By Christina Goodman Editor-in-chief
This semester Ethnic Studies 35 Introduction to Black/African American studies has taught me so much about stereotypes of African Americans. It really made me realize how much of America was/is racist and doesn’t care who sees it, especially from the early 1900s through the 1960s in movies, images and cartoons.
According to The Culture “ In fact, eleven Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons have been withheld from syndication since the nineteen-sixties due to their content.”
I remember watching “Tom and Jerry” and one of the characters was a “Mammy,” who had the voice of a black country woman, was overweight, and was shown cooking or serving as a maid. In the past few years, representations of Mammy-like characters have been removed from popular products, such as the popular likeness for Aunt Jemima. All products with her likeness have been renamed to Pearl Milling Company with no face or image attached to the brand since 2021.
The Mammy representation was also included on merchandise such as cookie jars, breakfast food items and other items for the kitchen.
Even though they only showed her lower half of her body you can tell what it’s referenced too, do you have an example of this? It’s hard to understand what that means.
Some stereotypes, I knew, particularly from once living in Texas.
For instance: All black people eat watermelon, drink grape soda/Kool-Aid and eat fried chicken. I know black people that don’t like any of that. You probably do too. Yet that imagery is somehow embedded in the public psyche.
That all black people have big lips, nappy hair and big noses is also a stereotypical representation of African features. These days, all sorts of women are getting their lips done to have fuller lips.
Other ones: Black women have a lot of children by different men. Black women want to fight.
Black men are often portrayed as deadbeat fathers, always in jail, or not knowing how to dance. In 2013, Cheerios portrayed a mix-raced family with a Black dad and white mom that received backlash. In nasty online comments, people noted that Black men don’t stay with their families, so the whole situation was not believable. That’s blatant racism in modern times.
Young black men are labeled as being good in sports, gang bangers or a threat to
It’s many different races that have the same situations that fits the stereotypes for African Americans
What people call us ghetto for a lot of models who’s white are rocking in the fashion show as urban.
One time I was labeled an angry black woman and looked at as “ghetto” for wearing big hoop earrings, wearing weave or braids, long nails and lashes.
Just to have people judging me and not even knowing me irritates my soul and evidently I’m not dumb or lazy.
Because I have two college degrees, a certificate and after this semester I’m earning another degree and certificate in Digital Media.
My education, specifically in the classes I have taken at Delta, have helped show me that how they label us is not who we are. It’s also shown me that we need to push back on damaging stereotypes.
