So in class we watched the Ethnic Notions video and learned about the different stereotypes blacks faced. It was all new to me, so it definitely stuck in my head. Then a couple days ago I went on a field trip to with my history class and we visited the Federal Hall on Wallstreet. This was where George Washington was sworn in as President; however this year is the 200th birthday of Abe Lincoln, so there was an entire exhibit on his life and presidency. As we were walking around, reading documents, and analyzing artifacts, I came upon this......
(Stated in this picture is.... "What Miscegenation is! What we are to expect now that Mr. Lincoln is Re-elected!")
It was an actual ad from that time period. Immediately the Ethnic Notions video came into my head. This is what we were talking about! For me it is difficult to get the true meaning of something, unless I am able to see it in person, so I am really glad we spotted it. Reality immediately hit me looking at this ad... people were really that opinionated and vocalized their opinions.
As demonstrated in this picture, the lips were over exaggerated, and are what my eye was drawn to immediately. In my mind it was complete racism. In that time period it was horrible for a white to be with a black. We can relate this to Malcolm X, because when he was hustling and going to the bars in Harlem, if an African American was talking to a white, it was looked at differently than two blacks or two whites hanging out and dancing.
For more ads like this one go to Zip Coon and Watermelons.ppt. This gives even more visuals of the racism that occurred. Most of the pictures are advertisements. They are just like the figures were learned about while watching the movie such as the "Zip Coon" or the "Urban Coon". Along with all the watermelon and "The Mammy".
No comments:
Post a Comment