Ethnic Notions

The film “Ethnic Notions” was a very opinionized film. This film had a lot of cartoons, figureinge, and photographs that incorrectly projected the image of the black race. These different representations were all overemphasized representations that lead to ideas of the black race that are crude generalizations and negitive images.
Through time, the view of the black race has been changing through the eyes of different people. Though the view has changed, the ideas of the past and negitive ideas are still present. Though many do not express them, they are still present in the minds of many. These past ideas were mostly negitive toward the black race. Ideas such as the idea that black men were careless and always happy and singing instead of being productive. Ideas that the black women were all the “mammy” type, willing to do anything for anyone just to make them happy, and that they were happy to do the dirty work and take care of those who don’t care about them. They general idea for quite a time, was that the black man was a lazy carefree man who was only productive in being happy about life. “Birth of a Nation” the video, has random people take on the roles of black people by using what is called “black face”. Black face was when any person, black or white, would paint their faces black and take on the role of the “Sambo”. Even when the person playing the role was black, they were made to paint their face even blacker and to use other make-up to create a larger looking mouth to create that large smile idea.
This video seemed to bring out a few main points. One of these points being that blacks were seen as savages still. Many had still seen them as uncivilized and unable to be productive in anything they do. The other key point that was expressed was that blacks were happy servants. This was a crude and untrue stereotype that slaves were happy. Obviously the image of the “Sambo” lead many whites and others who looked upon these ideas to perceive them as true. But in reality, the blacks were not happy, but the exact opposite. They were in a struggle to stay happy, and always looking out for a way to gain freedom that could lead them to happiness.
Are these images still present today? Yes as a matter of fact they are. If you look around the media, sometimes cartoons, they often still portray they black man as the “sambo”. Also, if you would look out in stores, and look at certain food labels, you may notice that “uncle bens rice” still shows the face of “uncle ben”. In relation to that, Aunt Jemima is still portrayed on the syrup containers. All of these examples proving that, although not as extreme, these images are still present today.
I found this film to be very informational to me personally. I personally have used “Aunt Jemima” syrup many times, and have never paid attention to the image portrayed. This video opened my eyes, and has me noticing things that I have not noticed before about some of my old favorite cartoons and other media items. I realize that these images are derogatory and prove to me that these image outlooks are still used to this day.