For ages, black women had served in white people's homes as slaves and servants. As advertisements became necessary to attract consumers to a product, black women became subjects of advertisements because of their long association to the home and more importantly to their perpetual connection to the image of a happy go lucky black servant with lilting English who loved to take care of her employers and their children. To refer to the stereotype of a joyful black woman serving a white family, people came up with "Mammy" after the character in Gone with the Wind who stays with the family who owned her as a slave after the Emancipation Proclamation, which was the ultimate show of affection for one's employers.
This Monel ad shows a black woman happily doing the washing for what the audience assumes to be her white employers. She speaks with a heavy Southern accent as the copy implies, and her image is one of a classic black houseservant: full bodied, homely, and smiling as she works. It is as though she has nothing better to do than make sure her white employers' clothes are as clean as can be.
The entire copy for this pest killer ad is written in the perspective of a Mammy-type servant, who swears that there are no pests in her kitchen, meaning her employer's kitchen. She is enlightened into the world of Flit pest killer by her white employer Miss Lucy, who recommends that she use it to keep the kitchen clean. After following Miss Lucy's advice, the kitchen is free from pests and she is able to concentrate on other paid domestic tasks. While the Mammy stereotype seems like an antiquated one since its days of societal acceptance are over, there are still instances when vestiges of this stereotype exist. For example, the image of Aunt Jemima, although modified for present societal norms, has roots in the same era from the advertisements from Monel and Flit. However, more prevalent is the following stereotype, which is present in not only advertisements, but film and television as well.
Angry Black Woman/Sapphire
During the Civil Rights Movement, a new type of stereotype was born: the angry black woman, also known as the Sapphire Caricature. This came from the character from the 1950s sitcom Amos 'n Andy, which included a black woman named Sapphire who was always angry at her lazy husband. This eventually turned into a more violent stereotype, which portrayed black women as aggressive, easily angered, and with short tempers.
The angry black woman stereotype was most clearly seen in blaxploitation cinema of the 1970s, where black women were shown as angry with white domination in society and comfortable with violence in order to turn the dominance over to African Americans. Even though this character was meant to empower African American urban youth to stand up against the racist social order, the caricature of black women as perpetually angry continues to be an incredibly racist stereotype.
Even now, black women are still shown to be angry if they do not get their way. In this Pepsi commercial, the woman reverts to direct and passive-aggressive punishment in order to get her partner to do what she wants: eat the right food to lose weight. The punchline of the joke is her violence and how it causes physical injury to a white woman her partner is ogling.
Like most other women and people in general, black women certainly feel anger. However, this emotion is not simply "anger;" rather, it is the combination of many, such as frustration, sadness, and incredulity. The intersectionality of race, class, and gender among many other characteristics in perpetuating gender oppression is definitely a valid subject of anger. Many women of all races feel angry about this as well, but serious anger as a stereotype seems to only be held by black women. Most everyone feels the anger that is stereotyped to be exclusive to black women at some point, so this stereotype, like all others, is unreasonable. -An Bui Information from: http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/sapphire/
Bunifa Latifah Halifah Sharifa Jackson on MADtv by Eric Izaguirre Adding to the "angry black woman" stereotype is MADtv's Bunifa Latifah Halifa Sharifa Jackson. She's loud, dresses in skimpy outfits and gets angry easily. The video below speaks for itself.
Mammy
For ages, black women had served in white people's homes as slaves and servants. As advertisements became necessary to attract consumers to a product, black women became subjects of advertisements because of their long association to the home and more importantly to their perpetual connection to the image of a happy go lucky black servant with lilting English who loved to take care of her employers and their children. To refer to the stereotype of a joyful black woman serving a white family, people came up with "Mammy" after the character in Gone with the Wind who stays with the family who owned her as a slave after the Emancipation Proclamation, which was the ultimate show of affection for one's employers.This Monel ad shows a black woman happily doing the washing for what the audience assumes to be her white employers. She speaks with a heavy Southern accent as the copy implies, and her image is one of a classic black houseservant: full bodied, homely, and smiling as she works. It is as though she has nothing better to do than make sure her white employers' clothes are as clean as can be.
The entire copy for this pest killer ad is written in the perspective of a Mammy-type servant, who swears that there are no pests in her kitchen, meaning her employer's kitchen. She is enlightened into the world of Flit pest killer by her white employer Miss Lucy, who recommends that she use it to keep the kitchen clean. After following Miss Lucy's advice, the kitchen is free from pests and she is able to concentrate on other paid domestic tasks.
While the Mammy stereotype seems like an antiquated one since its days of societal acceptance are over, there are still instances when vestiges of this stereotype exist. For example, the image of Aunt Jemima, although modified for present societal norms, has roots in the same era from the advertisements from Monel and Flit. However, more prevalent is the following stereotype, which is present in not only advertisements, but film and television as well.
Angry Black Woman/Sapphire
During the Civil Rights Movement, a new type of stereotype was born: the angry black woman, also known as the Sapphire Caricature. This came from the character from the 1950s sitcom Amos 'n Andy, which included a black woman named Sapphire who was always angry at her lazy husband. This eventually turned into a more violent stereotype, which portrayed black women as aggressive, easily angered, and with short tempers.The angry black woman stereotype was most clearly seen in blaxploitation cinema of the 1970s, where black women were shown as angry with white domination in society and comfortable with violence in order to turn the dominance over to African Americans. Even though this character was meant to empower African American urban youth to stand up against the racist social order, the caricature of black women as perpetually angry continues to be an incredibly racist stereotype.
Even now, black women are still shown to be angry if they do not get their way. In this Pepsi commercial, the woman reverts to direct and passive-aggressive punishment in order to get her partner to do what she wants: eat the right food to lose weight. The punchline of the joke is her violence and how it causes physical injury to a white woman her partner is ogling.
Like most other women and people in general, black women certainly feel anger. However, this emotion is not simply "anger;" rather, it is the combination of many, such as frustration, sadness, and incredulity. The intersectionality of race, class, and gender among many other characteristics in perpetuating gender oppression is definitely a valid subject of anger. Many women of all races feel angry about this as well, but serious anger as a stereotype seems to only be held by black women. Most everyone feels the anger that is stereotyped to be exclusive to black women at some point, so this stereotype, like all others, is unreasonable.
-An Bui
Information from:
http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/sapphire/
Bunifa Latifah Halifah Sharifa Jackson on MADtv
by Eric Izaguirre
Adding to the "angry black woman" stereotype is MADtv's Bunifa Latifah Halifa Sharifa Jackson. She's loud, dresses in skimpy outfits and gets angry easily. The video below speaks for itself.
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