Stereotypes In Poussey Washington's Orange Is The New Black

Racial stereotypes are things where a person talks about how the other person’s race is. It describes all the “nasty” things in another person’s race. It’s basically gossiping about someone else’s race and ethnicity. Back then, in that time period, there were high amounts of racism and stereotypes, so in that case, a lot of African American people were most likely convicted for doing something they didn’t do. Even though the court is supposed to equally convict or release people who have commited a crime whether it’s Black or White people.

Released in 2001, Disney Channel’s The Proud Family was a Black cartoon frequently watched by children who grew up during its airplay. Not vulgar or satirical, The Proud Family centered around Penny Proud and her family as she grew up through her years. As a child, I innocently watched this show, but picked up on unintended implications based off of the character’s skin color. The main character Penny was a lighter skinned girl, who appeared to possess “more Eurocentric phenotypic characteristics (Steele),” exhibited more intelligence, wealth, and virtue, as opposed to her darker skinned best friend, Dijonay, who was associated with deviance and sassiness, while speaking with a more Ebonic style of talking and possessed a more “ghetto” name. Although the show attempted to provide an accurate representation of a “traditional African American family,” it still regardlessly instilled these stereotypes of the African American community into my mindset, which were not disproved in my mind until later in my life (Steele).

Racial stigmas exist everywhere we look including commercials, shows, and movies. There are many influences that come from media outlets that lead society to critizes races and ethnicities by portraying them in having stereotypes as well as discriminating against a specific group, and lastly advertising biased thoughts. For example, the show Fresh Prince of Bel-Air displays African American stereotypes. At the same time, the film American History X which represents the effects of discrimination African Americans and Mexicans. And, the Volkswagen Polo commercials that displays prejudice thoughts against Middle eastern.

African Americans have consistently been the target of cinematic and television comedy. Considering African American women, the Mammy has emerged as an icon throughout the 20th century, representing the foil to American white women (cf. Atkinson, 2004: 3). Having its roots in antebellum Southern America, the Mammy “was an important figure in the socialization of white Southern children” (DelGaudio, 1983). Considerably, various depictions of the Mammy present her performing arduous domestic duties in the household of their slave owners. Therefore, the Mammy replaces the white lady in educating and taking care not only of the white children but also of the home (cf. Jewell, 1993: 38). In their work, Jennifer Bailey Woodard and Teresa Mastin stand their

there to spread the word of their god, but are being mocked while they do.

In the story, Watership Down, the rabbits tell stories about a trickster rabbit named El-ahrairah and the rabbits have a parallel action between the stories. The story is about few rabbits who leave their warren because one of the rabbits feels that there is danger near them and they decide to go far away from their home. The rabbits tell stories at times when something big or bad is happening. The stories are all about a past rabbit, El-ahrairah who tricks other rabbits to do good things for his warren and to collect food. Many of the plans that the rabbits make are similar to the tricks that El-ahrairah does. In Watership Down, a rabbit named Dandelion tells stories about El-ahrairah and Hazel’s rabbits are influenced by the stories to make plans that relate to El-ahrairah’s tricks.

Often in many films that undermine African Americans, they are depicted as thief's, murders, or unintelligent. These images are used to show that African Americans are unlike their white counterparts. According to Friedman, "This formulation undermines the racially and sexually based violence toward African Americans, wiping out the memory of rape, castration, and lynching of slaves that occurred in the past" (Friedman). The development of African American films, or films that truly put African Americans in any type of positive light did not really start to occur until the 1970's or 1980's. Before then films were often negative in spirit. Paula Massood describes the Hollywood depictions of African Americans in the previous era as, "failing to recognize the sociopolitical changes in the American landscape. African American characters most often appeared within a southern setting, largely ignoring the black city space and culture that figured in the lives and the imaginations of a vast majority of African Americans" (Massood). However, in the following years the development and progression of African American films was able to be seen.

The Southern Sambo, Mammy, and Jim Crow are three major stereotypical characters of African Americans in past and present popular culture that served their own purposes, held their own characteristics, and completed their respective actions. As a whole, each character completed the task of negatively portraying Blacks in popular culture. Although these characters were made centuries ago, many of them have either transformed or adapted to times in order to remain relevant even in the twenty-first century. These characters served as the foundation of a weapon used for the subconscious oppression of African Americans in a free society.

The film Bamboozled is an attempt to reappropriate black stereotypical presences in film. Several of the characters correspond with the classical and enduring stereotyped roles such as the Uncle Tom and the coon, however their utilization within the film’s satirical context allows for a historical exploration of the stereotypes as well as a reconfiguration of their meaning in terms of contemporary relevance. Through an analysis of the central figures Peerless Dothan, Manray, and Womack, one can identify the ways in which the film allows for them to transcend and redefine their roles. Additionally, the figures of Sloan and Dunwitty provide further commentary about black cultural identity and white hegemony in the twenty first century.

Animated films are commonly regarded as innocent and enchanting with little influence on the ideological beliefs that develop in children. Yet it is evident that this rhetoric is detrimental to the understanding that children are highly susceptible to influences from film and lack necessary skills to think critically. Thus, animated films instill ideologies within children that follow them throughout their lives. The predominant white narrative within the Disney film Pocahontas misrepresents Indigenous culture by portraying them as savage, bestial, and primitive caricatures while the falsification of historical events sets to maintain the archetypical white Anglo-Saxon supremacy, creating hegemonic ideologies that decisively impact how Indigenous people are viewed negatively within society and internally feel Otherized, causing confusion of personal identity. I will begin by articulating how films provoke fantasy, fears, and social concerns to garner audiences for profitability. These provocations are rooted in the ideologies of the dominant culture at the expense of Indigenous peoples. I will then express how the ‘Self’ (white men) and the ‘Other’ (Indigenous people) are segmented within Pocahontas and the effects this has on the relationship of Indigenous people to society. Next, I will discuss how the false representation of historical events creates cultural hegemony and reinforces categorization of Indigenous people. Lastly, I will demonstrate that the negative and

People today struggle with the social pressure among their peers to be a specific way, and “Breakfast Club” depicts this point. In the movie, five kids of different high school stereotypes meet in Saturday School. Throughout the day the adolescents begin informing each other about their lives, talents, secrets, etc. By the end of their eight hours of detention, they realize they have much more in common and they actually become friends, or intimate partners (Hughes, 1986).

Growing up in the 90s, watching movies were essential components of life. Specifically, comedies were the heart of interest until teenage years. The notion of wanting to watch a film that resonated with self and culture seemed right. Classic lines such as "I hate you Jody", "Bye, Felecia", or "Eat the cake Anna Mae" were jocular moments that had deeper meanings after years of pondering on how African American women are showcased in Hollywood films. After analyzing the depth of the roles in which African American women in classical Hollywood are depicted, there are three basic roles in which they are giving: the help, the hoodlum, and/ or the

The women of Jackie Ormes images encouraged Black women to reimagine themselves as having a voice and visibility. These women, Torchy, Candy, Patty Jo, and Ginger reflected Ormes’s pride in herself and her culture. Ormes makes it okay as a Black woman to want to wear high fashion, travel, fall in love, receive an education and question authority. These women created a counterstory to the historical image of the monstrous beast, therefore, allowing Ormes the opportunity to use her platform at the newspaper to make Black women in comic and cartoons human and visible.

Quentin Tarantino’s film Jackie Brown, released in 1997, challenges the pervasive stereotyping of not only blacks but specifically black women. Nowhere is the cinematic devaluation of African Americans more evident than in images of black women which, in the history of cinematography, the white ideal for female beauty has overlooked. The portrayal of black women as the racial Extra has been fabricated through many semblances in the history of American film. Film scholars and feminists alike have long been plagued with lament for the negativity and stereotyping that sticks with black women in American cinema. In this paper, I will argue that Jackie Brown highlights and stresses the racial variance of the female African American protagonist,

According to Wilkerson, “From the beginning, television, the image mill for the mainstream has not known what to do with black characters. It has struggled, as has the country, to find a place for them that white Americans could find comforting and digestible from the safe distance of their living rooms. Reality had nothing to do with it.” The media has portrayed black characters as nothing more than, buffoons, hustlers, pimps, and prostitutes.