Why do we object to the Serena Williams cartoon charicature?
Because dehumanizing African Americans is a time honored tool to hinder equality in America through “humor.”
Thread
#TriggerWarning
#SerenaWilliams
ferris.edu/jimcrow/cartoo…
Angelfood McSpade was a comic character in 1968 described as the “stereotypical Black woman.”
She was naked except for the skirt, portrayed as a nymphomaniac and unintelligent.
Artist Robert Crumb declared the comic book character “not racist.”
!1968!
Cartoons have been a pernicious aspect of bigotry since their inception.
Children get early indoctrination to stereotypes in classic Disney films.
In 1936 Jesse Owens was portrayed as a monkey competing in Hitler’s Olympics.
2016 Cartoon of Michelle Obama portrays the First Lady as masculine and angry.
The Black Lives Matters protests are marginalized in a cartoon portraying police shootings as a subject for humor.
A UNC cartoon depreciates the horror of the Trayvon Martin shooting as Zimmerman & law enforcement casually interact over Martin’s body.
And a cartoon depicting President Obama being lynched treats the history of lynching with astonishing casualness.
Racist cartoons normalize caricatures and introduces racial stereotypes even before a child can read.
African Americans are stereotyped as less then human, expendable, violent and unintelligent.
We object to the Serena cartoon for all of these reasons.
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