C.S.A - Effectiveness of Racial Stereotypes
"Darky, chattel, mammy, coon, jigaboo, sambo"—examples of the stereotypes used to portray Black people as inherently inferior to white Americans and that appeared in the C.S.A advertisements. All of the fake advertisements in the C.S.A. film contained some stereotype of Black people, whether subtly or blatantly obvious. The scariest thing to me about the “fake” ads were how the racist ideas still exist and control today's American society. The imagery portraying whites as dominant and Blacks as inferior has persisted throughout history because of a system that condones it and because of a continuing willingness to believe it.
American society has always allowed and even encouraged the debasement of Black people. At first it was to defend slavery, and then as slavery “ended” and Blacks began fighting for equality, it was to defend white supremacism. One obvious example of encouraging racist ideas was the election of Donald Trump as president. Electing someone who freely espoused racist ideas to the highest position in the US proves how Americans continue to condone racism, especially through the support of racist political and media/celebrity figures. American society further allows racism through a justice system that blatantly protects white people and punishes black people. All of the media portraying Black people as impoverished, dangerous, and inferior is a huge reason why racist stereotyping has been so effective—because that kind of media is allowed to exist and is even encouraged.
Even though racist imagery exists in all aspects of American society, it wouldn’t be so effective if a large percentage of Americans weren’t willing to believe it. Since the moment white Europeans enslaved people of color in America, white people have enjoyed lives of privilege. White people experience privilege in jobs, healthcare, the “justice” system, education—in every aspect of American society. As people born into privilege, why would they voluntarily give up their innate superiority? Instead of fighting for equal access to society’s resources/benefits for all people, white people have instead fought to subvert reality so that they can live their lives of privilege in ignorance of racism. For example, believers of the Great Replacement Theory have convinced themselves that they are the victims and people of color are the enemies. As Ibram X. Kendi says, "the depths of racist denial are reached when white supremacists frame Black people as the primary perpetrators and white people as the primary victims of racial harm." Their made-up reality and their denial allows them to continue to live in privilege and attack Black people a second time—to carry out the “double terror of being Black in America”, which is racist violence on top of racist policies. Many Americans also have an unwillingness to confront the true reality of systemic racism. They purposefully deny the role of racism in history and ban the teaching of critical race theory in schools just to be able to protect their lives of privilege.
This post makes an excellent point about how there is not only a seemingly endless supply of slurs, stereotypes, and efforts to debase and abuse Black Americans, but how there is also a significant demand and appetite for such understandings and treatment, which itself aids and abets the "suppliers."
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