How Can You Read a Racialized Image Like a Literary Text?
Washington College students enrolled in ENG 471 “Black Men & Women: Images of Race & Gender in American Literature & Culture” learned how to do this by identifying and analyzing contemporary versions of historical racial stereotypes in popular culture.
In the Spring of 2020, final poster presentations had to be canceled in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Students prepared brief abstracts of their projects for this digital exhibition instead. Students enrolled in the course this Fall 2022 have contributed to this digital exhibition as well.
We hope these short “conversation pieces” inspire, encourage, and provoke you to increase your awareness of how racialized images have become ubiquitous in American culture.
Is Madea a Mammy and/or Sapphire?
By Ayana Davis For my research project I chose to analyze the character Mabel Simons, or as many know her, Madea. I specifically chose a scene from Tyler Perry’s 2006 film Madea’s Family Reunion. In the scene Madea gives advice to two of her nieces about what to do if they’re in an abusive relationship.…
R-Truth and the Minstrel Figure Role in WWE
By Caryl Townsend The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) has been a huge entertainment business for several decades. One of the main reasons for it’s survival throughout the decades – besides Vince McMahon’s bank account – is the way it emphasizes entertainment, rather then just straight wrestling, in it’s program. The characters throughout time have included…
“I am not afraid”: Lieutenant Uhura Confronting the Jezebel
By Vee Sharp The original series of Star Trek represented an attempt on the part of Gene Roddenberry and the other creators involved to envision an integrated and multiracial future. Despite that vision, it was rare that the characters of color, particularly Lieutenant Uhura or the helmsman Sulu, received a significant amount of time to…
Annalise Keating, The Subversive Sapphire
(Contains Adult Language) By Ally Allen How to Get Away with Murder is a law drama about the astute attorney Annalise Keating who also teaches law at the fictional Philadelphia University. She runs a program where she chooses five students to work for her but the ones this semester become entangled with multiple murders. Annalise’s…
The Uncle Tom View: “Undercover Brother”
By Kai Shipman Within Undercover Brother a 2002 Blaxploitation film, the main character experiences many changes in personality. The most memorable instance and the most important change in character is associated with him becoming a “sell-out.” In this moment he embodies and is depicted as a “Uncle Tom,” but with this change the writer seems…
The Impossibility of Mammy: Sister Krone in The Promised Neverland
By Dante Chavez When we first started talking about this project, almost immediately, one specific character came to mind. I thought of Sister Krone from the 2019 anime The Promised Neverland, and all the controversy the design for her character had caused online. I had never really thought of Sister Krone as a Mammy figure…
WANTED: The Lynching of Will Smith’s Career
By Jonah Nicholson After Will Smith smacked Chris Rock for making a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia, the internet divided itself into two clear sides on whether Rock’s joke was significant enough for Smith to slap him during a prestigious award show. As news media and Twitter posts blanketed the internet, there was a…
Community’s Shirley Bennet and the Mammy Stereotype
By Emma Russell Shirley Bennett is one of the principal characters of the sitcom Community. Desperate to change her situation in life after her divorce from her cheating husband, she decides to go to Greendale Community College to earn a business degree in order to better herself and support her two sons. Shirley befriends her Spanish class…
Everybody Hates Chris’ Rochelle Rock as a Sapphire Stereotype
By: Erin Moran For my project, I will be analyzing Rochelle, Chris’ mom in Everybody Hates Chris, as a character who perpetuates the Sapphire stereotype. Rochelle, played by Tichina Arnold, is a strong-willed mother who will do anything for her children, including “whooping ass.” In my childhood, I remember sneaking downstairs late at night to…
The Harmful Depiction of Serena Williams
By Piper Sartison Despite being one of the greatest female tennis players of all time, Serena Williams has been negatively depicted by the media for decades. During the 2018 US Open final, Serena was in controversy. The umpire accused her of being illegally coached on the sidelines. Williams defended her stance, calling the umpire a…
Copyright 2020, 2022
Black Men & Women 