"Ethnic Notions"

This movie-documentary was extremely eye-opening for me. Even though all of our readings, I never really paused to think about the impact that black cultural stereotypes continue to have on our society today. Occasionally, while grocery shopping, I've looked at a bottle of Aunt Jemima's syrup and wondered why the manufacturers didn't just find a new way to market their product, but my thought process pretty much ended there. Now, after reading Jessie Fauset's "Gift of Laughter" and especially after listening to the commentary and watching the images shown in "Ethnic Nations," I strongly agree with the idea that popular black stereotyped images have a very harmful effect in the modern day world.

One statement that particularly struck a chord with me was addressed in "Ethnic Notions." One of the commentators explained that because so many black stereotypes, including "Sambo," "Mammy," and "Uncle" were consistently depicted as jolly, "docile, laughing," and at ease with their life, whites began to believe this incorrect depiction as true. Most specifically, whites who lived in towns with no black citizens came to fully believe that slaves were happy being slaves. In turn, this twisted idea has survived time, and therefore the roles of these so-called "happily obedient" slave figures continue to be perpetuated in literature and entertainment.

"Gimme a Break" was a television sitcom that I used to watch in re-runs a few years ago (I don't think it is even re-run, anymore). Until we watched the movie "Ethnic Nations" in class, I really had no idea that the entire plot of the sitcom revolves around a "Mammy" caricature. The main character, Nell, played by the actress Nell Carter, is the absolute prototypical "Mammy." She is African American, overweight, and very sassy, and happily plays the live-in housekeeper to a white family. This television show aired in the mid-eighties, and I can't help but wonder if the show's producers ever sat down and thought to themselves, "By placing this prominent African American actress in a degrading role, we are causing her entire race to take large steps backwards." I have to think that, like so many other forms of entertainment today which still place blacks (perhaps unknowingly or without intention) in positions that do not give their race a sense of pride, they never stopped to think.