ethnic notions

Ethnic Notions

In the movie Ethnic Notions, black stereotypes were shown from both pre civil war and post civil war. The stereotypes were explained to the extent of how they began and what time they originated. The movie showed how slaves were portrayed to be happy servants who would do anything for their master. Images such as Uncle Ben’s rice and Aunt Jemima cluttered grocery stores. After the civil war; however, black people were shown to be violent people who needed to be put back into slavery. Also in this movie, films were shown that represented the black characters. The characters were made by having white men or women putting soot on his or her face. Even if a black person were to play a black person in film, he would have to darken his face and place white marks around the lips to look like the mouth is enlarged. In one skit during the movie, a bunch of black people are shown shooting craps in an alleyway.

One discussion question that I would propose to a class would be Why did the white society feel so threatened that they developed rude stereotypes towards black people. Personally, I think it was because the white people knew that there isn’t much difference between white people and black people, merely looks. At that time, the black people were less educated, because they were forced to be. They had the same capacity to learn but were simply forced not to.

Overall, I thought that this movie portrayed some very mean things. It stated how harmful these stereotypes were, but they were bad to see. I felt uncomfortable watching these coming from an area where there were few to no black families. I was very familiar with the stereotypes, although I didn’t know where they came from. I can not believe that stereotypes would be created how they were just so people could further the privilege that they had.