Ethnic Notions

The video really happen to open my eyes to before taking AES 150 race and ethnicity were two words I was very confused about. After talking in class about these two terms I started to understand more and more what it was about. Ethnic Notions fit the stereotypes we talked about in class about the Negroid. The representation of the blacks was really visual with the cartoons having big lips, heads, nose, fat and really dark. It also showed them being happy as being slaves because they were dancing and singing. When I saw these representations I started to think about how it was true that social construction made the blacks to be perceived this way and begin from a different race, I automatically knew they were black because of the representation social construct has taught me. Also before I did not really think about how in movies the slaves praise their master and are happy with their master. In reality maybe the house slaves were treated a little better, but because the blacks are represented as happy the whites were then forced to believe that blacks did not care about being a slave. It definitely made me back track to other movies I have watched where the black is played out to be “more black.” For example I really reflected how in even in today’s movies like “White Chicks,” the two male actors act very “Ghetto” fitting the stereotypes of eating fried chicken, kool aid, starting trouble and being womanizers. This has not been the only movie where blacks are played out to be blacker, I have also noticed that in order to make an actor appear blacker the producers tend to make a black actor the only black friend in a group of white people. This video really made me reflect and think about how blacks are still perceived the same way as they were many years ago and will most likely continue to be perceived that