Negative stereotypes are damaging because it fits minority groups in a box and deceives people that roles are predetermined and absolute. Negative stereotypes work in two ways. First, it works according to language. There are the words and phrases used to perpetuate negative stereotype, but then, as we can see in the museum’s collection, there is the infiltration of material culture, objects bought and sold, that further communicated anti-black slogans. In effect, what we can see by looking at these images is a mass economy dedicated to keeping alive a very dangerous myth.
One example of anti-black imagery is the The pickaninnie is a gross caricature of a black child. The type originates from the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
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The Tom caricature was the depiction of a black man as an obedient servant. The Tom caricature advanced the myth that slavery was “needed,” and that Blacks were naturally predisposed to serve as servants to Whites. Similarly, the Mammy character was the female equivalent of the Tom. Perhaps in its most mass produced form, the Mammy was embodied by the marketing schemes of Aunt Jemima brand syrup. The image of a smiling, rotund Black woman, happily speaking about making pancakes, is an anti-black image that has lasted to this day. Again, the image of a “happy” slave, who willingly serves her white masters, further instills the idea that Blacks choose servitude over freedom, and are in fact happier to do the bidding of their superiors. It’s easier to justify the oppression of a group of people if the majority of the population is led to believe that African Americans had absolute roles that would never …show more content…
For example, we only need to look at the anti-black imagery that formed the bulk of cartoon programming created by RKO, Walt Disney, and other major film production companies. The reason racist propaganda was used in cartoons was that it was an “easy” way to perpetuate racial stereotypes through an otherwise innocent medium, the cartoon. For example, in one cartoon, a line of rabbits salute a cartoonish commander of the Third Reich, while one lone black-colored rabbit also salutes him, while in a joking manner claims, “I’m from Southern Germany.” The cartoon is racist on many different levels, but most damaging, is that it links the racism of Nazi Germany, with the ongoing racism of the South. The cartoon suggests, by the fact that the cartoon character “winks” at the audience when he delivers the punch line, that we should all laugh at this racial slur and view it as