Ethnic Notions

This movie really dealt with the unfair black portrayl before and after slavery was abolished. Blacks were portrayed as maids, servents and percieved to have big lips, talk in a slang language, to be fat, and lazy. The first show clip we saw on the movie was called "Uncle Toms Cabin" it too portrayed blacks as lazy and ignorant. Uncle Tom had no teeth, a monkey laugh, and was a farmer. Next the movie presented the idea of a "Sambo" which was a black man that was loud, carefree, and irresponsible. Personally I had never seen blacks portrayed this way ever. It is probably because I dont look at old photos or shows, but I think that it was good to be exposed to because otherwise I would have never known. People like T.D. Rice would make fun of crippled black people dancing (of course he exaggerated it), and Jim Crow who was known for Jim Crows Jumblee. It was sad because blacks were getting portrayed in these terrible ways and as some people tried to abolish slavery, others would portray blacks as inferior to hold their own. In the movie black slaves were also shown as being "happy slaves", seeing pictures of happy slaves and nice owners made people think that slavery was a good thing. In later movies blacks would be portrayed as missing slavery. One of the most distrubing things about the movie was the way children were portrayed as black furry animals. Children are so innocent and their only fault is not understanding that you are suppost to be born with a suit of armor. I also found it disturbing that in WWI blacks tried to prove themselves (which they should not have in the first place) and they were given roles as if they were slaves again, serving food and having to entertain the whites. Also there is no excuse for hurting someone, and as the blacks were unfairly getting murdered the only good reason was that their animalistic brute were making them act crazily. I think that the way blacks were portrayed would have had an extremely negative effect on their self esteem and self worth. I know that I could not imagine what that would be like and in the movie the narrarator said that kids thought the sterotypes were acceptable. As the movie continued so did the years and the portrayl of blacks in movies, pictures and even in just normal speaking dwindled to almost normal (which is should have been normal to begin with). I liked this movie, it kept me interested and subjected me to ideas and facts that I had never known before, it is just too bad whites were so desperate for entertainment that they had to make their slaves put on makeup and dance for them. I cant imagine how it would be funny to watch a black person in makeup, they obviously did not look like that in real life.