The show The Boondocks is an animated satirical comedy that was based off of a comic strip of the same name created by Aaron McGruder, who is also the head writer and executive producer of the show. The general premise of The Boondocks is to identify racist stereotypes perpetuated within black culture and provide a counter narrative that denies them and shows how ridiculous and exaggerated they can be. Aaron McGruder brilliantly exaggerates these stereotypes within his characters: Huey Freeman as the revolutionary, Riley Freeman as the dangerous thug and criminal (even though he is young), Granddad as the image of the old Civil Rights Movement (he takes care of Huey and Riley), and Uncle Ruckus as the racist, self-hating black man (who also belongs in the 1960s). These characters appear in the episode “The Story of Catcher Freeman” (Season 2 Episode 12; …show more content…
Cartoon Network) in which Granddad, Uncle Ruckus, and Huey Freeman tell the story of Catcher Freeman, a slave that embodied certain stereotypes and personalities as well as did certain things that vary between each retelling of his story. With the help of Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory, we shall analyze how racist stereotypes that are attached to Catcher Freeman and his love interest, Thelma, are unintentionally perpetuated through the retelling of his story even though there is a counter narrative that rejects these stereotypes. Granddad provides the oppositional reading of Catcher Freeman. According to Granddad, Catcher Freeman was a slave who managed to revolt against his master and escape. He then established a brigade to kill slave masters and free other slaves. On a farm managed by Colonel Lynchwater, there is a female house slave by the name of Thelma that wanted freedom and escaped at night. She almost gets captured and raped but Catcher Freeman comes to the rescue. He falls in love with her that night and reassures her that he will free her friends. Although he was ambushed on the night of his raid, Catcher Freeman manages to kill the slave master and ultimately marries Thelma, living happily ever after. Granddad’s version is similar to a typical romantic story. What makes this typical is its representation of the female and male characters. The female character, Thelma, is portrayed as an attractive mulatto who is also helpless and weak. This portrayal was showcased in the scene when she ran away from the farm. She was easily restrained by the slave master’s two men and was about to be raped. Catcher Freeman, in the nick of time, saves her. Thelma is, in essence, the damsel-in-distress. She does not add any significance to the story besides the fact that she is Catcher Freeman’s love interest and someone that he must save. This representation of females is dominant in our society. Men tend to view women as weak and as a sort of sexual prize. Catcher Freeman, by killing Colonel Lynchwater and saving the other slaves, gets the girl (sexual prize). So the stereotype of a weak and submissive woman (house slave) is perpetuated even though she is brave enough to want to escape and gain her freedom. Catcher Freeman essentially embodies every characteristic that a male in a patriarchal society desires. He is a physically attractive, masculine, intelligent, independent, and dominant leader. This is portrayed in the fight scenes that showcase his gifted fighting abilities (swordsmanship and blocking bullets with his handcuffs) and the romantic kiss scenes between him and Thelma. He has good traits but is seen, from the dominant viewpoint, as a threat to white America. Assuming that he has been a free man for several years with his brigade, he must have killed hundreds of white slave owners and their men. So through Catcher Freeman, Aaron McGruder unintentionally perpetuates the dangerous black male stereotype, even though he has good qualities and his actions as an escaped slave are justified. Uncle Ruckus provides a dominant reading of the story. According to Uncle Ruckus, Catcher Freeman is actually called Catch A Freeman and is a savage who helped Colonel Lynchwater recapture escaped slaves. In this story, Thelma escapes the farm and is then recaptured by Catch A Freeman. Upon coming back to the farm, the other slaves have a meeting with Thelma and decide to use her as bait to restrain Catch A Freeman. Thelma lures him to the stables, strips naked, has sex with him, and then handcuffs him to a pole. She then leads a group of savage-looking slaves to attack Colonel Lynchwater who is killed in battle. Thelma gains her freedom and marries Catch A Freeman. As opposed to Granddad’s story, Catch A Freeman has almost none of the characteristics that were assigned to him. He is not the sleek, intelligent leader that he once was. Instead, he is portrayed as a savage. He walks on four legs, can swing on tree branches, and talks in short, unintelligent phrases. While he is totally different from the previous story, Catch A Freeman still embodies the dominant stereotypes of that time period. He is still a dangerous black man because of his supernatural strength and agility, and he now portrays the savage stereotype that was used to justify slavery. Thelma, on the other hand, is not that different from Granddad’s version of her.
She is still weak, submissive, and the object of sexual attention. But, she intentionally creates herself as the sexual object, i.e. a jezebel stereotype, by stripping in front of Catch A Freeman, whereas in Granddad’s version, Catcher Freeman falls in love with her without her doing anything to seduce him. Thelma is a little braver in this version as well. She escaped knowing what Catch A Freeman was capable of, used herself as bait to restrain him, and led an attack on the Colonel. She does not seem as helpless as she was before and she is in no way the damsel-in-distress. Although Aaron McGruder exaggerated these two characters’ appearances and characteristics in order to shine light on how ridiculous the portrayal of black slaves were in those times, the exaggeration is comedic and ultimately defeats the purpose of trying to reject these stereotypical images. In fact, these exaggerations reinforce these negative stereotypes, even if they are outdated, and so the dangerous black man and the hyper-sexualized black woman live
on. Huey Freeman provides the negotiated reading of the story. After hearing both Granddad’s and Uncle Ruckus’ stories, Huey decides to do some research on Catcher Freeman. He finds a website and reads the actual story to them. Huey states that Catcher Freeman was not a real person. On the night that Thelma escaped, she was restrained by one of the slave master’s workers. She reached for his gun and killed him. She then comes back to the farm and meets with the other slaves to stage a revolt. One of the slaves, Tobias (the real Catcher Freeman), betrays them because he wanted to sell a screenplay and tells the master that she will revolt in a week. In actuality, the revolt happened right when Tobias and the Colonel finish their conversation. They storm out of the house. The Colonel battles the slaves while Tobias watches in horror. The slaves kill all of the Colonel’s men and the Colonel is left sword fighting with Thelma. Tobias grabs a musket and aims for Thelma’s back. He shoots and unintentionally kills the Colonel. Everyone congratulates him and, instead of denying his action as unintentional, he went with the congratulations and got to marry Thelma. Thelma, unlike the other two versions, is not seen as weak, submissive, or sexual. She is brave, intelligent, and ambitious. She staged her own revolt with the other slaves and led them to victory. She was also able to fight the Colonel one-on-one with swords—quite impressive since, as a slave, she did not have proper training. And the fact that she came back to the farm instead of running away when she killed the Colonel’s worker shows her bravery. All of these traits do not mask her beauty though. She is attractive but not a sexual object. In fact, she demonstrates more masculine qualities than Tobias, the real Catcher Freeman. As for Catcher himself, he is weak, submissive (loyal to the Colonel), cowardly but rational as well. He does not participate in the revolt because he wants to sell the screenplay and instead sells out his friends. However, he is also being rational because, by revolting, he could potentially die and ruin his chances of ever selling his product. But he is weak in that he was unable to help the Colonel in his battle with Thelma and had to resort to using a gun to kill her (she is not that strong and not that skilled). Both of these characters go against the norm of what it means to be a man and a woman but the story itself allows for the characters to develop certain characteristics that demonstrate both their masculinity and femininity. Thelma is both attractive and strong; she has some qualities of Granddad’s Catcher Freeman that make her masculine and her attractiveness that makes her feminine. Tobias is weak and a coward but he is rational and intelligent (which is seen as more of a male trait during that time), so his identity could go either way. This particular version by Huey can both be oppositional and negotiated. It is negotiated in that the development of its characters leads us to believe that the characters could either be feminine or masculine—a little bit of both but they tend to lean towards one thing or another so it is not a fixed thing. It can also be oppositional because these characteristics are not seen in the typical gender role. They are portrayed differently from both Granddad’s and Uncle Ruckus’ versions. In order to understand why these characters were portrayed the way they are, we need to take into consideration the people that are telling the story. Huey is the revolutionary—the intelligent, educated young man who questions everything. He tells the unbiased story and did the most research. Granddad was from the Civil Rights Movement. His bias is towards the strong black man and the innocent black woman (he was on the bus with Rosa Parks). Uncle Ruckus is the self-hating racist who abhors black culture. So naturally, he would want to portray his people as savages. Depending on who was telling the story, the stereotypes that that they assume of their people was ultimately reflected onto their own characters. The issue with these stories in the episode is the way in which Uncle Ruckus and Granddad described their characters and told their stories. They exaggerated the characters way too much. Granddad portrayed his Catcher Freeman as one of the most violent and brutal men to ever face the white slave owners. He had very good fighting skills and was very intelligent. He was a huge threat. And while his good qualities of being a man and a leader were there, his other characteristics, as well as the stereotype of the dangerous black man that was attached to him, overshadowed the good qualities. Uncle Ruckus’ character was outright an animal. He walked on four legs and could barely talk. There was nothing good about his character. Although Aaron McGruder made it clear that this exaggeration was merely to show how ridiculous the portrayal of black people was, he made the story funny which did a disservice to its actual message. A serious message that is embodied in a funny character cannot be taken seriously. His efforts are for nothing. Thelma’s character was also very weak and was only seen as a sexual prize. To Granddad, she was weak and needed the help of Catcher to gain her freedom. She eventually became his prize when he killed the Colonel. Uncle Ruckus’ Thelma was extremely sexual and diabolical. She was used as bait to seduce him and then savagely attacked the Colonel. Women were not portrayed well in these two stories. Through Stuart Hall’s reception theory, we matched each version of the Catcher Freeman story with its appropriate cultural reading.
Brokeback Mountain is a book by Annie Proulx and was later adapted into a movie directed by Ang Lee. In Brokeback Mountain, the film conveys the life and secret love of two wyoming cowboys and shows the progression of their relationship through the years. I believe this film uses the characters Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar, the setting of the story to convey typical gay life for people before the modern era.
Throughout the narrative of the story, several examples of characters being portrayed by their race’s negative racial stereotypes. A great example of the negative racial stereotypes is the character Calvin Payne. In the episode “Payneful Assistance”, Calvin was arrested for owing child support to his “baby mama”. This scene in particular where Calvin is in jail and meets some random family member in jail. This exemplifies the racial stereotype against African Americans by portraying them in a negative light. The show portrays African American fathers as deadbeats and having multiple kids by multiple mothers. Another way I believe that scene in particular shows that racial stereotypes are present is the fact that Calvin, while in jail, had 2 cousins in jail with him randomly. This scene tries to make it seem like if you are black, you are guaranteed to have someone you know in jail. Also, throughout the show, many racial undertones are present, for example most of the all the characters talk with a certain loud slang and absent fathers are common. This conforms to the negative racial stereotypes placed upon African
The film “A League of Their Own,” depicts a fictionalized tale of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League. This league was started during World War II when many of the Major Leagues Biggest stars were drafted to the war. MLB owners decided to start this league with hopes of making money while the men were overseas fighting. Traditional stereotypes of women in sports were already in force before the league even begins. One of the scouts letts Dottie, one of the films main characters she is the perfect combination of looks as well as talent. The scout even rejects one potential player because she is not as pretty as the league is looking for even though she is a great baseball player. The player, Marla’s father said if she was a boy she would be playing for the Yankee’s. Eventually Mara’s father is able to convince the scout to take Marla to try outs because he raised her on his own after her mother died. Her father says it is his fault his daughter is a tomboy. In this case the film reinforces the traditional stereotype that mothers are in charge of raising their daughters and teaching them to be a lady, where fathers are incapable of raising girls to be anything other than a tomboy. The focus on beauty also reinforces the traditional stereotype that men will only be interested in women’s sports when the females participating in
Eye witness accounts of events are not always accurate. The accounts depicted by depend on how witnesses read the situation. The same is true when interpreting the depiction of race and/or ethnicity in media productions. Because situations gain meaning through the process of social construction (the interpretation of a situation based on one’s knowledge), the same event can be viewed and internalized by witnesses who render opposing viewpoints. This analysis will compare the depiction and rejection of socially constructed stereotypes relative to race and ethnicity in three situation comedies: All in the Family, The Jefferson’s and The Cosby Show.
It is often the case that media and more specifically, film, perpetuates the stereotypes of black men. These stereotypes include not showing emotion, being physically aggressive, embrace violence, supposed criminality, associated with drug use, lack a father figure, sexually exploit women, and others. In the film, Boyz n the Hood, Tre’s father, Furious Styles, encourages Tre to demonstrate loyalty to other people in relationships, resist aggressive behavior, and foster and exhibit sexual responsibility. Thus, throughout the film, Tre challenges the society’s stereotyped norms of black masculinity and what it means to be a black man.
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emphasizes the concept that colored women had been oppressed and time after time did not receive any sort of reconciliation. White explains how it is quite difficult to find specific facts on what colored women withstood at the time but when you look actively enough, you will surely find it. White clarifies the two major archetypes that colored women were forced to identify with. The first being Jezebel, the highly inappropriate and submissive character, was created from the white man’s distorted view on colored women’s clothing choice which women chose in order to comfortably work in the most efficient way. Many of the women worked in the outdoor heat which led to them rolling up their tops and bottoms in order to avoid overheating which would lead to the slowing down of their work. The second archetype, that of Mammy, was created to comfort white women in a way. The slave owners wanted to be reassured that the slaves were equipped and efficient. White indicates that the Mammy slaves were not liked for long as they were contracting the notion that white women were of any use in their own
Marshall writes, “These are the ‘rednecks’ who frosted their hair and wore camouflage…” (Marshall). T.V. shows like these praise the wealthy, non-educated rednecks who makes the rest of the south look bad by glorifying their ignorance. The show Rocket City Rednecks is another example of society using one’s culture to entertain the public by subliminally making fun of their background. Rocket City Rednecks was filmed in one of the cities that I grew up in and with personal experience I can assure you that the city it was filmed in was not full of
helping. Television is making the shows out to seem like one race is better than another. For
Harriet was never considered a good slave. After her head injury, a neighbor wanted to hire her as a nurse-girl, and her owner was more than willing to let her go. (Taylor 8). Harriet was required to “do all the housework, milk the cows, as well as to be at the side of the cradle every time the little darling cried.” (Taylor 8). Because she wasn't able to be at all places at all times, she was beaten and sent back to her owner with the recommendation, “She don’t worth the salt that seasons her grub.” (Taylor 8). Once Harriet was returned, her owner greeted her with “I will break you in!” (Taylor 8). “From early morn till late at night she was made to work, beaten and cuffed upon the slightest provocation.” (Taylor 8).
Reality programs have dominated television networks since their rise in popularity began in the early 1990s with MTV’s The Real World. The reality genre quickly gained viewership as it redefined the formulaic set up of televisions shows from the past. Reality television has infiltrated television because networks prefer low budgets for their programs that also generate high ratings (Hasinoff, 2008). People watch reality shows because they are intrigued by the seemingly “real” drama with ordinary people as characters (Dubrofsky, 2006). Now at its peak of growth, reality television evokes ideas of social order and cultural norms to its audiences, while perpetuating racial stereotypes in society (Mendible, 2004). My purpose of the review of literature is to examine and analyze reality television’s influence on people’s perceptions of African American stereotypes.
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