1. Davey Hines
African American Studies/Trussell
Paper 2 Ethnic Notions
11/6/14
The film Ethnic Notions is a film depicting the grotesque misrepresentation of black
people in performance arts, television, and novelties that have shaped and molded the stereotypes
and connotations attribute with the black person today. This film traces the origins of stereotypes
back to the 1800s when a traveling band of white men dressed in black face parading around in
an exaggerated, disrespectful representation of black people for the admiration and applause of a
white audience. Ethnic Notions reveals the origins of stereotypes and insulting characters still
etched in America’s conscious like Sambo, Coon, Mami, and Uncle. These horrible, belittling
representations of black people have directly contributed to the psyche of black people and the
rest of the country, and have misled generations upon generations of Americans about the black
position and role on several aspects of American history.
The most egregious, atrocious, and despicable lies depicted in these images presented to
the American population is that Africans were happy to be enslaved; that we needed to be saved
from the savage lifestyle in which we participated in our native lands, and without the saving
arms of Christianity and Europeans the best we could hope to be is a noble savage. Not only is
this so outrageously disrespectful and simply wrong, it is baffling that so many people, even
generations down the line, could even believe this to be true. It really shows how ignorant and
ill-educated the men and women of early America really were.
Another very sad dynamic of these stereotypes that were engrained in society is the
participation of blacks in the perpetuation of these ignorant images. On one hand, black people

2. who played the roles of the gullible, simple, happy-go-lucky slave, or the lazy, musical, goofy
black man solidified the legitimacy of the stereotypes. They aided in the psychological abuse
blacks endured about their importance, intelligence and appearance. On the other hand, however,
these same men and women playing these roles were left with no choice. As passionate actors
who dream of being in plays on screen, and also as poor members of society looking for a way to
feed and care for themselves and their families were cornered into taking these roles, as they
were the only ones offered to colored people. In order to survive as artists and human beings,
they had to subject themselves to distasteful misrepresentations of themselves and their people.
One might argue regardless of the fame and fortune these men and women would achieve,
regardless of the possibility of fulfilling their dreams, these black men and women should have
had some pride in their people and culture and refused these roles, leaving them for the white
men and women who were moronic enough to paint their faces black. Even though that might be
true, it is easy to objectively say that without being in the position these black men and women
were in, and the consequences they could face by not accepting this disgusting roles, like failure
as an actor, the inability to secure funds for survival, and being forced to see these characters
played by whites parading in black face.
The images shown in Ethnic Notions have undeniably, inarguably affected the psyche of
African-Americans. These grotesque depictions of African-Americans have seriously impacted
black self-esteem and the view of black people in society. Specifically, I believe the most
psychologically damaging image to the black community was the character Mami. A sexually
repulsive, irritating depiction of the black women force fed into American society for as long as
we have been forced to ingest this image has distorted our view of the beautiful black woman. It
has tricked black women, black men, and every other race in our country into believing these

3. horribly false stereotypes of the most important women on earth. Mami is unattractive, controls
and belittles the black man, is contradictorily submissive to the white man, is uneducated, and
serves to destroy and demoralize the black woman. I believe Mami is directly responsible for
stereotypes like black women being angry, controlling, and mean. I believe Mami is responsible
for the concept that dark skin is unattractive. As bad as the other characters presented in Ethnic
Notions are, I believe Mami is the most damaging because her character is more believable than
the others. Anyone can rationalize that no one enjoyed being a slave; it does not take a genius to
figure out blacks were far from grateful of being enslaved. It is obviously that black men aren’t
inherently lazy when you look at how much harder black men have had to work to accomplish
feats their white counterparts have achieved with relative ease. It is only the Mami character that
one could believe as real. Only Mami can truly convince people that she is an actual depiction of
some aspect of black culture.
I believe the stereotype of African-Americans being innately violent is still prevalent in
contemporary America. In every television show or movie where there is a mix of colors and
races, it seems as if there has to a violent, cold black man represented. In the show the 100, a
Netflix original series about human civilization after a world nuclear war turns planet Earth into
an uninhabitable wasteland. There are three prominent black characters: The Chancellor (similar
to a president), his son, and one stand teenager who travels with 100 juveniles from the space
station they live on to see if the Earth is livable a century after the war. The Chancellor is
basically modeled after Barack Obama. The son is just like his father. It’s the last black
character, the one that viewers spend the most time with, that is a brutish, unintelligent soldier
who attacks when ever provoked. It is sad to watch this character interact with the rest of his
community. It also happens that each of the characters is violently killed off.

4. I believe Marlon Riggs wanted us to know how deep racism goes. I believe he wanted us
to know the how the seed of the stereotypes and negative connotations attributed to blacks was
planted so long ago, and we do not truly know how deep the roots have grown into our psyche. I
also believe Marlon wants us to know how important it is for us to understand the origins of
these stereotypes, and how impertinent it is for us to change these associations blacks make
about themselves, and how other races think of us.
Karenga lengthily and colorfully defines Black Psychology as the “[focus] on the
structure and functioning of the human personality [and] points to the possibilities of its
unlimited expansion and thus, the realization of a higher level of human life on the personal and
social level.” Karenga goes on to say that Black Psychology is pivotal in assisting black people
in blossoming into “self-conscious agents of their own mental, emotional, and social liberation.”
Black Psychology stresses the critique of and refusal of White psychology based on its
methodology and based on its ideology. In response to the unacceptability of white psychology
amongst the black community, Black Psychology aims to correct the aspects of the white
perspective in psychology by approaching the same psychological concepts from an Afrocentric
point-of-view.
The traditional school of psychology, specifically Grier and Cobbs’ section, relates to the
film Ethnic Notions. Grier and Cobbs focus on the fact that whites know what they are doing to
black people and how they are changing their attitudes and perceptions of themselves. The
ignorant, demoralizing way whites gallivanted in black face warped the black psyche, and
distorted our perceptions of ourselves. Another important topic Greer and Cobbs discusses is the
fact that despite the gross atrocities committed against the black population, we have
miraculously still survived.

5. The most significant piece of information obtained in between the film and book came
from the Ethnic Notions. I believe the most valuable concept I learned in the film is the origin of
the various stereotypes used to demoralize and break us as a people. If we analyze the ways in
which these stereotypes have been used and are still used, we can effectively disarm the
perpetrators attempting to destroy us equipped with those stereotypes. Also, understanding these
stereotypes aids us in deconstructing them, and replacing them with more positive
generalizations of black people that can only contribute to our uplifting and adornment.