Minstrel shows became a popular form of theater during the nineteenth century, which portrayed African Americans in stereotypical and often disparaging ways, some of the most common being that they are ignorant, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, joyous, and musical. One of the most popular styles of minstrelsy was
Blackface, where White performers used burnt cork and later greasepaint, or applied shoe polish to their skin to blacken it, also exaggerating their lips, and often wearing woolly wigs, gloves, tailcoats, or ragged clothes to give a mocking, racially prejudicial theatrical portrayal of African Americans. This performance helped introduce the use of racial slurs for African Americans, including "
darky" and "
coon".
minstrel show poster, originally published by the Strobridge
Litho Co., shows the transformation from "white" to "black." The best-known stock character is
Jim Crow, who is featured in innumerable stories, minstrel shows, and early films with racially prejudicial portrayals and messaging about African Americans.
Jim Crow The character Jim Crow was dressed in rags, battered hat, and torn shoes. The actor wore Blackface and impersonated a very nimble and irreverently witty black field hand. The character's popular song was
"Turn about and wheel about, and do just so. And every time I turn about I Jump Jim Crow." Sambo, Golliwog, and pickaninny The character Sambo was a stereotype of black men who were considered very happy, usually laughing, lazy, irresponsible, or carefree. The Sambo stereotype gained notoriety through the 1898 children's book
The Story of Little Black Sambo by
Helen Bannerman. It told the story of a boy named Sambo who outwitted a group of hungry
tigers. This depiction of black people was displayed prominently in films of the early 20th century. The original text suggested that Sambo lived in
India, but that fact may have escaped many readers. The figure of the Golliwog, with black skin, white-rimmed eyes, exaggerated red lips, frizzy hair, high white collar, bow tie, and colourful jacket and pants, was based on the
blackface minstrel tradition. The character was greatly popular among other
Western nations, remaining so well into the twentieth century. The derived
Commonwealth English epithet "
wog" is applied more often to people from
Sub-Saharan Africa and the
Indian subcontinent than to African-Americans, but "Golly dolls" still in production mostly retain the look of the stereotypical blackface minstrel. The term
pickaninny, reserved for children, has a similarly broadened pattern of use in popular American theater and media. It originated from the Spanish term “pequeño niño” and the
Portuguese term “pequenino” to describe small child in general, but it was applied especially to African-American children in the United States and later to
Australian Aboriginal children.
Black children as alligator bait A variant of the pickaninny stereotype depicted black children being used as bait to hunt
alligators. Although scattered references to the supposed practice appeared in early 20th-century newspapers, there is no credible evidence that the stereotype reflected an actual historical practice.
Mammy {{multiple image The Mammy archetype describes African-American women household slaves who served as nannies giving maternal care to the white children of the family, who received an unusual degree of trust and affection from their enslavers. Early accounts of the Mammy archetype come from memoirs and diaries that emerged after the
American Civil War, idealizing the role of the dominant female house slave: a woman completely dedicated to the white family, especially the children, and given complete charge of domestic management. She was a friend and advisor. The Mammy archetype, founded during the Jim Crow era, branded African American Women as faithful and loyal to White people, which can be attributed to their role as enslaved caretakers during slavery. Moreover, the archetype was officially developed, when white southerners were trying to curate a falsified narrative by showing anti-slavery advocates that White men and Black women have a good relationship. However, they neglected to mention the mental, physical and sexual abuse African-American women experienced during slavery. The Mammy archetype is also perpetuated throughout the media which causes systematically underprivileged Black girls to believe that their identity isn't acceptable if it isn't beneficial to society. Likewise, within the media this stereotype portrays African-American women as elated people that want to be burdened with tasks generated by their White friends/family. Nonetheless, it reinforces a generational belief that African-American women prefer to be dependent and caring to White families rather than recognize the freedom in independence.
Mandingo The Mandingo is a stereotype of a sexually insatiable black man, invented by white slave owners to advance the idea that black people were not civilized but rather "animalistic" by nature. The supposedly inherent physical strength, agility, and breeding abilities of black men were lauded by white enslavers and auctioneers in order to promote the slaves they sold. '|268x268px The term 'Mandingo' is a corrupted word for the
Mandinka peoples of West Africa, presently populating
Mali,
Guinea, and
the Gambia. One of the earliest usages found dates back to the 20th century with the publication of
Mandingo, a 1957 historical erotica. The novel was part of a larger series which presented, in graphic and erotic detail, various instances of interracial lust, promiscuity, nymphomania, and other sexual acts on a fictional slave-breeding plantation. In conjunction with the film
Birth of a Nation (1915), white American media formed the stereotype of the black man as an untamed beast who aimed to enact violence and revenge against the white man through the sexual domination of the white woman. During the era of slavery, white slave owners inflated the image of an enslaved black woman raising her voice at her male counterparts, which was often necessary in day-to-day work. This was used to contrast the loud and "uncivilized" black woman against the white woman, who was considered more respectable, quiet, and morally behaved. The popularization of the Sapphire stereotype dates back to the successful 1928-1960 radio show
Amos 'n' Andy, which was written and voiced by white actors. The black female character Sapphire Stevens was the wife of George "Kingfish" Stevens, a black man depicted as lazy and ignorant. These traits were often a trigger for Sapphire's extreme rage and violence. Sapphire was positioned as overly confrontational and emasculating of her husband, and the show's popularity turned her character into a stock caricature and stereotype.
Cultural impact and criticism This stereotype has also developed into the trope of the '
angry black woman', overall portraying black American women as rude, loud, malicious, stubborn, and overbearing in all situations, not only in their relationships. This affects how black women are perceived in workplaces, schools, and the media. These portrayals have negative social and physiological impacts. They reinforce that black women are irrational, unapproachable, leading to them being viewed as undeserving of leadership roles. In addition, A 2018 study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that repeated exposure to the angry black women stereotype led to increased levels of stress and social isolation among Black women, as they felt pressure to change how they act to be perceived as professional or unaggressive.
Jezebel The Jezebel is a stereotype of a hypersexual, seductive, and sexually voracious black woman. Her value in society or the relative media is based almost purely on her sexuality and her body. The roots of the Jezebel stereotype emerged during the era of
chattel slavery in the United States. White slave owners exercised control over enslaved black women's sexuality and fertility, as their worth on the auction block was determined by their childbearing ability, i.e. their ability to produce more slaves. The sexual objectification of black women redefined their bodies as "sites of wild, unrestrained sexuality", insatiably eager to engage in sexual activity and become pregnant. In reality, enslaved black women were reduced to little more than breeding stock, frequently coerced and sexually assaulted by white men.
Cultural impact and criticism Post-
emancipation, the
sexualization of black women has remained rampant in Western society. Modern-day Jezebels are pervasive in popular music culture; black women more often appear in music videos with provocative clothing and hypersexual behaviour compared to other races, most notably white women.
Tragic mulatta A stereotype that was popular in early Hollywood, the "
tragic mulatta", served as a cautionary tale for black people. She was usually depicted as a sexually attractive, light-skinned woman who was of African descent but could
pass for
Caucasian. The stereotype portrayed light-skinned women as obsessed with getting ahead, their ultimate goal being marriage to a white, middle-class man. The only route to redemption would be for her to accept her "blackness."
Uncle Tom The
Uncle Tom stereotype represents a black man who is simple-minded and compliant but most essentially interested in the welfare of whites over that of other blacks. It derives from the title character of the novel
Uncle Tom's Cabin, and is synonymous with black male slaves who informed on other black slaves’ activities to their white master, often referred to as a "
house Negro", particularly for planned escapes. It is the male version of the similar stereotype
Aunt Jemima, whose likeness first made its appearance in the 1880's.
Black brute, Black Buck Black brutes or black bucks are stereotypes for black men, who are generally depicted as being highly prone to behavior that is violent and inhuman. They are portrayed as hideous, terrifying predators who target helpless victims, especially white women. In the post-
Reconstruction United States, "black buck" was a
racial slur for black men who refused to bend to the law of
white authority and were seen as irredeemably violent, rude, and lecherous.
Coon The coon stereotype originally depicted black men as lazy, dishonest, improvident, unintelligent, superstitious, childish, thievish, avoids work and responsibility and is prone to steal. It's since evolved multiple times to more appropriately represent the Black demographic it aims to describe. It's earliest uses can be traced to minstrel shows that depicted this stereotype and sometimes referred to the character as "Zip Coon" or "Urban Coon".
In art ''. From the Colonial Era to the
American Revolution, ideas about African Americans were variously used in
propaganda either for or against slavery. Paintings like
John Singleton Copley's
Watson and the Shark (1778) and Samuel Jennings's
Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences (1792) are early examples of the debate under way at that time as to the role of black people in America.
Watson represents an historical event, but
Liberty is indicative of abolitionist sentiments expressed in Philadelphia's post-revolutionary intellectual community. Nevertheless, Jennings' painting represents African Americans in a stereotypical role as passive, submissive beneficiaries of not only slavery's abolition but also knowledge, which liberty had graciously bestowed upon them. As another stereotypical
caricature "performed by white men disguised in facial paint, minstrelsy relegated black people to sharply defined dehumanizing roles." With the success of
T. D. Rice and
Daniel Emmet, the label of "blacks as buffoons" was created. One of the earliest versions of the "black as buffoon" can be seen in
John Lewis Krimmel's
Quilting Frolic. The violinist in the 1813 painting, with his tattered and patched clothing, along with a bottle protruding from his coat pocket, appears to be an early model for Rice's
Jim Crow character. Krimmel's representation of a "[s]habbily dressed" fiddler and serving girl with "toothy smile" and "oversized red lips" marks him as "...one of the first American artists to use physiognomical distortions as a basic element in the depiction of African Americans." == Contemporary stereotypes ==