African American Art Propaganda And Propaganda

Art and Propaganda have gone together for centuries and are often composed of racial stereotypes and inequalities between races. Jews and African Americans were a part of racist propaganda artworks used by Nazi Germany and the United States. Whites perceived Jews and Black minorities as animalistic, less than equal, and scum of the earth. Racist propagandist often portrayed these stereotypes through art propaganda that falsify the truth and exaggerate traits in Jews and Blacks. Art propaganda and its role in shaping ideologies and racist realities in the United States and around the word have been underrated. In this essay I am explaining the central issue, proposing a solution, articulating what other theorist have argued, and I give an

The illustration is a side-by-side comparison of traits in an Ape and Black human, which they call the Negro. At the bottom of the pamphlet it says, “Scientist Say Negro Still in Ape Stage, Races Positively Not Equal.” The traits of the Ape and Black human are pointing out the similarities in the picture of the racist stereotypes of the Black man having a small brain, animal smell, black skin, animal wool hair, ape groove in skull, and many more false comparisons. The ideology and purpose of the propaganda campaign is to point out to the public that Blacks are more similar to apes than the White man. Also that Black and White races are not equal and Blacks are like animals not humans.

She explains, “…since art has been so widely used for political ends any definition of propaganda should be able to account for its use” (18 Ross). Ross then clarifies why her definition of propaganda is the best method to explain the sender, receiver, and message system of propaganda. This is a strong concept because this is how propaganda is effective towards the target audience and how it can become ingrained in the publics mind that this certain message is the truth even though it can be deceitful or untrue. Ross talks about the issues of racial bias in misleading propaganda through the 1990 U.S. Senate campaign against African American candidate Harvey Gantt and Jesse Helms, which was famous for the “white hands ad” (Ross 24). She explains that this propaganda ad was effective in spreading misinformation about racial quota’s and how the public would think Gantt, the African American candidate would probably be for racial quotas just because he is African American, even though in reality he was opposed. Ross makes a good connection between the effectiveness of propaganda and how it can influence racial bias or stereotypes. She explains the strong influence propaganda can have with certain groups of people. Ross proposes how society can be persuaded to believe certain messages but lacks detail of how certain groups like Jews and African