow
The character Jim Crow was dressed in rags, battered hat, and torn shoes. The actor wore Blackface and impersonated a very nimble and irreverently witty black field hand. The character's popular song was ''"Turn about and wheel about, and do just so. And every time I turn about I Jump Jim Crow."''Sambo, Golliwog, and pickaninny
The character Sambo was a stereotype of black men who were considered very happy, usually laughing, lazy, irresponsible, or carefree. The Sambo 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. This depiction of black people was displayed prominently in films of the early 20th century. The original text suggested that Sambo lived in India, but that fact may have escaped many readers.The figure of the Golliwog, with black skin, white-rimmed eyes, exaggerated red lips, frizzy hair, high white collar, bow tie, and colourful jacket and pants, was based on the blackface minstrel tradition. The character was greatly popular among other Western nations, remaining so well into the twentieth century. The derived Commonwealth English epithet "wog" is applied more often to people from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian subcontinent than to African-Americans, but "Golly dolls" still in production mostly retain the look of the stereotypical blackface minstrel.
The term pickaninny, reserved for children, has a similarly broadened pattern of use in popular American theater and media. It originated from the Spanish term “pequeño niño” and the Portuguese term “pequenino” to describe small child in general, but it was applied especially to African-American children in the United States and later to Australian Aboriginal children.
Black children as alligator bait
A variant of the pickaninny stereotype depicted black children being used as bait to hunt alligators. Although scattered references to the supposed practice appeared in early 20th-century newspapers, there is no credible evidence that the stereotype reflected an actual historical practice.Mammy
The Mammy archetype describes African-American women household slaves who served as nannies giving maternal care to the white children of the family, who received an unusual degree of trust and affection from their enslavers. Early accounts of the Mammy archetype come from memoirs and diaries that emerged after the American Civil War, idealizing the role of the dominant female house slave: a woman completely dedicated to the white family, especially the children, and given complete charge of domestic management. She was a friend and advisor.The Mammy archetype, founded during the Jim Crow era, branded African American Women as faithful and loyal to White people, which can be attributed to their role as enslaved caretakers during slavery. Moreover, the archetype was officially developed, when white southerners were trying to curate a falsified narrative by showing anti-slavery advocates that White men and Black women have a good relationship. However, they neglected to mention the mental, physical and sexual abuse African-American women experienced during slavery.
The Mammy archetype is also perpetuated throughout the media which causes systematically underprivileged Black girls to believe that their identity isn't acceptable if it isn't beneficial to society. Likewise, within the media this stereotype portrays African-American women as elated people that want to be burdened with tasks generated by their White friends/family. Nonetheless, it reinforces a generational belief that African-American women prefer to be dependent and caring to White families rather than recognize the freedom in independence.
Mandingo
The Mandingo is a stereotype of a sexually insatiable black man, invented by white slave owners to advance the idea that black people were not civilized but rather "animalistic" by nature. The supposedly inherent physical strength, agility, and breeding abilities of black men were lauded by white enslavers and auctioneers in order to promote the slaves they sold. Since then, the Mandingo stereotype has been used to socially and legally justify spinning instances of interracial affairs between Black men and White women into tales of uncontrollable and largely one-sided lust. This stereotype has also sometimes been conflated with the 'black brute' or 'black buck' stereotype, painting the picture of an 'untameable' black man with voracious, violent sexual urges and with a large penis.The term 'Mandingo' is a corrupted word for the Mandinka peoples of West Africa, presently populating Mali, Guinea, and the Gambia. One of the earliest usages found dates back to the 20th century with the publication of Mandingo, a 1957 historical erotica. The novel was part of a larger series which presented, in graphic and erotic detail, various instances of interracial lust, promiscuity, nymphomania, and other sexual acts on a fictional slave-breeding plantation. In conjunction with the film Birth of a Nation, white American media formed the stereotype of the black man as an untamed beast who aimed to enact violence and revenge against the white man through the sexual domination of the white woman.