She Dreams in Color: May 2008

Here's my final research paper for my American Racism class (first semester).
I loved this course.

Kathleen Wilson
FYS034
December 13, 2007

The Spread of Black Stereotypes and Denigration in 19th and 20th Century America:
Motive, Method, and Public Response

It is often said that one should not believe everything he hears/reads/sees on TV. Early American colonists apparently did not get the memo. As is true today (and perhaps always will be), the desire for wealth and power could lead one to abandon his morals and betray his fellow man in the days of American slavery. From the time the concept of slavery was introduced to the United States in the 1600s, the easily influenced American public was misled and manipulated into supporting the denigration and enslavement of African Americans. Entertainers quickly realized the success of incorporating the controversial issue of slavery into the industry, and advertisers used the stereotypes introduced in black entertainment to sell their products. Some white Americans used these methods to promote discrimination against blacks, while others saw exploiting black Americans in the media solely as an opportunity to make a few extra dollars. In the 19th and 20th century, many forms of entertainment also served as a means for education and the formation of public opinion. Books, plays, and films delivered messages of the author’s choosing about the African American way of life. While these productions were intended for entertainment purposes, white Americans in the audience often did not know any better and accepted the ideas and images as fact rather than fiction. Whether their motives lay in hatred, fear, or profit, 19th and 20th century colonists who spread negative African American stereotypes had a great influence on society’s opinion and treatment of blacks.
Money makes the world go ‘round, and it has apparently done so for centuries. Greed in the 1800s led the entertainment industry to exploit African Americans for the sake of making a profit (regardless of the repercussions on blacks in American society) in comedic performances called “minstrel shows.” Minstrel shows usually consisted of white actors performing as clumsy, whimsical black characters in song, dance, and satirical skits. The on-stage attack on blacks in society intrigued white Americans, and that meant big bucks for entertainers. The desire for wealth led even black performers to participate in minstrel shows in the 1840s, when African Americans began to take stage in costume and make-up, ready and willing to exploit their own people to get a few laughs and earn a few dollars. Bert Williams, who was arguably the most successful African American performer of his time, acted in blackface at the height of his career. As the monologue in Ethnic Notions demonstrates, success for black Americans in the entertainment industry did not lead to respect. Even though Williams was a rich and famous performer, he was still not accepted by white society.
In addition to bringing in a significant amount of money, minstrel performances were an effective way of communicating images and opinions to the American public. Minstrel shows began in the 1820s and soon became one of the most prominent and possibly most effective methods of spreading African American denigration during slavery. Many white Americans, especially those in the North, had had little or no contact with African Americans. These audience members had only their experience at the minstrel show to form an opinion of blacks and, ignorant to the actual appearance and behavior of the African American man, often believed the stereotypes presented on stage. Because minstrel shows depicted blacks in such a negative way, viewers were bound to develop a negative opinion of African Americans and were more likely to support the idea of black enslavement.
Thomas D. Rice introduced the white male interpretation of black culture and behavior when he first performed as “Jim Crow” in an 1828 minstrel show (Charles, “About Blackface.”). According to Ronald Davis’ essay, Rice came up with the idea for his character when he came across a black slave while travelling in the South. The man, who was elderly and crippled, was dancing and singing "Weel about and turn about and do jis so/ Eb'ry time I weel about I jump Jim Crow." After his encounter with the slave, Rice concluded that the behavior he witnessed was that of the typical black man and chose to incorporate the man’s appearance and manner into his minstrel act. Dressed in a “negro costume” and covered in blackface, he portrayed Crow as the stereotypical African American man—lazy, foolish, and irresponsible. Jim Crow demonstrated to the public that blacks were not only useless, but incapable of surviving without their masters. This idea that blacks were helpless led the audience to believe that African Americans wanted and needed to remain enslaved for their own wellbeing. Whether or not Rice believed these stereotypes to be true, he and other white actors chose to exploit them for entertainment and profit.
Society responded powerfully to early minstrel shows. Such a crude and unrefined art form had never before been seen on an American stage. Michael Ray Charles compares Americans’ reaction to these nineteenth century performances to the public response to “rock ‘n’ roll” music a century later, or the modern-day hip hop phenomenon (“About Blackface). Audience members were shocked at the evocative display of such strong racial opinions, but the offensive material was somehow appealing (just as while the lyrical content in modern rap music is often distasteful, the rap industry has been extremely successful). Just as entertainers have done in the present-day United States, colonists in the nineteenth century entertainment industry quickly picked up on the public’s fascination with controversy. Writers and performers continued the exploitation of African Americans through characters like Jim Crow to spread a message of black inferiority and to make a profit.
Characters and stereotypes introduced to the public through 19th century minstrel shows soon became part of the American way of life. By the 1850s, Rice’s character joined Sambo and “Zip Dandy” as one of the most powerful images of black inferiority in the popular culture of the day, and the term “Jim Crow” became a common racial slur interchangeable with “colored” and “negro.” The character even claimed his own era: the period of time beginning in the 1890s when southern laws began to dictate the social status of African Americans is often referred to as the “Jim Crow Era” (Davis). The image presented by Jim Crow and fellow “black” minstrel characters represented what many Americans now believed to be the typical African American man. As many who supported slavery had hoped, the stereotypes taught through minstrel shows instilled a belief in the audience that African Americans were foolish, incompetent, and inferior. Most importantly, they justified and encouraged the enslavement of blacks in American society.
While minstrel shows suggested that slavery was a necessary practice by portraying African Americans as “comically irrational fools,” the Emancipation called for a new kind of black stereotyping. If slaves were believed to be inferior and harmless, society would not object to setting them free. Now that the abolishment of slavery had begun, the only hope of bringing it back was to convince the public that freed slaves posed a threat to the colonists. The media abandoned the stereotype that African Americans were foolish and helpless and began spreading the idea that freeing black slaves was dangerous to American society. The portrayal of the black man in entertainment transformed from lazy and carefree to forceful and destructive.
The image of the “brute negro” emerged in Thomas Dixon’s The Clansman. Published in 1905, the novel tells the story of American life after the Emancipation: a movement that ended slavery and that Dixon suggests was a “tragic mistake” that had “let loose the blacks’ wildest passions” (Ethnic Notions). As a child, Dixon witnessed the lynching of an African American by the Ku Klux Klan. The black man had supposedly raped a white woman whose husband had been killed in the Civil War. Dixon’s mother supported the lynching, and young Thomas idolized the KKK ever since (“Thomas Dixon”). Dixon incorporated this experience into his novel, which told of blacks committing violent acts against white women and then being brought to justice by white Americans. The story later became a hit Broadway play and was released on the big screen in the film The Birth of a Nation in 1915.
Dixon’s productions were a success, and his message spread like wildfire to the American public: releasing slaves threatened the American way of life. Freed African Americans were aggressive and violent, and (Dixon implied) would pursue white virgin women. The ideas suggested in works like Dixon’s novel instilled fear in the American public. The new image of the brute negro justified discrimination and hate crimes against black Americans, and promoted the resurrection of slave practices in American society.
The black stereotypes introduced by the entertainment industry were soon integrated into the homes and lifestyles of white Americans. Products displayed racist names and descriptions, and advertisements displayed African Americans with bulging eyes, oversized lips, and jet black skin. Just as the ignorant white Americans were an ideal audience for racist stage productions, young white children were targeted by advertisement companies because they were easily influenced. Children’s toys and games taught white Americans that blacks were inferior beings, and introduced denigrating racial slurs at a young age. In 1874, the McLoughlin Brothers created and sold a puzzle game called “Chopped Up Niggers.” Children’s books and nursery rhymes made discriminating against blacks fun and seemingly educational. In 1939, Agatha Christie’s children’s story “The Ten Little Niggers” was published. In the book, each of the ten black children disappears, in most cases because of some foolish act (the first choked himself; the third accidentally chopped himself in half). A popular children’s lullaby was titled “You’se Just a Little Nigger, Still You’se Mine, All Mine” (Middleton). Incorporating black stereotypes into common household products instilled these beliefs into society, and introducing racist language and behavior to white Americans at a young, susceptible age ensured that the denigration of African Americans would last another generation.
The African American struggle for acceptance and equality was belittled and exploited for entertainment and product-endorsement purposes in the 19th and 20th centuries. Whether docile and foolish or aggressive and dangerous, the media consistently portrayed a negative image of the typical black American. Impressionable white Americans with little knowledge of the African American lifestyle were subjected to the black stereotypes presented in books, plays, minstrel shows, and advertisements and had little choice but to adopt racist beliefs. The spread of denigration and pro-slavery messages through the entertainment industry had a tremendous effect on early white society’s opinions and actions toward the African American population.