As we celebrate Black History Month, some of the more unfortunate aspects of our heritage as Black people comes from the stereotypes that we have had to deal with. As African Americans in particular, we are often confronted with offensive associations with our culture. From fried chicken and watermelon to the way we talk, Black people often find ourselves having to deal with ignorant reductions of our people into mockeries. But where do these stereotypes come from? Below I will be going through some of the most common stereotypes associated with Black people and where they began:
Fried Chicken
Fried Chicken is a food enjoyed by many. It is probably one of the most popular foods in America. So why has it become associated with Black people in particular? It all started with a horrible film titled The Birth of a Nation, which was released in 1915. This film was made not only to document the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, but it was also meant to show why Black people should not be accepted into American society. In one scene, three white actors in Black face are used to show what it would be like if Black people were elected into political office. One of these Black faced actors is shown eating fried chicken. That one scene from that one racist movie began the racist association between Black people and fried chicken. As that movie was screened at the White House during the time of release, it was taken very seriously and the impact of that movie continues even until this day. In spite of fried chicken being enjoyed by people of different cultures, it has become a way that racists mock Black people drawing from the KKK.
Watermelon
Watermelon is also a very popular fruit. Black people may or may not enjoy it anymore than anybody else. However, the association between Black people and watermelon is similar to the association that Palestinian people have with watermelon, except for them it is a symbol of freedom, whereas for Black people it has become a shameful association. This began in the time following the acknowledgment of Black people’s right to freedom in America. Following the Emancipation Proclamation, it was difficult for many Black farmers to get paid work. Watermelon became the crop that Black people grew and sold in order to be able to get some financial independence. When racist white people realize this, they began creating racist caricatures that associated eating watermelon with Black people so that white people would not buy it. It was a way of undermining the ability of these Black watermelon salesmen from being able to sell their crop and make real money. That negative association endures to this day. While Palestinians see watermelon as a sign of their own ability to make something that they could sell and that could continue to represent their culture, carrying all three of their flag’s colors, we have had it used against us as a point of shame. There is nothing wrong with watermelon, it is not some lessor fruit, however, because some racist white people wanted to prevent us from popularizing it and making money, it has now become something that makes Black people self-conscious to eat in public.
African Phenotype
Through the minstrel shows our facial features were turned into a joke. White minstrel actors would darken their faces, put on wide red lips, and make a mockery of us. Ever since, having a wide nose, big lips, and thick hair has been used as a sign of our inferiority. In reality, not only are these features not ugly, but they are indicators of our evolution within our original homeland. Scientists have found that the reason for the features of the African diaspora comes from our positioning about the equator. A good part of the African continent is humid a good portion of the time. Our people there needed features that enabled us to be able to thrive amongst the heat. Our thick hair was evolved to protect are heads from UV rays from above. Our wide set nose and lips were evolved to inhale humid air and be able to do so without becoming winded easily versus narrower noses which evolved out of colder areas to make it easier to take in frigid air. It has long since been held that each ethnicity’s characteristics are related to where we lived and therefore have nothing to do with better or worse features overall. Those features simply made us better suited for the environments that we live in. Even though we have been spread about the world, largely by force, we continue to carry these features that tie us back to the lands that our people originally thrived in. In spite of how the minstrel shows and ensuing Euro-centric beauty standards have defined it, everything from our melanin to our course crowns is just our ancestors’ adaptations still thriving in us. Black people and our features are beautiful.
The Hood
The association between Black people and the hood is also no coincidence. In the years following Black people being released from bondage, we were not simply allowed to enter society with no issues. Racist white people did not want to live with us as neighbors. There were only so many places that Black people could live, which is why many of those areas became overcrowded. When Black people tried to live amongst racist white people, they would have burning crosses set in their yards, and that is when their homes were not set on fire. There was constantly excuses being found to arrest us, as well as the rampant lynchings that were taking place. This is a major reason for what is known as the Great Migration, where Black people from the South migrated North in hopes of finding better opportunity and safety. Of course, the neighborhoods in which we populated were not well taken care of. With the population density of our neighborhoods being so high, all of that traffic inevitably leads to things being worn down quickly. Without proper upkeep of our neighborhoods, which is paid for through our taxes, we have often been left to live in terrible conditions. We have been blamed for the conditions of our neighborhoods, in spite of the fact that we have actual entities who are supposed to maintain these areas and don’t. The projects and their conditions are all a result of neglect. It is true that there is often high crime in these areas, which ultimately is made worse by the high population level. I often think about the sheer number of people living in small areas in Black neighborhoods and there is no wonder of the conditions. Past attempts by Black people to form and maintain our own neighborhoods have led to them either being outright burned down or leveled to create highways and lakes. This has significantly limited the places in which many Black people can live. Although there has been some progress in the amount of Black people able to either form our own good neighborhoods or move into integrated ones, there continues to be discriminatory practices in place to make this difficult for many others.
African American Vernacular English
We are often mocked for the way we speak as African Americans. It has been used to denote ignorance. The reality of the situation is that we are a very specific group of people that represents a subgroup within American society. Because for most of our history in this country we have been treated as non-citizens and also non-humans, we have not been able to fully integrate into American society. As such, we have formed our own culture within American culture that is influenced by America, but also a culture of its own. Our way of speaking is in part a holdover from where we came from. We spoke our own languages as West Africans. These languages were outlawed in America to limit our ability to communicate to those languages that the enslavers could understand. However, even as we were forced to take up English, we continued to blend our native tongues into it. Our languages were not based on the Indo-European, Germanic languages that English is. Ours formed from entirely different language systems that many believe to be the more original languages. The clicking sounds of Xhosa are associated with the original modes of language that were likely influenced by natural sounds, which is why clicking is incorporated. The language that African Americans have formed, which has evolved throughout our migration in the United States, is evidence of our development of language, particularly given that for most of our time in America we were barely able to learn to read or write. So much of our language development was mostly through speaking and mimicry, which is actually very impressive. Whenever the way we speak is used as a sign of our ignorance, that actually denotes the ignorance of the racist saying that. We would not speak a formal language when until 1954 we weren’t even guaranteed a formal education. Even then, we were severely limited. There are no -er words in our languages. In many of our native tongues, words are rounded off in vowels. Our tendency to migrate sounds in words is just evidence of the mixing of our languages into English. Much like Haitian Kreyol is a mix of French with languages of West Africa and the other areas that our people were stolen from, that is the same for most languages of the places that we have moved into. There is typically a mixing of indigenous languages with the colonial language, which is why they differ in pronunciation than the more formal speech. Not ignorance, just culture.
Our Names
Enslaved Africans were offered little dignity, so it should not be surprising that enslavers barely even bothered to give them names. They were called things, obviously, but those names were careless. We were often called only by one name. Our families, when possible, would give names to us and, if available, these names would be set down in the family bible. We were not issued birth certificates. Many of the ledgers used to keep up with enslaved Africans often listed descriptions instead of names. Upon our release from bondage, we began to makeup our own names. While many last names came from the plantations in which we were held in bondage and the people that claimed to own us, a lot of it was simply our own creation. Freeman being a popular last name was directly to denote that some of us were free. Booker T. Washington detailed in Up From Slavery that while his mother called him Booker from birth, he adopted Taliaferro Washington later on to make his name more like other children. White kids had the privilege of carrying their own family names. We, on the other hand, did not have that based on being ripped away from our families. The unique names that we often give to ourselves and our children is another expression of our freedom to self-determine. As everything that is associated specifically with us has been, our names have been mocked as another indicator of our inferiority. In reality, it is just our creativity and particular culture that is used to color our names.
Minstrelsy
Minstrel shows were another method for racist white people to dehumanize us. It was a way of making all of the ways that we did things an indication of how and why we were lessor. Looking at those big, wide grins makes me think of how even our joy was made a mockery of. Everything from tap-dancing, as many people still use to speak of how Black people have been forced to “shuck and jive” as entertainment, to our walks was turned into jokes. There were few Black creatives and actors early on, so Black people were not seen on the main stages. Minstrelsy was the main representation of Black people in many entertainment spaces for a good while. So much so, that even early Black entertainers participated in minstrelsy. These caricatures continue to be a part of how Black people are stereotyped to this day, while many white people feign ignorance as to why Black people have developed a sensitivity to Black face. It is a mockery meant to dehumanize us and rationalize our discrimination.
It is important to realize that the evolution of our culture as African Americans is as Americanized Africans and Africanized Americans. The particular expressions of our culture are in part built on our rejection from the societies that we were forced into, as well as us maintaining a line from where we are from and where we are now. African American culture as well as the African diasporic cultures are unique to our particular experience, as well as evidence of our determination to hold on to our heritage, even as we were forced into ways that were foreign to us. There is no shame in the full range of our culture. Our dances, our music, our art, our speech, our ways of being are all beautiful reminders of the strength, genius, and endurance of our people.
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