Degrading black caricatures in media
Degrading black caricatures have affected African-American psychologically , their cultural development and misunderstanding in the media which in turn have had impact on the social , economic and political development of the communities in US , with such images spreading worldwide. The various ant-black caricatures have been given various characteristics which have displayed African-Americans in the media in ways that may be considered insulting. The coon comes out as the one these anti-back caricatures that were very insulting, with the name raccoon itself sounding very dehumanizing. It portrayed traits of a lazy and idle buffoon that is constantly idle and easily frightened. Stepin Fetchin is a prototypical movie where slow-walking and slow-talking natures portrays very demeaning and foolish individual (Bogle, 8). Before the death of the coon, it was developed to show very clear effort to degrade among other black stereotypes. The coons were presented as unaccountable niggers with their craziness and laziness making them unreliable creatures worth only for stealing chickens, eating watermelons and then destroying English language (Bogle, 8). The caricature was the making of American slavery where salve masters provided such descriptions for the slaves where they viewed them as wanting pushing trifling and ever servants. The coon characters in Fetchit were demeaned and abused verbally and physically by the white ones. For African American, the Stepin Fetchit continue to indicate a black man used to bowing.
Mammy caricature is a racial representation of African American females and since slavery, the image severed various interests, including economic, social and political, for the mainstream American whites. The caricature was made to represent black women slaves as being happy; with loyal servitude and hearty laughter as proof that slavery was being portrayed as humanizing. Of major effect is how the American film seemed to rationalize the character of Mammy, who represented as black, ugly, old and obese woman with no sexual appeal. The aim was to enforce the perception of the African American woman as being of lower class socially so that a normal white man could not choose her for a wife over a white woman. The rationalization of this character can be seen in the actresses such as Hattie McDaniel, who despite being gifted, impressed by putting more depth into the mammy character. Even when criticized by the black community as perpetuating this caricature , she found nothing wrong with it as long as she made 700 dollars weekly play the maid rather than making the same amount as an actual maid, (Bogle ,82). The creation of such perception aimed at creating acceptance of the African-American woman as being inferior, by demeaning her character in the media. The rationalization of this idea would work well in desensitizing of the demeaning of African American women in the film and hence, in real life. Tom caricature depicts African American women as weak people, faithful and happy to be servants. He is not a threat to the white but psychologically depends on the master for approval. In the movies he is subjected to torture through flogging, harassment and insults but still do not challenges their masters and thereby endearing themselves to the audience who are whites so that they are seen as some kind of heroes( Bogle , 5-6).
Picaninny caricature dominantly represented the African American child in history across many parts of the country. Black African-American children emerged among the earliest actors as picaninnies in the industry of motion picture (Bogle, 7). The caricature shows children adorning poor, torn, ragged, oversized clothes and in worse cases they are presented as being almost nude or completely nude. This creates the image that African American children and parents are caring less about modesty or that African American parents do not care about their children. A caring parent would offer decent cloths for his or her children but nudity in expresses a notion that unlike whites who wear good cloths, blacks are not concerned with civilization. Moreover, such nudity presents a problem since it sexualizes he black child with no apparent shame. This widespread showcasing of African American children’s nudity normalizes the vice of sexual objectification and furthermore, a justification that African American culture does not value modesty and while upholding sexual abuse. While a disproportionate large number of black children may be poor, the picaninny caricature implies that all the African American kids are impoverished which is not the case. This could also be related to the perception that African American culture encourages laziness among adults which is represented by the living conditions of the children. In other cases children are shown as hungry so that they steal watermelons and chickens and like animals in the wildness, picaninnies have are forced to fend for themselves.
The impact of degrading caricature of black people in whole of United States is depicted in African American endeavors to offer a different representation from one portrayed in media. The mainstream films and media in United States has used various mythic types to portray African Americans and their culture, which have been wrongly been taken as actual black experience. This has lead to development of African American cultures such as hip-hop culture, with an aim of “keeping it real” , where realness has some special meaning where rappers create their own images while measuring their authenticity by ghetto oriented ideas of “who’s badder’(Ogbar, 156). The emergence of such culture is an effect of how degrading culture has degraded African Americans across the country and they see a need for authenticity. The African Americans have also found avenues of being political involved where they can raise their issues amidst a perception that they are not civilized. Therefore, cultures such as hip hop revolutions become more real. The image of African American portrayed in film industry can be related to the reactions seen among the hip hop rappers, but the widespread social problems among the black communities cannot be correlated to rap cultures (Ogbar, 156). The way caricatures represents the black people is not reflected in the real social and economic happenings in real world such as more graduates , reduced teenage pregnancies and more political awareness among the black youths.
It’s, therefore, ridiculous to view such people as lazy and passive in the society. This can also be seen in shifting lyrical content due to sociopolitical stressors and the need for improved debates confined in realness (Ogbar, 156). This is in line with black actors who subverted the various caricatures types and transcending the negative image thereby giving pleasure to all audiences regardless of color. The African Americans have also been resisting Hollywood’s subjective representation of images, where black culture is sold superficially as just a fad. Political boycotts, demonstration and even writing and creation of own images in the film have been used as active resistance of such perceptions. This has countered depictions especially in science –fiction films such as like E.T’s narration of immigrants and representations of racial panics in reaction to possible future in race relations (Guerrero, 58). The need for a different African-American narrative can be said to have contributed to the emergence of cultures such as hip hop and in order to raise the issue of political and economic inclusivity of the entire American society regardless of color. The degrading caricatures have faced enough opposition due to the degrading of African American culture and social standing not only in United States across the world.
The push for respect and dignity for African American people in a manner different from that portrayed in film industry can be understood as an awakening among the children of past slaves. The prophetic and instinctive indignation of many people across the country, the challenging of degrading massive poverty, police brutality and even urban decay can be viewed as a kind of looking into the past and moving towards the future (Hill, 173). The civil rights movements started the push for equality even though many people would argue that this did not change the lives of African American much. There is a continuous progress of in terms of economic and social aspects in the nation and together with related debate (Torpey, 172). This means that the identity issues emerging from the aforesaid caricature are similar to what the African Americans in the past generations were fighting against.
Works cited
Bogle, Donald. Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, & Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films. New York [u.a.: Continuum, 2006
Ogbar, Jeffrey O. G. Hip-hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap. , 2007.156-157
Guerrero, Ed. Framing Blackness: The African American Image in Film. , 1993. 58
Torpey, John. "Paying for the Past?: The Movement for Reparations for African-Americans." Journal of Human Rights, vol. 3, no. 2, 2004.
Hill, Johnny Bernard. "Children of the Enslaved." Cross Currents.Vol. 2.2016.173
