Ethnic Notions Restated by Norviel

1. The main idea of Ethnic Notions is that the way people of other ethnicities, mostly blacks in this case, are portrayed by whites in a negative and exaggerated way. Although this is an old film it's views are somewhat still with us today.

2. In the film it shows caricatures of blacks having excessively dark black skin and exaggerated facial features such as lips and bulging eyes. These views are said to be how the white people see the African Americans, and how they are "ugly". In commercials of black slaves it shows the slaves smiling and singing, as if they were happy to be doing what they were doing, when in fact these images were not true. There were many different views of blacks such as the Mammy for example. The mammy was shown as a large, unattractive black woman who would tend after the master's children and home. The Sambo was a laughing black man who was supposed to represent the immaturity and childlike contempt of the African Americans, making them look as if their lack of education made them simple minded and easily entertained. Coon was another of the many labels put on blacks, which once again was a negative image. Once the slaves were free in the northern states, people said that the slaves missed their labor and missed being slaves. Without the white control they were said to have went back to their savagely ways of life in which they were said to have descended from.

3. Did blacks have a negative image of whites that they made up/designed? How many of these images are still in the media and around us today?

4. This movie actually showed images that I remember seeing similar ones from cartoons from when I was a lot younger. Overall the video was impressionable and brought about many topics. I liked how they showed all of the many different labels that blacks had throughout history. I love Aunt Jemima pancakes, and never thought about the logo on the front as being racial until this video, it helped me to realize and notice things around me more and to start to think about these things in a more curious way.