The Southern Sambo, Mammy, and Jim Crow are three major stereotypical characters of African Americans in past and present popular culture that served its own purpose, held its own characteristics, and completed their respective actions. Ultimately, 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 world.
The Southern Sambo was made in the early 1900s with a purpose, appearance, and actions all used to negatively depict …show more content…
This character also shared the purpose of defending the enslavement of Blacks by undermining the maturity of Blacks and portraying them as ignorant buffoons. Distorting the image of Blacks in the theater fulfilled their purpose. Whites used ragged and ill fitting clothes to depict the appearance of Blacks. In addition, the White actors would exaggerate a traditional slave dance and mutilate the perfect dialects of Black men to make them look comical and ignorant.
The Jim Crow character is somewhat relevant in the popular culture of the twenty-first century but has somewhat lost its relevance. Parodies of White actors imitating Blacks resemble elements of the Jim Crow character because they usually over exaggerate things like the clothing, slang, or dialect of Blacks. This character was a defining character for a period of time and led to many unfortunate effects for Blacks. Fortunately, the effects of this character are slowly beginning to fade as Blacks are beginning to be taken more seriously in the modern …show more content…
Her purpose was also to defend slavery by convincing the general population that she was incapable of adjusting to society’s norms and by highlighting her love for being a servant. This purpose was accomplished by distorting her appearance to include a fat, pitch-black, older woman with no sexual attractiveness, which was opposite of the appearance of a beautiful White women. She was described as acting as a happy, loyal, docile, and obedient servant who enjoyed protecting and serving her master and his home. In her family, on the other hand, she was the controller and embraced the role of being the head of the house as opposed to embracing the dependent and subordinate roles that most women in that time period where expected to do. This Mammy role, held contradicting and false characteristics, but still somehow defined the way Black women were seen in popular culture.
Today, this Mammy figure is still relevant in popular culture, but only when describing older Black women. Although Black women are still described as strong and a controller in the house hold, the Mammy character’s ability to stereotype Black women as a whole has gave way to a new unnamed character. Black women are now being stereotyped as overly sexual, which is completely opposite of the Mammy. In movies, novels, and music videos the Black women
The Southern Sambo was made in the early 1900s with a purpose, appearance, and actions all used to negatively depict …show more content…
This character also shared the purpose of defending the enslavement of Blacks by undermining the maturity of Blacks and portraying them as ignorant buffoons. Distorting the image of Blacks in the theater fulfilled their purpose. Whites used ragged and ill fitting clothes to depict the appearance of Blacks. In addition, the White actors would exaggerate a traditional slave dance and mutilate the perfect dialects of Black men to make them look comical and ignorant.
The Jim Crow character is somewhat relevant in the popular culture of the twenty-first century but has somewhat lost its relevance. Parodies of White actors imitating Blacks resemble elements of the Jim Crow character because they usually over exaggerate things like the clothing, slang, or dialect of Blacks. This character was a defining character for a period of time and led to many unfortunate effects for Blacks. Fortunately, the effects of this character are slowly beginning to fade as Blacks are beginning to be taken more seriously in the modern …show more content…
Her purpose was also to defend slavery by convincing the general population that she was incapable of adjusting to society’s norms and by highlighting her love for being a servant. This purpose was accomplished by distorting her appearance to include a fat, pitch-black, older woman with no sexual attractiveness, which was opposite of the appearance of a beautiful White women. She was described as acting as a happy, loyal, docile, and obedient servant who enjoyed protecting and serving her master and his home. In her family, on the other hand, she was the controller and embraced the role of being the head of the house as opposed to embracing the dependent and subordinate roles that most women in that time period where expected to do. This Mammy role, held contradicting and false characteristics, but still somehow defined the way Black women were seen in popular culture.
Today, this Mammy figure is still relevant in popular culture, but only when describing older Black women. Although Black women are still described as strong and a controller in the house hold, the Mammy character’s ability to stereotype Black women as a whole has gave way to a new unnamed character. Black women are now being stereotyped as overly sexual, which is completely opposite of the Mammy. In movies, novels, and music videos the Black women