Stereotypes of African Americans

The character Jim Crow was dressed in rags, battered hat, and torn shoes. The actor blackened his face and hands and impersonated a very nimble and irreverently witty African-American field hand who sang, "Turn about and wheel about, and do just so. And every time I turn about I Jump Jim Crow."

The Sambo stereotype gained notoriety through the 1898 children's book The Story of Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman. It told the story of a boy named Sambo who outwitted a group of hungry tigers. "Sambo" refers to black men who were considered very happy, usually laughing, lazy, irresponsible, or carefree. This depiction of blacks was displayed in films of the early 20th century. The original text suggested that Sambo lived in India, but this fact may have escaped many readers. The book has often been considered to be a slur against Africans,[5] and "Sambo" as a slur has certainly been used this way, though the now-defunct US restaurant chain Sambo's used iconography more in tune with a Jungle Book view of 19th-century India.

Golliwog is a similarly enduring caricature, most often represented as a blackface doll, and dates to American children's books of the late 19th century. The character found great favor among the whites of Great Britain and Australia, as well, into the late 20th century. Notably, as with Sambo, the term as an insult crosses ethnic lines; the derived Commonwealth English epithet "wog" is applied more often to people from the Arabian Peninsula and Indian Subcontinent than to Africans, though "Golly dolls" still in production mostly retain the look of the stereotypical blackface minstrel.

The term pickaninny, reserved for children, has a similarly broadened pattern of use; while it originated in a Portuguese word for small child in general, it was applied especially to African-American children in the United States, then later to Australian Aboriginal children. Although not usually used alone as a character name, the pickaninny became a mainstream stock character in white-dominated fiction, music, theater, and early film in the United States and beyond.

Advertisement showing the commercial Aunt Jemima character with apron and kerchief, along with rag dolls, 1909

Clipping from May 29, 1910, issue of the Chicago Tribune reporting a move to build a "monument" to "Ol' Black Mammy" in Washington, D.C. The subhead mentions "the sentiment that clings to this picturesque character of antebellum days."

What is known about the Mammy archetype comes from the memoirs and diaries that emerged after the Civil War with recordings and descriptions of African-American household women slaves who were considered by family members as their African-American mothers. Through these personal accounts, white slaveholders gave biased accounts of what a dominant female house slave role was. She was a woman completely dedicated to the white family, especially to the children of that family. She was the house servant who was given complete charge of domestic management; she was a friend and advisor.[6]

A Mandingo is a stereotype of black men as having huge penises and being sexually voracious. The stereotype was invented by white slave owners who promoted the notion that male African slaves were "animalistic" in nature. They asserted, for example, that in "Negroes all the passions, emotions, and ambitions, are almost wholly subservient to the sexual instinct" and "this construction of the oversexed black male parlayed perfectly into notions of black bestiality and primitivism".[7]

The term mandingo is of 20th century origin.[8] Bavardage around the black male physique would also adopt the notion of black men having oversized macrophallic penises.[9] However, no account of mandingo fighting between slaves has been documented, only rumored tales. Economic interests prevented slave owners from involving their investments in activities that would ultimately leave one virtually ineffective.[10]

As a stereotype, Sapphire is a domineering female who consumes men and usurps their role.[11] They were characterized as strong, masculine workhorses who labored with black men in the fields or as aggressive women who drove their children and partners away with their overbearing natures.[12] Her assertive demeanor identifies her with the Mammy, but unlike the Mammy, she is devoid of maternal compassion and understanding.[12]

One social scientist has claimed that black women's dominance and matriarchal status within their families, rather than discriminatory social policies and economic inequalities, were responsible for the unemployment and the emasculation of black men, which ultimately resulted in poverty, single parenthood, and the production of criminally inclined, academically low-achieving black children.[13]

The Jezebel, a stereotype of a sexually voracious black woman, was in every way the counter-image of the mid-19th-century ideal of the demure Victorian lady.[14] The idea that black women were sexually promiscuous stemmed from Europeans' first encounter with African women. Unaccustomed to the requirements of a tropical climate, Europeans mistook seminudity for lewdness.[14]

The practice of polygamy among Africans was attributed to uncontrolled lust, and tribal dances were construed as orgies. African religions were labeled pagan and therefore inferior to Christian Europe.[14] If black slave women could be portrayed as having sexual appetites, then increased fertility should be the expected outcome.[15] Because of this mindset and stereotype, black women have been labeled sexually promiscuous and immoral.

This image also gave the impression that black women could not be rape victims because they "always desired sex", thereby legitimizing sexual assault of black female slaves by white males.[16] [17] White slave owners not only used the Jezebel image as a justification for their forced procreation among slaves, but they used this image as a legal defense when raping African-American women. Abolitionist James Redpath wrote that slave women were "gratified by the criminal advances of Saxons." Even after acquiring freedom, African-American women still suffered from sexual assault and rape throughout Reconstruction up into present times.

During and after Reconstruction "Black women […] had little legal recourse when raped by White men, and many Black women were reluctant to report their sexual victimization by Black men for fear that the Black men would be lynched."[18][19]

The Jezebel stereotype contrasts with the Mammy stereotype. Despite the fact that the stereotypes were extremes, most African-American women could be portrayed as either a Jezebel or a Mammy, depending on which was more convenient for white people in their lives.[20]

A stereotype that was popular in early Hollywood, the "tragic mulatta," served as a cautionary tale for blacks. The tragic mulatta was usually depicted as a sexually attractive, light-skinned woman of African descent who could pass for Caucasian. This stereotype portrayed light-skinned women as obsessed with getting ahead, their ultimate goal being marriage to a white, middle-class man. The only route to redemption would be for her to accept her "blackness".

An example of the "tragic mulatta" can be found in the 1933 novel Imitation of Life and its 1934 and 1959 film adaptations: the "tragic mulatta" is depicted as mean and unsympathetic, while her counterpart, the character most similar to the "mammy", represents how the "tragic mulatta" should portray herself.[21] The 2014 satirical film Dear White People has the protagonist fall into and then subvert this stereotype, while the secondary characters explore other black stereotypes.

The Uncle Tom stereotype presents black men who are not so much unintelligent, simple-minded, and subdued, but more so primarily interested in the welfare and advancement of whites, or persons over the interests of other blacks. The term is sometimes interchanged with "sellout" or the more derisive "house Negro". The term derives from the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. In modern slang, the female version of an Uncle Tom is called an Aunt Jemima.

Samuel Jennings (active 1789–1834). Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences, or The Genius of America Encouraging the Emancipation of the Blacks.

A comprehensive examination of the restrictions imposed upon African Americans in the United States through culture is examined by art historian Guy C. McElroy in the catalog to the exhibit "Facing History: The Black Image in American Art 1710–1940." According to McElroy, the artistic convention of representing African Americans as less than fully realized humans began with Justus Engelhardt Kühn's colonial-era painting Henry Darnall III as a child.[22] Although Kühn's work existed "simultaneously with a radically different tradition in colonial America" as indicated by the work of portraitists such as Charles (or Carolus) Zechel, the market demand for such work reflected the attitudes and economic status of their audience.

From the colonial era through the American Revolution, ideas about African Americans were variously used in propaganda either for or against the issue of slavery. Paintings like John Singleton Copley's Watson and the Shark (1778) and Samuel Jennings' Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences (1792) are early examples of the debate under way at that time as to the role of black people in America. Watson represents an historical event, while Liberty is indicative of abolitionist sentiments expressed in Philadelphia's post-revolutionary intellectual community. Nevertheless, Jennings' painting represents African Americans in a stereotypical role as passive, submissive beneficiaries of not only slavery's abolition, but also knowledge, which liberty had graciously bestowed upon them.

As another stereotypical caricature "performed by white men disguised in facial paint, minstrelsy relegated black people to sharply defined dehumanizing roles." With the success of T. D. Rice and Daniel Emmet, the label of "blacks as buffoons" was created.[22] One of the earliest versions of the "black as buffoon" can be seen in John Lewis Krimmel's Quilting Frolic. The violinist in the 1813 painting, with his tattered and patched clothing, along with a bottle protruding from his coat pocket, appears to be an early model for Rice's Jim Crow character. Krimmel's representation of a "[s]habbily dressed" fiddler and serving girl with "toothy smile" and "oversized red lips" marks him as "...one of the first American artists to use physiognomical distortions as a basic element in the depiction of African Americans."[22]

Many of these negative stereotypes spill over in news-media portrayals of minorities. Scholars agree that news stereotypes of people of color are pervasive.[23][24][25][26][27][28] African Americans were more likely to appear as perpetrators in drug and violent crime stories on network news.[29]

In the 1980s and 1990s, stereotypes of black men shifted and the primary images were of drug dealers, crack victims, the underclass, the homeless, and subway muggers.[1] Similarly, Douglas (1995), who looked at O. J. Simpson, Louis Farrakhan, and the Million Man March, found that media placed African-American men on a spectrum of good versus evil.

The watermelon stereotype is that African Americans have an unusual appetite for watermelons.

A commonly held stereotype is that African Americans love fried chicken, which race and folklore professor Claire Schmidt attributes both to its popularity in Southern cuisine and to a scene from the film Birth of a Nation, in which a rowdy African-American man is seen eating fried chicken in a legislative hall.[30]

This stereotype has longevity. Studies show that the welfare queen idea has roots in both race and gender. Franklin Gilliam, the author of a public perception experiment on welfare, concludes:

While poor women of all races get blamed for their impoverished condition, African-American women are seen to commit the most egregious violations of American values. This story line taps into stereotypes about both women (uncontrolled sexuality) and African Americans (laziness).

Studies show that the public dramatically overestimates the number of African Americans who live below the poverty line (in fact less than a quarter; compared with the national average around 15%), with the cause of this attributed to media trends and its portrayal of poverty.[31]

The magical Negro (sometimes called the mystical Negro, magic Negro, or our magical African-American friend) is a stock character who appears in fiction of a variety of media, which by use of special insight or powers, helps the white protagonist. The word "Negro", now considered archaic and offensive, is used intentionally to emphasize the belief that the archetype is a racist throwback, an update of the Sambo stereotype.[3]

The term was mentioned by Spike Lee, who dismissed the archetype of the "super-duper magical Negro"[32] in 2001 while discussing films with students at Washington State University[33] and at Yale University.[34] The Magical Negro is a subtype of the more generic numinous Negro, a term coined by Richard Brookhiser in National Review.[35] The latter term refers to saintly, respected or heroic black protagonists or mentors, unsubtly portrayed in U.S. entertainment productions.[35]

Black women in the 21st century have been stereotyped as angry, independent, and materialistic. The "angry black woman" may be the most common of these depictions. This stereotype is a reference to loud, aggressive, demanding, and uncivilized behavior that is often paired to a lower-middle-class black woman.[4] This stereotype is the physical embodiment of some of the worst negative stereotypes of black women—that she is out of control, disagreeable, overly aggressive, physically threatening, loud (even when she speaks softly), and to be feared. In this view, she will not stay in her "place."[36]

Controlling images are stereotypes that are used against a marginalized group to portray social injustice as natural and inevitable parts of a normal life.[37] This controlling image is used in many settings, such as academia and the workplace, which affects the lives of black women. It silences black women, making them practically invisible in society.[4] Jones et al. stated that, in 1851, Sojourner Truth, a black female civil rights advocate, disrupted and ultimately saved a Women's Rights Convention when she asked, "Ain't I a Woman?".[36] Jones et al. argued that this statement challenged white women to think about how differently they experienced womanhood from how black women experienced womanhood, adding that "Sojourner revealed that arguments used to subordinate white women were different from and at times contradicted by arguments that were used to subordinate black women."[36]

Jones et al. stated that while the experience of womanhood differs from ethnicity to ethnicity, "Sojourner exercised her powerful voice to expose and to resist: (1) the prioritization of white women's needs; and (2) the assumption that white women's experiences represent the experiences of all women, when in fact they do not."[36] The controlling image present is that white women are the standard for everything, even oppression which is simply false.[36]

Studies show that scholarship has been dominated by white men and women.[38] Being a recognized academic is much more than having the degree; it is more of a social activism. This is a difficult position to hold, being that white counterparts dominate the activist and social work realms of scholasticism.[38] It is notably difficult for a black woman to receive the resources needed to complete her research and write the texts she desires.[38] This, in part, is due to the silencing effect of the angry black woman stereotype. Black women are skeptical of raising issues, also seen as complaining, within professional settings because of the fear of being judged.[4]

Because of the angry black woman stereotype, black women tend to become desensitized about their own feelings to avoid judgment.[39] They often feel that they must show no emotion outside of their comfortable spaces. This results in the accumulation of these feelings of hurt, and can be projected on loved ones as anger.[39] Once seen as angry, black women are always seen in that light, and consequently have their opinions, aspirations, and values dismissed.[39] The repression of these feelings can also result in serious mental health issues, which creates a complex with the strong black woman. As a common problem within the black community, black women and men seldom seek help for their mental health challenges.

Oftentimes, black women's opinions are not heard within studies that examine interracial relationships.[40] Black women are often assumed to be just naturally angry. However, the implications of black women's opinions are not explored within the context of race and history. According to Erica Child's study, black women are most opposed to interracial relationships.[40]

Since the 1600s, interracial sexuality has represented unfortunate sentiments for black women.[40] Black men who were engaged with white women were severely punished.[40] However, white men who exploited black women were never reprimanded. In fact, it was more economically favorable for a black woman to birth a white man's child, because slave labor would be increased due to the one-drop rule. It was taboo for a white woman to have a black man's child; it was seen as race tainting.[40] [40]

Just as the "angry black woman" is a modern manifestation of the Sapphire stereotype, the "black bitch" is a modern manifestation of the Jezebel stereotype. Characters best characterized "bad black girls", "black whores" and "black bitches" are archetypes of many Blaxploitation films produced by the Hollywood establishment. One example of this archetype is the character of Leticia Musgrove in the film Monster's Ball, portrayed by Halle Berry.

Journalists used the angry black woman archetype in their narratives of Michelle Obama during the 2007–08 presidential primaries. Coverage of Mrs. Obama ran the gamut from fawning to favorable to strong to angry to intimidating and unpatriotic. First Lady Michelle Obama told Gayle King on CBS This Morning that she has been caricatured as an "angry black woman"—and that she hopes America will one day learn more about her. "That's been an image that people have tried to paint of me since, you know, the day Barack announced, that I'm some angry black woman", Mrs. Obama said.[41]

The First Lady dismissed a book by New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor entitled The Obamas. Kantor portrayed Mrs. Obama as a hard-nosed operator who sometimes clashed with staffers. Michelle insisted that portrayal is not accurate.[42]

The "strong black woman" stereotype is a discourse through which primarily black middle-class women in the black Baptist Church instruct working-class black women on morality, self-help and economic empowerment, and assimilative values in the bigger interest of racial uplift and pride (Higginbotham, 1993). In this narrative, the woman documents middle-class women attempting to push back against dominant racist narratives of black women being immoral, promiscuous, unclean, lazy and manner-less by engaging in public outreach campaigns that include literature that warns against brightly colored clothing, gum chewing, loud talking, and unclean homes, among other directives.[43] This discourse is harmful, dehumanizing, and silencing.

Corbin et al. argued, "We see STRONGBLACKWOMAN as a dominant response that preserves individual agency and staves off being maligned and dismissed as an Angry Black Woman in places where being heard is critically important. It becomes part of a counteroffensive script to cope with misogynoir attacks. Additionally, STRONGBLACKWOMAN functions as an internalized mechanism that privileges resilience, perseverance, and silence."[43]

The "strong black woman" narrative is another controlling image that perpetuates the idea that it is okay to mistreat black women because they are strong and they can handle it. This narrative can also act as a silencing method. When black women are struggling to be heard because they go through things in life like everyone else, they are silenced and reminded that they are strong instead of actions being taken toward alleviating their problems.[43]

The "independent black woman" is the depiction of a narcissistic, overachieving, financially successful woman who emasculates black males in her life.[42] Mia Moody, a professor of journalism at Baylor University, described the "independent black woman" in two articles entitled "A rhetorical analysis of the meaning of the 'independent woman'"[44] and "The meaning of 'Independent Woman' in music".[45]

In her studies, Moody concluded that the lyrics and videos of male and female artists portrayed "independent women" differently. Rapper Roxanne Shanté's 1989 rendition of "Independent Woman" explored relationships and asked women not to dote on partners who do not reciprocate. Similarly, the definition of an "independent woman" in Urban Dictionary is: "A woman who pays her own bills, buys her own things, and does not allow a man to affect her stability or self-confidence. She supports herself entirely on her own and is proud to be able to do so". Destiny's Child's song "Independent Women" encourages women to be strong and independent for the sake of their dignity and not for the sake of impressing men. The group frowns upon the idea of depending on anyone: "If you're gonna brag, make sure it's your money you flaunt/depend on no one else to give you what you want". The singers claim their independence through their financial stability.[44][45]

Moody concluded female rappers often depicted sex as a tool for obtaining independence through controlling men and buying material goods. While male rappers viewed the independent woman as one who is educated, pays her own bills, and creates a good home life, never did they mention settling down and often noted that a woman should not weigh them down. Moody analyzed songs, corresponding music videos, and viewer comments of six rap songs by Yo Gotti, Webbie, Drake, Candi Redd, Trina, and Nicki Minaj. She found four main messages: wealth equals independence, beauty and independence are connected, average men deserve perfect women, and sexual prowess equals independence. [44][45]

Blacks are stereotyped as being more athletic and better at sports than whites. Even though African Americans make up only 12.4 percent of the U.S. population, seventy-five percent of NBA players[46] and sixty-five percent of NFL players are black.[47] Until 2010, all sprinters who had broken the 10-second barrier in the 100 meter dash are black.[48] African-American college athletes may be seen as getting into college solely on their athletic ability and not their intelligence.[49]

Black athletic superiority is a theory that says blacks possess traits that are acquired through genetic and/or environmental factors that allow them to excel over other races in athletic competition. Whites are more likely to hold these views; however, some blacks and other racial affiliations do as well.[50][51][52] A 1991 poll in the United States indicated that half of the respondents agreed with the belief that "blacks have more natural physical ability".[53]

In a 1997 study on racial stereotypes in sports, participants were shown a photograph of a white or a black basketball player. They then listened to a recorded radio broadcast of a basketball game. White photographs were rated as exhibiting significantly more intelligence in the way they played the game, even though the radio broadcast and target player represented by the photograph were the same throughout the trial.[54] Several other authors have said that sports coverage that highlights 'natural black athleticism' has the effect of suggesting white superiority in other areas, such as intelligence.[55] The stereotype suggests that African Americans are incapable of competing in "white sports" such as ice hockey and swimming.[56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64]

In 1844, Secretary of State John C. Calhoun, arguing for the extension of slavery, said, "Here [scientific confirmation] is proof of the necessity of slavery. The African is incapable of self care and sinks into lunacy under the burden of freedom. It is a mercy to give him the guardianship and protection from mental death."[65]

Even after slavery ended, the intellectual capacity of black people was still frequently questioned. Lewis Terman wrote in The Measurement of Intelligence in 1916:

[Black and other ethnic minority children] are ineducable beyond the nearest rudiments of training. No amount of school instruction will ever make them intelligent voters or capable citizens in the sense of the world…their dullness seems to be racial, or at least inherent in the family stock from which they come…

Terman advocated racial segregation:

Children of this group should be segregated in special classes and be given instruction which is concrete and practical. They cannot master abstractions, but they can be made efficient workers…

As well, he made pro-eugenics statements:

There is no possibility at present of convincing society that they should not be allowed to reproduce, although from a eugenic point of view they constitute a grave problem because of their unusual prolific breeding.

One media survey in 1989 showed that blacks were more likely than whites to be described in demeaning intellectual terms.[66] Political activist and one-time presidential candidate Jesse Jackson said in 1985 that the news media portray blacks as less intelligent than they are.[2] Film director Spike Lee explains that these images have negative impacts. "In my neighborhood, we looked up to athletes, guys who got the ladies, and intelligent people", and the images widely portrayed black Americans as living in inner-city areas, very low-income and under-educated than whites.

Even so-called positive images of blacks can lead to stereotypes about intelligence. In Darwin's Athletes: how sport has damaged Black America and preserved the myth of race, John Hoberman writes that the prominence of African-American athletes encourages a de-emphasis on academic achievement in black communities.[67]

In 1844, Secretary of State John C. Calhoun, arguing for the extension of slavery, wrote:

Here (scientific confirmation) is proof of the necessity of slavery. The African is incapable of self-care and sinks into lunacy under the burden of freedom. It is a mercy to give him the guardianship and protection from mental death.[68]

Early minstrel shows of the mid-19th century lampooned the supposed stupidity of blacks. Even after slavery ended, the intellectual capacity of black people was still frequently questioned. Movies such as Birth of a Nation (1915) questioned whether or not blacks were fit to run for governmental offices or to vote.

In 1916, Lewis Terman wrote in The Measurement of Intelligence:

[Black and other ethnic minority children] are uneducable beyond the nearest rudiments of training. …There is no possibility at present of convincing society that they should not be allowed to reproduce, although from a eugenic point of view they constitute a grave problem because of their unusual prolific breeding.[69]

Stephen Jay Gould's book The Mismeasure of Man (1981) demonstrated how early 20th-century biases among scientists and researchers affected their purportedly objective scientific studies, data gathering, and conclusions which they drew about the absolute and relative intelligence of different groups, and of men vs. women.

Some critics have considered Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as racist because of its depiction of the slave Jim, among other black characters. Some schools have excluded the book from their curricula or libraries.[70]

Stereotypes pervaded other aspects of culture, such as various board games that used Sambo or similar imagery in their design. An example is the Jolly Darkie Target Game, in which players were expected to toss a ball through the "gaping mouth" of the target in cardboard decorated using imagery of Sambo.[71]

Political activist and one-time presidential candidate Jesse Jackson said in 1985 that the news media portrayed black people as "less intelligent than we are".[72] Former Army Secretary Clifford Alexander, testifying before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee in 1991, said "You see us as less than you are. You think that we are not as smart, not as energetic, not as well suited to supervise you as you are to supervise us [...] These are the ways you perceive us, and your perceptions are negative. They are fed by motion pictures, ad agencies, news people and television."[73] Film director Spike Lee explains that these images have negative impacts: "In my neighborhood, we looked up to athletes, guys who got the ladies, and intelligent people", said Lee. "[Now] If you're intelligent, you're called a white guy or girl".[74]

In film, blacks are also shown in a stereotypical manner that promotes notions of moral inferiority. In terms of female movie characters shown by race:[75]

• Using vulgar profanity: blacks 89 percent, whites 17 percent
• Being physically violent: blacks 56 percent, whites 11 percent
• Lacking self-control: blacks 55 percent, whites 6 percent

African-American women have been represented in film and television in a variety of different ways, starting from the stereotype/archetype of "mammy" (the role played by Hattie McDaniel in Gone with the Wind exemplifies this) drawn from minstrel shows,[76] through to the heroines of blaxploitation movies of the 1970s—although the latter was then weakened by commercial studios.[77] The mammy stereotype was portrayed as asexual while later representations of black women demonstrated a predatory sexuality.[78]

In print, blacks are portrayed as overtly aggressive. In a study of fashion magazine photographs, Millard and Grant found that black models are often depicted as more aggressive and sociable, but less intelligent and achievement-oriented.[79]

In Darwin's Athletes, John Hoberman writes that the prominence of African-American athletes encourages a de-emphasis on academic achievement in black communities.[67] Several other authors have said that sports coverage that highlights "natural black athleticism" has the effect of suggesting white superiority in other areas, such as intelligence.[80] Some contemporary sports commentators have questioned whether blacks are intelligent enough to hold "strategic" positions or coach games such as football.[81]

In another example, a study of the portrayal of race, ethnicity, and nationality in televised sporting events by journalist Derrick Jackson in 1989 showed that blacks were more likely than whites to be described in demeaning intellectual terms.[82]

According to Lawrence Grossman, former president of CBS News and PBS, TV newscasts "disproportionately show African Americans under arrest, living in slums, on welfare, and in need of help from the community".[83][84] Similarly, Hurwitz and Peffley wrote that violent acts committed by a person of color often take up more than half of local news broadcasts, often portraying the person of color in a much more sinister light than their white counterparts. They argue that African Americans are not only more likely to be seen as suspects of horrendous crimes in the press, but also interpreted as being violent or harmful individuals to the general public.[85]

Mary Beth Oliver, a professor at Penn State University, stated "the frequency with which black men specifically have been the target of police aggression speaks to the undeniable role that race plays in false assumptions of danger and criminality."[86] Oliver additionally states, "the variables that play contributory roles in priming thoughts of dangerous or aggressive black men, are age, dress, and gender, among others which lead to the false assumptions of danger and criminality."[86]

In 2012, Mia Moody, assistant professor of journalism, public relations and new media in Baylor's College of Arts and Sciences, documented Facebook fans' use of social media to target President Barack Obama and his family through stereotypes. Her study found several themes and missions of groups targeting the Obamas. Some groups focused on attacking the president's politics, and consisted of Facebook members who had an interest in politics and used social media to share their ideas. Other, more malicious types focused on the president's race, religion, sexual orientation, personality, and diet.[87]

Moody analyzed more than 20 Facebook groups/pages using the keywords "hate", "Barack Obama", and "Michelle Obama". Hate groups—which once recruited members through word of mouth and distribution of pamphlets—spread the message that one race is inferior, targeted a historically oppressed group, and used degrading, hateful terms.[87]

She concluded that historical stereotypes focusing on diet and blackface had all but disappeared from mainstream television shows and movies, but they had resurfaced in new-media representations. Most portrayals fell into three categories: blackface, animalistic and evil/angry. Similarly, while media had made progress in their handling of gender-related topics, Facebook offered a new platform for sexist messages to thrive. Facebook users played up shallow, patriarchal representations of Mrs. Obama, focusing on her emotions, appearance, and personality. Conversely, they emphasized historical stereotypes of Obama that depicted him as flashy and animalistic. Media's reliance on stereotypes of women and African Americans not only hindered civil rights, but also helped determine how people treated marginalized groups, her study found.[87]

Representations of African Americans in video games tend to reinforce stereotypes of males as athletes or gangsters.[88][89]

• Collins, Patricia (1990). Black Feminist Thought. Hyman. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-415-96472-2.
• West, Carolyn (2008). "Mammy, Jezebel, Sapphire, and Their Homegirls: Developing an 'Oppositional Gaze' Towards the Images of Black Women" (PDF). Lectures on the Psychology of Women (4).CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• White, Deborah Gray (1999). Ar'n't I a Woman. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-31481-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)