Monday, March 2, 2009
Amos 'n' Andy
I believe this comic shows a transition from obvious bigotry to passive and unspoken prejudice. This skit highlights certain characteristics of the black men: offensive unruliness and primitive rowdiness. It implies a strong degree of vulgarity in the black men. However, the transition from blatant racism to passive prejudice occurs because the skit portrays these characters and their (obvious) temperaments with humor. By presenting these biases with an undertone of comedy, the authors give the audience an opportunity to laugh at the seriousness of racial tensions. As the audience accepts the humor in racial stereotypes, the subject becomes less severe. Racism presented through comedy reenforces the racial characterizations but lessens the frankness of the message.
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I don't think that the prejudice in this cartoon is passive at all. On the contrary, I think that by using humor it sends the clear message that all African Americans should not be taken seriously and are little more than a joke in the landscape of racial heirarchy. I do agree that the humor lightens the situation, but instead of lightening the racial message I think that it plays off how serious the consequences of prejudice is for African Americans.
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