Vijay Woodworth's List: Stereotypes

• Dr. Richard Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of Central Florida. “But the media have created two perceptions—that athletes in general are more inclined to be violent against women and use drugs, and that Black athletes are more inclined to do both. And neither is true.”

• Black athletes are usually given credit for their "natural athleticism,"
• blacks were bred for physical skill but whites were bred for intelligence

• Negative stereotypes are dangerous because they can be internalized
• “People’s perception of themselves are shaped by others perceptions of them,” Pittsburg University School of Social Work dean Larry Davis
• “this affects the way whites see blacks, the way blacks believe whites see them, and the way blacks see themselves.”
• When drug dealers begin to rap, the two “professions” became forever entwined
• Kanye West
• “Heard Em Say” lyrics
• “Where I’m from, the dope boys is the rock stars, but they can’t cop cars without seeing cop cars, I guess they want us all behind bars.”
• Their lyrics often tell listeners how they have sold drugs, served jail time and used violence as a means to overcome obstacles.
• brag about the number of women they’ve slept with and could sleep with
• Rappers wear “chains” and drive expensive cars, while using catchy beats and explicit language to express it all.
• NWA have used songs like, “F**k the Police”, to express police brutality.
• “U.O.E.N.O” said “Got my killers with me right now” lets their opposition know they are ready to fight.
• blacks see their favorite rapper associated with a particular brand or way of life, they are more inclined to buy a certain items or act certain ways in order to be a part of that same lifestyle.
• these images are incorrect representations and it is time that mainstream media updates its perception of black men.

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• Rap / hip-hop music, videos, magazines and so on, portray   African Americans as being violence-prone, criminal, promiscuous and stupid.   Not only do they attempt to define us in this image, but, even worse,   they blatantly promote, glamorize, and glorify this type of behavior.

• So completely was rap ingrained in their consciousness that every so often, one or another of  them would break into cocky, expletive-laden rap lyrics, accompanied by the angular, bellicose gestures typical of rap performance.
• began to view black crime and violence as perfectly natural, even appropriate, responses to the supposed dehumanization and poverty inflicted by a racist society

• hip hop music was born in the Bronx, it both is part of and speaks to a long line of black American and African diasporic cultural traditions.

• Sambo
• the "happy slave" is the core of the Sambo   caricature
• image of a jolly, overgrown child who was happy to serve his   master
• the institution of   slavery was justified
• reliant upon his master
• Sambo was born out   of a defense for slavery
• It was transmitted   through music titles and lyrics, folk sayings, literature, children's   stories and games, postcards, restaurant names and menus, and thousands of   artifacts
• Jim Crow
• During that time, a law   prohibited African-Americans from dancing because it was said to be   "crossing your feet against the lord"
• "I'm a full blooded niggar, ob de real ole   stock, and wid my head and shoulder I can split a horse block. Weel about   and turn about and do jis so, eb'ry time I wheel about I jump Jim Crow"
• The method of representing African-Americans as "shuffling and   drawling, cracking and dancing, wisecracking and high stepping" buffoons   evolved over time
• The Savage
• Movies were, and still are, a powerful medium for the transmission of   stereotypes
• silent movies such as "The Wooing and Wedding of a   Coon" in 1904, "The Slave" in 1905, "The Sambo Series" 1909-1911 and "The   Nigger" in 1915
• racial violence were justified and encouraged through the emphasis   on this stereotype of the Savage
• Beliefs that blacks were "mentally inferior, physically   and culturally unevolved, and apelike in appearance"
• the African race occupied the lowest position of   the evolutionary scale, thus affording the best material for the   comparative study of the highest anthropoids and the human species"
• African-Americans as apelike   savages
• the New York   Zoological Park featured an exhibit with an African-American man and a   chimpanzee
• Ringling Brothers Circus exhibited   "the monkey man," a black man was caged with a female chimpanzee that had   been trained to wash clothes and hang them on a line
• blacks were savages for the following reasons: "(a) The   abnormal length of the arm...; (b) weight of brain... [Negro's] 35 ounces,   gorilla 20 ounces, average European 45 ounces; (c) short flat snub nose;   (d) thick protruding lips; (e) exceedingly thick cranium; (f) short, black   hair, eccentricity elliptical or almost flat in sections, and distinctly   woolly; and (g) thick epidermis"
• black   women were thought to experience little pain with childbirth
• stereotypes of the animal-like savage were   used to rationalize the harsh treatment of slaves during slavery as well   as the murder, torture and oppression of African-Americans following   emancipation
• The Mammy
• The Mammy was a large, independent woman with pitch-black skin and   shining white teeth
• She wore a drab calico dress and head   scarf and lived to serve her master and mistress
• she raised the   "massa's" children and loved them dearly, even more than her own
• give advice to her mistress was seen as harmless and humorous
• Mammy was a tyrant in her   own family. She dominated her children and husband, the Sambo, with her   temper. This image of the Mammy as the controller of the African-American   male, was used as further evidence of his inferiority to whites
• she was not   seen as a sexual being or threat to white women
• This   obese, matronly figure with her ample bosom and behind was the antithesis   of the European standard of beauty
• Aunt Jemimah
• She differs from Mammy in that her duties were restricted to   cooking. It was through Aunt Jemimah that the association of the   African-American woman with domestic work
• Sapphire
• Sapphire was a stereotype solidified through the hit show "Amos 'n'   Andy"
• the Sapphire character as a bossy,   headstrong woman who was engaged in an ongoing verbal battle with her   husband
• Sapphire possessed the emotional makeup   of the Mammy and Aunt Jemimah combined. Her fierce independence and   cantankerous nature placed her in the role of matriarch. She dominated her   foolish husband by emasculating him with verbal put-downs
• "...hand on the   hip, finger-pointing style..."
• Jezebelle
• Jezebelle, the harlot
• This image of the   "bad Black girl" represented the undeniable sexual side of   African-American women
• The traditional Jezebelle was a   light-skinned, slender Mulatto girl with long straight hair and small   features. She more closely resembled the European ideal for beauty than   any pre-existing images
• this stereotype was immensely attractive to   white males
• The creation of the hyper-sexual seductress Jezebelle served   to absolve white males of responsibility in the sexual abuse and rape of   African-American women. Black women in such cases were said to be "askin'   for it"
• modern stereotypes are the violent, brutish   African-American male and the dominant, lazy African-American female
• whites are likely to hold these stereotypes especially with   respect to issues of crime and welfare
• whites are 10 times more likely to be seen as   superior in artistic ability and abstract thinking ability; and   African-Americans were 10 times more likely to be seen as superior in   athletic ability and rhythmic ability
• African-Americans and those subjects without a   high school degree were more likely than others to endorse racial   stereotypes

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