Visual Racism

As many have stated before me, this cartoon is clearly representative of the European Americans’ desire to verify the color line and perpetuate a certain stereotype of blacks in order to reaffirm their own superiority.  As we look at how the characters, Amos and Andy, are represented in the cartoon both physically—in blackface and exaggerated facial features—and in their actions—depicted as unintelligent and lazy—we can truly get a sense of how blacks were viewed in this time.  The way that all of the characters talked made them sound confused and simple and there were many other subtleties in the episode that addressed race.

The theme of the episode, for example, was preparing for a wrestling match, which cause the black characters to seem very aggressive and fearsome.  This depiction of blacks as scary and violent has been seen in various other areas of popular culture, especially in the film, The Birth of a Nation.  This stereotype allowed the whites of this time to justify the horrible treatment of blacks in the United States because blacks needed to be tamed. 

            The final scene of the cartoon, in the boxing ring, began with a panoramic view of the crowd.  All the spectators were screaming and shouting and were depicted as very rowdy.  This sends the message that when blacks congregate, they are loud and obnoxious.  What surprised me the most about this scene, however, was how blatantly racist it was.  At one point during the fight, the big and strong boxer fighting opposite of Andy transformed into a moose-like creature. His nose got very large, he grew antlers and he began growling.  At the time that this cartoon was made, there was probably no objection to this type of representation of blacks; however, I see this as disrespectful and demeaning.

             In lecture, Professor Hass talked about the minstrel performances and how European Americans would dress up in blackface and perform according to their perception of blacks at that time.  We can see the same type of thing happening here with this cartoon.  Here, we see a cartoon written and produced by white Americans depicting black characters in the way that is very racially constructed in order to establish their “otherness”.  One of the main focuses of this class is to observe the history of the United States through its popular culture—which is always constructed, biased, and produced in order to fulfill a specific objective.  The creators of this cartoon were able to create a certain kind of image of blacks in the U.S. at this time, which served to express their uneasiness with black male aggression and perpetuated negative stereotypes about blacks in general.  Although remnants of this type of “visual racism” are still present today, such negative depictions of blacks and other races are much less overt and thus much harder to detect.  One thing I had learned from this class so far is how present-day evidence of racism shows how alive and thriving it still is.