Stereotypes

Case Study: Black Women

What is a stereotype?

Stereotypes are qualities assigned to groups of people related to their race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, etc. They are generally negative and serve to generalize groups of people in manners that lead to discrimination and ignore the diversity within groups.

Why are stereotypes harmful?

Many reasons, but through the lens of critical race theory:

They can create what’s called “laissez faire” racism. This attributes inequality to the incapacities of people of color/women/LGBT rather than critically examining deeply flawed institutions like our criminal justice, education, housing and financial institutions.

Stereotypes…

Shift the blame away from institutions and the lasting historical legacy of discrimination and onto the individual.

How Congressman Paul Ryan, 2012 vice presidential candidate, explains urban poverty: “A tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular of men not working and generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value or culture of work.”

Stereotypes also call the need for “exceptions”

If the stereotype of black men = lazy, dangerous criminals who have no culture of work and abandon their families, what about this guy?

He’s the exception: special, unique, articulate, educated, lucky, raised well, bi-racial….blah blah blah

If the stereotype of black women

= poor, loud, angry, have lots of babies to get

government $$$, what about this

her?

If these people can be the “exception,” what’s wrong with the rest of you?

AKA: Our institutions are fine; you aren’t smart, hard-working or good enough – try harder!

How does the media perpetuate stereotypes? Even though media may celebrate diversity and tries to be race

neutral and NOT be overtly racist, media is:

• One of our flawed institutions that remains unequal—in all industries (publishing, journalism, advertising etc.)

• Managed by people who bring their own baggage with them

• Driven by money-making

Where do stereotypes come from?

The oldest stereotypes about black women come from slavery. They helped justify slavery and excuse abuse.

The Mammy

The Mammystrengths

weaknesses? How does this

stereotype reinforce our

systems of inequality? What’s the

price?

Mammy Makeover!

Hellerrrr! Don’t make me take off my earrings!

The Help

Mammy image is hard to shake…

Mammy’s Revenge

In 1940, Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to win an Academy Award (best supporting actress.) She famously said: “I’d rather play a maid than be one.”

The Pickaninny

Topsy, from the 1927 film “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” reinforced the stereotype that slaves need to be cared for and protected and were well-suited to be servants. She was played by a white actress in blackface.

The opposite of mammy, helpless, childlike servant – Prissy in GWT

BUTTERFLY MCQUEEN

Graduated from City College with a degree in political science in 1975 – at age 64!

Tragic Mulatto

She is beautiful, light-skinned and tragic. Her life is ruined because she has at least one drop of black blood. The “victim” of race mixing

Imitation of Life, 1934

Fredi Washington, as Peola, breaks her mother’s heart by passing for white.

Pinky, 1949

A mixed-race woman, passes for white and falls in love with a white man who doesn’t know the truth. Both Dorothy Dandridge and Lena Horne wanted to play Pinky, but the role was given to Jeanne Crain, a white actress.

Modern-day tragic

mulattoes aren’t that

tragic or modern…

…but are still considered the gold-standard of beauty (by

some)

Shonda Rhimes ignored beauty standards to choose an "older, darker-skinned and less classically beautiful" actress [Viola Davis] than Kerry Washington or Halle Berry for her new show.” Alessandra Stanley, NY Times, September 2014

Sapphire

Precursor to the ABW: She’s aggressive, hostile, loud, bossy, hard, overbearing, neck rolling, cursing….and more

She’s mammy without the nurturing

Dehumanized black women and justified working them like animals during slavery, breaking up their families and taking away their children. The opposite of the ideal of (white, Southern) womanhood.

Racism and sexism collide: Sapphire of “Amos & Andy

Sapphire was Kingfish’s brash, nagging, hostile, emasculating wife on Amos & Andy.

The ABW is…

… the mean, harsh dominant matriarch, welfare queen, blamed for emasculating men and driving them away, beating her children and raising weak sons.

Aunt Esther, Sanford & Son

Hostile, controlling, emasculating Aunt Esther from the 1970s: Her catch phrase: “Watch it, sucka!”

She’s a staple of reality TV

Any black woman not smiling = angry

Sapphire/ABWstrengths, weaknesses? How does this

stereotype reinforce our systems of inequality? What’s the price

The Jezebel

The hypersexual bad girl, always wants “it,” freak, hoochie, video vixen, promiscuous, gold digger

The name comes from the Bible

Jezebel was supposedly a wanton, evil seductress who tried to turn her husband, Ahab, away from God in order worship false gods.

Promiscuous Black Woman…

Justified rape during slavery.

Sally Hemmings: victim or vixen on screen?

Monster’s Ball, 2001 “make me feel good”

Halle Berry won best actress Oscar

Foxy Brown vs Foxy Brown

Anita Hill

The buttoned up law professor got pulled into the stereotype of the oversexualized black woman, when she accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his 1991 nomination for Supreme Court justice.

Sexualized images of black womenstrengths, weaknesses? How does this stereotype reinforce

our systems of inequality? What’s the price

Beyonce vs bell hooks

“…from my deconstructive point of view, [Beyonce] is colluding in the construction of herself as a slave. She is a terrorist.” bell hooks, feminist scholar, May 2014

The future