Little Black Sambo: The Stereotypes Of African Americans

Since the United States’ inception, the negative stereotypes and generalizations of African Americans have been some of the worst examples of racism that has been extremely prevalent in American culture. African American stereotypes date back all the way to colonial American times, where African American slavery was considered to be accepted and practiced. Since then, black people in America have been treated horribly for stereotypes that have deep roots in the mistreatment of black people in American history.

But the most shocking aspect of this whole situation came in the form of the African American performer Bert Williams who was degraded to play roles while in blackface that made a mockery of black people and essential of himself which probably was hard for him to act out. Fortunately the practice of performing blackface ended in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Act. But there are other stereotypes that have prevailed during the 20th century and I have two which are- the angry black women and black men always being thugs. For the first stereotype a particular movie comes into mind that portrays the angry black women perfectly and that is Madea’s Big Happy Family where there was a scene of a black women character that was yelling at her baby’s father about child support and was rolling her neck, chewing gum and speaking loudly. Looking back on the scene I realize now how stereotypical that scene was and that it further perpetuated a particular idea about how African American women behave or

Jim Crow was a system in the southern and bordered states that made lives for blacks and other races from white difficult from 1877 to the 1960s. Blacks were to be treated as inferiors to the whites. “ Newspaper and magazine writers routinely referred to blacks as niggers, coons, and darkies; and worse, their articles reinforced anti-black stereotypes” (Pilgrim 2000). Overall, it was oppression on blacks. Blacks did not receive their full rights as citizens. Blacks faced so many other racial problems from whites as if they had done something wrong in the world. Two examples of how blacks lived with Jim Crow are Walter Cavers from North Carolina and Dora Dennis from Arkansas. In interviews they described issues they had to face where they were

Then as time went on slavery was abolished and civil rights moved forward. The popular depictions of African Americans then moved away from the unintelligent, yet happy and joyful African Americans to the depiction of the unintelligent violent African American. This

Asians always have perfect scores on the test and aspire to be doctors. African Americans have serious attitudes, are thugs and live in poverty. While all Hispanics are illegal immigrants, who can not speak English and commit vicious crimes. If you watch much television, all of these previous statements may seem true. Television is a powerful source of knowledge that in some ways help us understand others in humanity and ourselves.

Over the past decade disciplinary issues in the schools have increased. Children are no longer showing respect to those in authority. This problem has caused students to not only decrease in their academic achievement but also decrease in their real world social development. African Americans are amongst one ethnicity group to experience bias. In the context of school discipline, race and gender stereotypes particularly function to criminalize African American youth and to reinforce cultural beliefs about perceived inherent behavioral deficiencies and African American cultural norms in need of “social correction” (George, 2014). African Americans are placed in the stereotypical norm of having discipline problems in the schools. Especially African American girls. In a 2014 national data report, African American girls accounted for 12% of all suspensions (George, 2014). With that being said, African American girls are suspended at least “six times the rate of white girls and more than any other group of girls and several groups of boys.” (George, 2014) This is a huge problem in our schools that needs to be addressed.

When you look at the amount of African American stars on television, it is easy to tell that stereotypes of African Americans are being portrayed negatively. Since the 1960s, black television has thrived in many different ways. From “Different Matters” to “Insecure”, African Americans have tried to get rid of this stigma. African Americans are constantly shown as. However, with the increase of representation comes an increase in misrepresentation. The amount of discrimination has risen exponentially in the United States. This is due to the increased hatred and miscommunication of black struggle and black problems in the world, causing an inhumane belief and standard of regular African Americans in the world.

Stereotypes seem to be very present in our country, especially stereotypes towards African-Americans. For the longest time, like it has been instilled as a fact in my brain, black people have been directly related to the words “ghetto” or “hood”. I don’t remember a time where I actually can remember the words “ghetto” or “hood” without the picture in my mind of an African-American person. I think that this is a big problem in today’s society because it is not true but still seems to be taught. In politics, society, and everyday life, it feels like African-American’s are being slammed for being hoodlums. This is a problem because there are millions of African-American people who do not fit this stereotype, but still get degraded and treated badly because of this age old belief.

A stereotype is a popular belief about specific types of individuals. Stereotypes are standardized and simplified conceptions of groups based on some prior assumptions. African Americans have been perceived to be someone they are not in the media, history, and in everyday life. Although some stereotypes are true, many are harmful and inaccurate.

Different archetypes have been used to represent black people through television, live performances, and film. These stereotypes consisted of “Coon”, “Mulatto”, “Mammy”, and “Tom” (site—Johnson). Prior to films and television, African American’s were depicted by white actors wearing “blackface” in which white people entertained audiences through plots that portrayed African Americans in stereotypical ways that had prevailed since the time of slavery. “Coon” for instance, was created as a from of comedy and amusement for white individuals, as this image allowed for comic relief through idiocy. “Coons” had, in essence, a low level of intelligence with minimal common sense. Their dull-wittedness advocated the view that African American people were unintelligent beings who were incompetent and unable to formulate intelligible thoughts. This further reinforced the idea that African American people were in need of instruction and guidance from white individuals—just as they did during slavery—in order for African Americans to sustain and remain alive, or else they would be damaged by their own incapabilities. Similar to the “Coon”, Mammy was also a common character who was portrayed as an obese and grumpy woman who also provided comic relief to white folks. Mammy’s creation was

Popular caricatures of the African American community helped keep what white supremacist would call racial balance. During the time of the civil war, tensions were high when people started to get the idea that slaves did not like being slaves. To combat this the uncle and the Mammy caricatures were created. They were depicted as older slaves that enjoyed working under their master (Riggs). This new concept helped white people conform to the idea of slavery because of the need it implied on the white community to control slaves. After northern states began to make slavery illegal, they no longer needed docile characters to play a part in the segregation of the races. Instead new characters were created to fit their agenda To combat the growing presence of black men in the northern middle class the Zip coon was created

George focuses on implicit bias largely in the educational sector and how that effects African Americans with the emphasis on specifically the black female. Educationally facilities tend to apply restrictions regarding disciplines on a sort of equality across the board basis; however, the failure of recognition is that this method is not effective and results in long term psychological disparities that will prove to affect an individual’s well-being well beyond their school years. Racism is certainly still prevalent in society and perhaps even unintentionally woven into the very fabric that has a huge impact on our

When I first heard someone say, “All African American people are Ghetto,” I was very offended that someone would make this type of assumption about my culture, and I thought how ignorant this person must be; but then I stopped and wondered why other people would think this about us. I asked her why she would say something like this, and she instantly listed shows like Tosh.O and Chelsea Lately, which highlight my culture in a negative view. It was clear to me that she had made up her mind about black people through watching the media and seeing African Americans fulfill that stereotype in person. This led me to question: Where exactly do these stereotypes come from?

In today’s society it has become a norm to make assumptions of an individual and categorize them into groups that fit them. This would be known as stereotyping, and it occurs everyday and almost everywhere. It can affect someone’s everyday life along with their emotions. A stereotype is a widely held idea or image of a a group of people and is based off of some truth, while misconceptions are based off no evidence at all. Stereotypes can either be positive or negative. Stereotypes exist because that’s how the human brain functions, they see something that repeats within a group of people and that’s how stereotyping begins. An example of a positive stereotype would be that African-Americans are very athletic. However, there can be some negative

The origins around the view of black people are formed from slavery (Green 1998). The abolishing of slavery only increased stereotypes about black people (Green 1998). The oldest stereotype about black men is Sambo. The Sambo stereotype date back to the colonization of American. Sambo was a “dumb, child-like man who was happy to be slaves, but do to his natural affinity for laziness required his slave master contain direction” (Green 1998). The Sambo stereotype was embraced by mainstream white society and was “featured on music, literatures, games and restaurant menus” (Green 1998). The theatre received its first taste of black stereotype with the created of Jim Crow in the 19th century. Jim Crow character was created by T.D. Rice who painted