Negative Stereotypes of Black Men
In our society there are stereotypes placed on every ethnic group in our nation. Some of these stereotypes are positive but most of them are negative. "Stereotypes are not an error of perception but rather a form of social control intended as prisons of image." (Walker, 4) I believe this is true. The stereotypes that the society puts on groups of people gets into the people's minds and they either resent them or live up to them. The stereotype that society places on black men has always been a negative one.
In our society today, black men are depicted as thugged out, uneducated, marijuana smoking men. They have acrimonious attitudes, only speak in "black" dialect known as Ebonics and are hell-bent on putting "Whitey" in his place. To accompany his other attributes he deems it necessary to legitimize his status as truly black. This puts him in the same category as all the other prison-bound, shiftless, misogynistic black men that he feels he can identify with. To these men, women are sexual objects: pawns to be played like a game of chess. They have insatiable sexual appetite and will go to any means to get sex.
" The media is much to blame for negative stereotypes about African American men" (UC Berkeley, 2). This is the truest thing you will read throughout this entire paper. The media promotes the images/ stereotypes above in every way possible, through books, television, movies, and even games. They expose the youth today to drugs, sex and crime that is most of the time done or orchestrated by a black male. In the past male men were shown as Toms, Coons, Tragic Maluattoes, and Bucks in American cinema. A Tom was always chased, harassed, hounded, flogged, enslaved, and insulted. They would never turn their backs against their white masters and always remained hearty, stoic, selfless, submissive, generous and oh-so-very kind. Coons were the most blatantly degrading of all the stereotypes. They were described as those unreliable, crazy, lazy, subhuman creatures
In our society today, black men are depicted as thugged out, uneducated, marijuana smoking men. They have acrimonious attitudes, only speak in "black" dialect known as Ebonics and are hell-bent on putting "Whitey" in his place. To accompany his other attributes he deems it necessary to legitimize his status as truly black. This puts him in the same category as all the other prison-bound, shiftless, misogynistic black men that he feels he can identify with. To these men, women are sexual objects: pawns to be played like a game of chess. They have insatiable sexual appetite and will go to any means to get sex.
" The media is much to blame for negative stereotypes about African American men" (UC Berkeley, 2). This is the truest thing you will read throughout this entire paper. The media promotes the images/ stereotypes above in every way possible, through books, television, movies, and even games. They expose the youth today to drugs, sex and crime that is most of the time done or orchestrated by a black male. In the past male men were shown as Toms, Coons, Tragic Maluattoes, and Bucks in American cinema. A Tom was always chased, harassed, hounded, flogged, enslaved, and insulted. They would never turn their backs against their white masters and always remained hearty, stoic, selfless, submissive, generous and oh-so-very kind. Coons were the most blatantly degrading of all the stereotypes. They were described as those unreliable, crazy, lazy, subhuman creatures