Are Magazines Corrupting the Image of African Americans?

There has been a great deal of controversy behind magazines that when they have a famous African American on the cover that they may take full advantage of or slightly change their image to make them look even darker than they normally are or lighter. This has happened with OJ Simpson when he was on the cover of Times magazine and Gabourey Sidibe when she was on the cover of Elle magazine. Both of these celebrities whether they think so or not, were victims of what the media wanted them to be or what the media wanted to portray what they think they are.


Gabourey Sidibe was nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actress for her very first film Precious which is based off a novel called Push by Sapphire. After Gabourey had gotten her Oscar nod (though she didn't win. She started to appear on TV shows, late night talk shows and was the comedic host for SNL. Gabourey started to make a name for herself as she entered into fame. Unfortunately, controversy and stereotypes about her weight started to emerge though the talk about her weight and he dark skinned never seemed to bring her down or bother her as most celebrities would have been bothered by the mere talk of something so sensitive. She ended up being on the front cover of Elle magazine which is a magazine that isn't traditionally known fro have an African American on the cover. Not a full figured dark skinned woman anyway. As much as Elle does not want to admit but there is no way Gabourey's skin is that light. Below are the pictures that you can definitely see the difference in.

OJ Simpson on the other hand is the complete opposite of what happened to Gabourey Sidibe. We all know the story of OJ Simpson and how he was put on trial for killing his wife and the supposed to be "lover" which technically was the motive, but of course he was acquitted of all charges after the only piece of evidence that the plaintiffs were the going with were the gloves that were left at the murder scene. OJ Simpson was once on the cover of TIME magazine and on the cover the photograph seemed particularly dark. NewsWeek and TIME had released both their issues of the OJ Simpson story around the same time and both had different pictures.

Overall, these are just a few examples of how the media alters images for them to look a certain a way.

Take the quiz about the blog.

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

President Obama: The End of Black Stereotypes???

President Barack Obama is probably the main African American that has the most stereotypes. There are a lot of stereotypical images, shirts and posters that portray him as the standard black stereotypes with big lips and big ears, etc. But there was once a lot of talk about Barack Obama becoming the end of black stereotypes. Here is an article that I've come across that that talk about the subject.

Is Barack Obama the End of Black Stereotypes

Acting Black Part 2

As I talked about in previous blogs, there are a lot of stereotype in movies. Whether its portray African Americans a certain way or portraying blonds a certain way, they are all stereotypes. This entry could easily fit into my "Acting Black" blog. Malibu's Most Wanted along with White Chicks is the most stereotypical movie you could ever watch but yet it is so funny. Personally, I don't take offense to movies like White Chicks, Malibu's Most Wanted or Tropic Thunder or any movies that makes fun of black stereotypes because all that it shows it how ridiculous those stereotypes are. I have you the definition of what a lot of African American believe is "acting black". Malibu's Most Wanted is a prime visual example of what is "acting black". The only thing wrong is that no white person really acts this way, even if they did grow up in a predominantly  black neighborhood.

Jamie Kennedy plays the son of a rich and wealthy politician who is running for governor in the state of California. Jamie Kennedy's character portrays what black would call "acting black". His exposure to the hip-hop/black community (BET, VH1, MTV) is a concern to his father's campaign because his campaign thinks that his son, by the way he "acts", could ruin his chances. The campaign hires two black actors who doesn't know anything about the black community or urban life, to pose as gang bangers and kidnap Jamie Kennedy's character. They want him to see what really urban life is like and maybe scare him enough to act how he is supposed to act in a white family of wealth.

It is a funny movie and like I said before it is a bit extreme being that no real white person act like that that really grew up in an urban setting, but the extremity of the situation makes the movie what it is. Here is a clip of movie below.


 

Black Face vs. White Face

Black face was a popular way of portraying African Americans in plays. At this time African American were not allowed to act in plays, so whites would use black paint to portray the image of an African American. I believe this is when the first stereotypes of African American began. Actors who would play the black face role would portray African Americans as violent or ignorant. A lot of African Americans today are still uncomfortable with the fact that every movie or TV show portray an African American as violent, ignorant, grew up in a broken home, living in a "ghetto" neighborhood, are drug dealers or are the first one's killed in horror films. Though a lot of African American comedians joke about blacks always being the first ones killed in horror films is still a fact that leaves a lot of blacks thinking "Hey, what's up with that?"


Well, there has been a turn around in one particular film that I love watching occasionally and as goofy or buffoonery as it may be. I probably never laughed so hard while watching a movie. This movie is called White Chicks and it was written, directed and produced by the Wayans Brothers. The Wayans Brothers are known for the original Scary Movie 1 & 2 movies where they make fun of all the block buster movies of that year and turn it into one big comedic-horror film. White Chicks on the other takes the whole stereotype of a dumb blond to a whole other level. Shawn and Marlon Wayans plays two undercover cops who goes extremely undercover to pose as two rich, young, naive and ignorant white women and, of course, the rest is history. I did find it a bit extreme for the most part but it was one of those things where you couldn't help but to laugh. It was ridiculously funny even though they looked very horrible as two white women as oppose to Robert Downey Jr. who looked amazingly good as black man in Tropic Thunder.


We have come a long way in history for the roles to be switched where two African Americans put on a white face with little or no controversy what-so-ever. It was very interesting to witness something like this. Stereotypes are made fun of by comedians every day to lighten the mood about the issue and I believe that it is a good way to show how ridiculous all stereotypes really are. Here is a YouTube clip below of the movie White Chicks. There are some scenes that are a bit explicit.

Timeline: African American History in the 20th Century

So far my blog posts has been about African American stereotypes. So I just wanted to take a step back from the things I've been writing and create something a bit more historical, entertaining and something that doesn't deal with African Americans and how they are portrayed. I created a simple time line that shows African American History from the 1900s-2000. I displayed one interesting event in each decade. I thought it would be interesting to just stray away from the usual things I've been writing. Hope you enjoy.

 

African American History on Dipity.

How Do You Feel About Stereotypes & Racism in Today's Society Survey

Though my blog has been specifically about African American stereotypes, I have decided to make a survey about what are the opinions of people in today's society about stereotypes and and even racism. It may seem that African Americans get more stereotypes and racial remarks than any other race or culture, but that is only because it has been depicted as so for a very long time in the media. Take the survey and see the percentage of how many people may actually have the same opinion about the topic than you do.

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Williams Syndrome aka WS

I came across an article that talks about how there are a group of children or people that do not seem to form racial stereotypes about anyone. I first I found that highly impossible because everyone has some knows of some sort of stereotype about another culture or race. But they weren't talking about just any people. They were talking about specifically children. Children who have a neuro-developmental disorder called Willimas Syndrome are "overly-friendly" and does not "develop negative attitudes about other ethnic groups, even though they show patterns of gender stereotyping found in other children." Click the link to check out the article. It's pretty interesting.

Children who Form no Racial Stereotypes