Thread by @JillianSaysNow

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.