Melanie Ramos

Black Psychology 104

9:45-11:00
November 12, 2015
Blacks in the Media
Blacks in the media, a race portrayed to be inferior to each and every race since the
1920s with caricatures used to ridicule this race in an entirety. Blacks in the media were nonexistent to be seen as great actors mostly seen as a comedic catch, in the Film Ethnic notions:
Black People in White Minds it described the timeline of Blacks in the media through the
1920s. The documentary the earliest portrayal in the 1900s of African Americans was the
caricatures placed on columns with characters such as The Sam Boat a docile old black man
who people stereotyped every African American to be in society. During the Jim Crow Laws in
the 1980s the Jim Crow dance erupted and was used in staged audiences, white men ridiculing
black men and this type of dance they saw once painted their face with black paint and wore torn
up clothes, seen as a joke and an imbecile to America.
Regarding African American women during slavery, Ethnic notions: Black People in
White Minds showed the iconic figure to representing African American woman, was
Mammy a woman who was a slave to the American home seen as being a proud servant and
also had more masculine attributes, such as control and strong. Mammy was an African
American who did not fit into the spectrum of being seen as beautiful and was not a threat to the
white woman. Most importantly Mammy served as a figure to place the notion that African
American slaves lived to serve the family that they worked for and Mammy was the ideal
servant that every American Family would like to have in their household. When motion pictures

started to be produced the film The Birth of the Nation produced by Thomas Dixon a
controversial racial film placing the depiction of African American emancipation being a great
mistake for America. The film also portrayed the black man to be a savage and rapist to white
virgin women and hurting our nation through its savage ways.
Blacks in the 1900s were placed under these racial and stereotypical values of the
Eurocentric society and being a minority to society. Blacks knew these racial issues were very
real and active and during War blacks believe that joining a defending their country along with
white soldiers would change the image because of the fact that they are Americans as well and
would fight for their country just as any white man. However the fact of serving the country and
going into war the acts of black face were still being performed in theaters. In Black face
production one revolutionary actor Bert William an African American who performed these
black face productions, and tried to evade the stereotypical acts and place a human factor to these
characters of African Americans. At the end of is career was to place these stereotypical and
racist skits out of his acts. Bert Williams stated It is not a disgrace to be a black man, but it is
not convenient, despite his great and utter success Bert William was placed to be inferior to the
white man.
White supremacy was very known of and blacks rose to place an image of educated and
conscious people during the civil right movement, showing blacks to be tired of being treated
like second class citizens, and animals to the eye of the Eurocentric values. African Americans
still in the 21st century are not represented with respect and not regarded to the stereotypical
notions of an African American still today blacks are not placed in important roles in society
regarding media, politics, and in education. This idea of minorities being a comedic place in
media is still present, the comedic way of stereotypes placed on minorities around the world.