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 good for nothing more than eating watermelons, stealing chickens, shooting craps or butchering the English language. A tragic maluatto was a fair skinned black trying to past for white. The maluatto was usually made likable and audiences believed that their life could have been productive and happy if they had not been victims of divided racial inheritance. Bucks were always big, brutal, oversexed black men. These characters, though they were job opening for blacks, were every degrading. They showed blacks doing any old stupid thing for a laugh. The Amos'n Andy show, which had examples of all the old stereotypes listed above, gave leeway to other stereotypical shows like, "Sanford and Son", "Good Times", and " That's My Mama". I believe that this is how negative stereotyping in the media started.

Now, there are shows on networks like BET and MTV that promotes sex, drugs, prostitution, and crime, as the basic needs for African America living in America. You also have movies, books and games that promote the same thing. The controversial board game, Ghettopoly, which was released for sale on the Internet in 2003, showed images of "playas", "ganstas", pimps, hoes, crack heads, crack houses, and thieves in the projects. In the game you could buy stolen properties, pimp hoes, build crack houses and projects, pay protection fees, and get car jacked. The Ghettopoly man is a black thug in a bandana and dark glasses, holding marijuana joint, an Uzi and a bottle of malt liquor. He is suppose to be the accurate reflection of symbols of hip-hop culture as propagated by superstars.

" Quite disturbingly, this heavily caricatured figure in all of his

offensively exaggerated manifestations of "gangsta" style might

be the artist's persona behind any number of popular rap

songs." (Orman, 3)

Rappers are the main ones who live up to the negative stereotypes placed on black men. In their songs as well in their videos they talk about and flaunt the amount of cash they have, the type of cars they have, and how many women they can get. They degrade women and allow women to degrade themselves, by calling the B****s and Hoes, dressing them in super elastic, skin tight clothes and tell them in as they say " shake it fast in their videos. Rapper 50 Cent is a prime example. His web site opens with a gunshot noise and is followed by a picture of him pointing a gun at the viewer from the computer screen. The lyrics to his songs advocate a sleazy,