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Abstract |
Media images are extremely powerful forces in modern American society. These images with which we are constantly bombarded by living in a capitalistic society can without a word portray to millions messages of prejudice, love, hate, happiness, anger, fear, while evoking thoughts and ideas, and reinforcing behaviors, opinions, and stereotypes. One can argue that on some level these images to an extent control our actions and behaviors. Throughout history, specific images have been created and utilized to mock, ridicule, control and/or harm members of specific socio economic groups. This phenomenon is something that became particularly evident in the post World War I era in the United States. The group in this country that has been most affected by these stereotypical images is African Americans. Racial stereotyping in the media has changed over time in presentation and degree, it can be inferred that those changes are reflective of what was going on during those times and correlate with changing societal attitudes. Though the status of African Americans in this country has become more equal with that of whites, the echoes of these stereotypes and degrading images still on some level exist in today's advertising and popular images, but in differing forms and degrees. Thus the images and the ways in which they are projected may have changed, but some of the messages they are sending remain the same. Mass communication started with the mass circulation of newspapers, pamphlets, merchandise catalogues and magazines in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The post World War I era in the United States continued this trend while entering an age of new technology, which led to new mediums of mass communication and mass production. The advances that were made in terms of mass production and communication started a booming age of consumerism and mass consumption that is a defining aspect of the culture of the post World War I United States, particularly the Twenties, and has continued through the modern day. The Twenties were an era of talkies, vaudeville shows and radio programs that were ever present to the population whether overtly or subconsciously. One must keep in mind that in reference to consumerism, whether you are discussing the twenties or the present day, that not only are products being sold to the American public, but ideas about government, society and race are being perpetuated by them as well. For the sake of this discussion, this thesis will explore the origin and evolution of selected caricatures and stereotypes and their evolution over time. I will also examine why and to what extent black stereotypes and caricatures and still exist in media today. I will also reflect on what this says about race relations in more contemporary times. The use of racial caricatures and stereotypes in the post- slavery United States became a justification for the correctness of slavery. From Radical Reconstruction to World War I and beyond, there was a sort of national nostalgia for the "good ol' darkies" who loved their masters and were happy to serve anytime, anywhere. It was in essence a way for whites to hold on to a bygone era, an antiquated social order that had begun to crumble with the emancipation of slaves. There are numerous black stereotypes that can be examined in terms of their origins and where in the media they were exemplified during the Jim Crow era and beyond in the United States. Examples of these stereotypes and degrading images are shown through various mediums not exclusive to the entertainment and mass media industry, but also in everyday items including, but not limited to ashtrays, postcards, Halloween masks, incense burners, fishing lures, sheet music, detergent boxes, wall clocks, jewelry, toys and games. In these examples, black men are depicted as slow talking, childlike servants; wide-eyed, big lipped buffoons; or menacing, subhuman brutes. Black women are portrayed as fat, ugly, desexed pretend-mothers or near-White, sex crazed, self-loathing victims. Black children are portrayed as nameless, naked, miniature buffoons. Millions of anti-black items were produced during the Jim Crow era. Their purpose was to serve as a justification of prejudice and discrimination against African Americans. If black adults possessed childlike qualities, they should then not be allowed to vote, serve on juries, or become police officers or teachers due to their lack of knowledge and maturity. In this model, African Americans need guidance to protect whites from crimes that blacks may commit against them, not equality because they were not intelligent or responsible enough to handle it. In the article entitled, "From Hostility to Reverence: 100 Years of African Imagery in Games" Denis Mercier divides the portrayal of African Americans in games over the past century into three distinct eras in American race relations. These three eras will be the context through which the evolutions and stereotypes in this discussion will be examined. The first time period to be examined is starts during the 1870s and continues until World War II. This was a time when racial prejudice and segregation were on the rise all over the United States. Slavery had been abolished, blacks were looking for their rightful place in American society, and many whites were trying to become accustomed to this. The second era that will be examined is the Post World War II era. This was a time in which African Americans were making great political and social gains due to their political and social activism during and after the Second World War. During the first two time periods I will show that whites controlled most of the means by which the American public viewed one another through the media as well as material culture, thus controlling the images seen by the American public. The final era I will examine will be the post Civil Rights movement beginning in the 1970s up to the present. Unlike the two previous time periods, African Americans began to control more of the means through which they are seen by the American public. In this era, both black and white owned companies have worked to produce and introduce new, more realistic and positive images of black Americans though many negative images still persist and exist. For the sake of this discussion I will be looking at several of the most well known of these caricatures and stereotypes, all of which undoubtedly helped to fan the flames of white supremacy in the popular culture of America during the post World War I era and beyond. The first stereotypes to be examined will be the most common for African American women; the mammy and jezebel caricature. The next to be discussed will be some of the better known stereotypes of black men, the sambo, coon, Tom, and Brute. The final of the caricatures that will be analyzed will be the pickaninny, exemplified by black children. The objective here is to analyze and synthesize the work of others, in order to explain how, why and to what extent black stereotypes exist in our society today. In addition to this, the stereotypes themselves will be examined through time and context in terms of how and why they have either evolved or remained the same. I will also explore the motivations and intentions of both blacks and whites for perpetuating these stereotypes within the social, political, and economic climate of the country at different points in the nation's history. |
CCSU Theses & Dissertations
