Carrie Mae Weems: Racism And Stereotypes

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Carrie Mae Weems is best known for her black and white photography, which is based around racial issues such as racism and stereotyping. In the series “ain’t jokin” Weems covers many stereotypes and issues African Americans deal with on a daily basis. Weems aims to bring to light the racist issues from not only other races but racism within the black community. The series Ain’t Jokin hit these problems face on. Weems an African American herself has faced many of these issues in her own life, which is what inspired her works of art. The images in this series are titled after what are supposed to be humorous stereotypes about black culture, which contrast tremendously with the portraits themselves. The work is a series of black and white photos …show more content…
In both of these pictures the stereotype was obvious to the viewer, but Weems captured the pain in their eyes and created a very nostalgic mood. The photos although they were more obvious than the others the way Weems captured the mood you could feel the emotion coming through the picture. For instance the woman holding the chicken, the expression on her face is somber and one gets a since of heart ache and anger. If the chicken were removed Weems could have probably captured the same look and feeling from the subject, but the meaning of the context would have been …show more content…
Weems uses storytelling through the series to capture the mood while some fin these stereotypes as comical most are deeply hurt by them. In some of the photos there is no need for captions explaining what racial stereotype was happening in other photographs such as a man standing on a porch without reading the caption one might be lost as to what the issue is. I the photograph with the man standing on the porch the man looks to be an older gentleman and looking tired, but nothing to really tell you what is happening to him, and then the caption reads “What are three things you can 't give a black person?” This statement is one that is so offensive and is a direct representation of the stereotypical statement that Weems was trying to bring to light. This photograph and caption make me wonder what things were being talked about he is standing on a porch of a home did it mean that a home was one of the “three things you can’t give a black person?” Weems did a magnificent job at making you really look and question what was going on in the subjects

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