Anti-Black Imagery: Using Art to Confront the Stereotyping of Blacks and Their Culture

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Anti-Black Imagery: Using Art to Confront the Stereotyping of Blacks and Their Culture
Introduction
People from minority groups continue to experience substantial inequalities across a range of global indicators. This burden of racial stigmatization extends from childhood to later life. One of the profound incidences of racism entails generalizations and stereotyping of the immigrant population in American society. Racism is embedded in American culture and overlaps with the institution of slavery (Taylor 213). Ingrained racism has led to the oppression of the African-American population that has extended American art. Strive to abolish suppression, discrimination, social injustices, and abuse of human rights has faced a significant blow and objection from the majority population who have painted the blacks as less-human. Deeply held stereotypical beliefs and racist attitudes idealizing about excluding minority groups such as African Americans have been embedded in art, finding its way to living art galleries.  
Anti-Black Imagery of Blacks and Their Culture
Strong stereotypical beliefs about the black community have directed how this racial group should be treated and ruled, not individually but collectively. That stems from maintained societal perceptions of African-Americans that depicted them as servants of the white family. 
Racial and ethnic minorities are represented only seldom in visual culture and media. When they are described, they are portrayed narrowly, thus reflecting prejudice and stereotypes, therefore promoting racism and religious bigotry. The media tends to show and reflect the interest of populous races, cultures, and dominant groups hence undermining the interests and issues of minorities. The narrative films are gendered and favour western culture. Ramsay (1993) says that there is a need for a broader context in which films are approached within the history of Canada to accommodate all.
The controversial anti-black imagery at the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia exhibits a decorative ornament that exaggerates black people's work. The stereotyping of African-Americans penetrated the theatrical platform with the initiation of the blackface entertainers. As Taylor 216 states, the "white performers smeared burnt cork on their faces, painted grotesque and exaggerated white mouths over their own. They donned black wigs with woolly texture and took the stage to entertain the audience". The emerging character was Jim Crow. The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia exhibits one of the known anti-black imageries in America's history. Equally, these collections are a form of fueling exclusion. The museum contains a decorative collection of ornaments that caricatures black persons and stimulates the notion of their servitude. These artistic images include racism on the lawn, savage caricature, and Mammy caricature, presenting a significant role in depicting early American history's racial stereotypes.  
Art has often played a key role in social change, addressing racism, chauvinism, discrimination, and exclusion. Through dramatic abilities, artists can challenge these racial narratives, alter images, and stimulate feelings that transcend outdated stereotypes. Art can, therefore, be used to directly empower the most vulnerable members of society and push for freedom of expression. However, artistic forms represent equally controversial meanings in the society, and some would have formed different meanings from their original purpose. These art forms have defined the strong stereotypical beliefs held by the artists towards a particular racial group.
Although these caricatures show how racial groups were mocked, they showcase how African-Americans are often perceived in art, the place of work, and even their physical appearance. Wanzo (2020) notes that "not recognizable likeness of people, caricatures were not only exaggerated faces and body types, but also fantastic depictions of inanimate objects or humans." Cruelty towards African-Americans happens due to stereotypes that depict this minority group as dangerous and criminally prone, threatening the existing social order and offering a direct threat to the majority well-being.
Artists carry the memories and programmed racism forming their start of caricaturing the racial groups. These racist perceptions affect African American racial attitudes and self-concept. Black people have been described as miserable, exotic, savages, abnormally hypersexual, unsophisticated fools, submissive servants, self-loathing targets, and a threat to society. Blacks' caricatures represented an artistic way of reducing people to real and imagined excesses to express something understood as essential about their character (Wanzo 5). These memories, once inscribed in the art, would present diverse meanings to different groups. The divergence perceptions bring an exclusion, favouring one group over the other.
Racism and discriminating stereotypes have remained prevalent, promoting social exclusion within the minority groups. For instance, the Mammy caricature serves the political, social, and economic interests of majority-white Americans from servitude times to the Jim Crow period (Ferris State University n.d). The art was mad...