African American Male Stereotype

Question:

Discuss the origins and which means of anyone stereotype of black males (The Brute, Sambo, Uncle Tom, the Coon, the Thug, the Gladiator). Include in your reply, the impression this picture has had on both the remedy or identification growth of black males.

In United States plenty of races are stereotyped against but African Americans are some of the frequent racial groups stereotyped in opposition to. One of the most common and damaging stereotype towards African American is that all black males are brutes.

The brute stereotype portrays black males as dangerous criminals. This is an issue we’ve been going through in America for over a century and there are not any indicators that this concern is getting higher. The media still retains on portraying this false image that all black males are violent harmful criminals and these days there are even video games which are about black males going around killing and robbing folks. This stereotype has a significant impression on how black men view themselves and extra importantly how the relaxation of society views and treat them.

To get a greater understanding of why United States views black males as brutes we might have to look at its origin. At first blacks were not seen as brutes, during slavery African Americans was considered as docile and virtuously innocent. It was not until the Radical Reconstructive period when slavery was abolished that black had been seen as brutes. White’s southerners argued that without slavery blacks would revert to “criminal savagery”. Writer Thomas Nelson stated that the “good old darkies” have been exchange with blacks born after slavery who he described as dishonest, disrespectful and drunks.

Nelson additionally revealed Red Rock a novel about Moses a black man who tries to rape white ladies he’s then executed for his “terrible crime”. At this anti-black propaganda was flooding the streets in native newspaper, books, scientific journals all labeling blacks as brutes. There have been even motion pictures made called The Birth of Nation that depicts African Americans “rapist beast”. This is the how the stereotype that blacks are brutes originated.

Due to this stereotype that labeled African Americans as brutes they had been severely mistreated. According to the o Tuskegee Institute information three,437 blacks were lynched in United States from 1882 to 1951 ninety percent of them took place in the south. Lynching includes amputation, burning, capturing and hanging carried out by a white mob. Southerners knew lynching was evil but believed that black brutes have been more evil. Many whites argued that lynching was necessary in preserving the purity of the white race. However 25.three percent of black that was charged with rape was not responsible. An instance can be when 14 12 months old Emmett Till was visiting his relations in Mississippi was overwhelmed and tortured to death as a outcome of he supposedly called a white girls “baby”. Although issues are not as unhealthy as the use to be African Americans are still being treated different due to the false stereotype that say all black males are violent criminals. In the article The War on Drugs through The Wire the writer states that the war on medication was not about medication but about who was utilizing them. Independent research show that each blacks and whites use and promote drugs at similar rates, it’s the response that’s completely different about 37 p.c of African Americans who dropped out of high school was incarcerated in 2008. This reveals the disparity in our felony justice system they even name this mass incarceration of African Americans the model new Jim Crow regulation, this can be a consequence of the “war on drugs”.

Not solely does this adverse stereotype cause the mistreatment for blacks it affects the method in which black male view themselves. Due to the stereotype that each one black males are harmful criminals it has led African American in a vicious never ending cycle one black male gets locked up and that another child rising up without proper guidance so he himself would possibly comply with the identical footsteps as his father and find yourself in prison. This stereotype additionally causes others who aren’t black to concern African Americans. In Byron Hurt documentary Gail Dines said the scariest thing to a white particular person is an African American. An example could be when that unidentified man mentioned when he was walking to his mother automobile a white lady grabbed her purse went to the alternative sidewalk simply so she could seize 1 / 4 for the meter. However there are some black males who’re embracing this brute stereotype and benefiting. Mike Tyson is a prime example he has a status for being the world’s most ruthless man and he even bit the ear off an opponent. Tyson is quoted saying “I am an animal. I am a convicted rapist, a hell-raiser, a loving father, a semi-good husband.” Also I believe the entire hip-hop trade embraces this stereotype most of all rap songs discuss drugs, violence and sex reinforcing the adverse sterotype that each one blacks are brutes.

Bibliography
Pilgrims, D. (2000). The brute caricature
Balboni, J. The war on drugs through the wire trying glass. (pp. 189-203). Durham, Carolina Academic Press Hurt, B. (Producer) (2002). The black man in america [DVD].