This post was written as part of a course in African American Deathways at Marian University.
The Africa of my childhood was a fierce and exotic land where elephants and lions roamed free and where barely clad warriors fought with spears. It was also a land incapable of feeding its own children as Sally Struthers implored us to donate to save the starving children and where I was told there would be children grateful to eat the food I was leaving on my plate. In my young adulthood, I learned that Africa was not a singular Africa, but a collection of countries each with their own culture and many with death and conflict as all the news out of Africa was about death and destruction as the continent was painted as a place of war, death, and apartheid. It was portrayed, as Fletcher said, “A Space of Death” (Fletcher, Spirits & Hereafter , 2023). Africa was described as a society so saturated with death by war and genocide that the mourning of individuals was impossible (Ried, 2011, p. 342). The learnings I took from these messages was that Africa was a violent place where people were incapable of feeding their children and had to rely upon outside assistance.
The attributes of helplessness and violence were not limited to people living in Africa, as the media also portrayed African Americans as sharing these same traits which led many White people to stereotype Blacks as lazy and violent (Peffley, Hurwitz, & Sniderman, 1997). Black women were often portrayed, even by President Ronald Reagan, as “Welfare Queens” who were content to rely on state handouts to feed their children (Roberts, 2014, p. 1777). Meanwhile, Black men were (and are) portrayed as inherently violent and aggressive (Johnson J. K., 2018, p. 230).
What news stories about Africa don’t tell us is that drought, sickness, violence, and government dependency are rooted, at least in part, in factors beyond the control of the people including climate change, colonialism, and discrimination. The devastating droughts faced by East Africa that are causing hunger, starvation, and sickness are driven, at least in part, by climate change (Oxfam International) which is caused in part by overconsumption of resources by wealthier nations (Friends of the Earth UK). At least some of the violence plaguing the content of Africa has its roots in the Transatlantic Slave Trade of the 1500s to 1800s and the European colonization of Africa, the period from the late 1800s to early 1900s when European countries ruled over much of Africa (Heldring, 2013). During the Transatlantic Slave Trade there were internal conflicts that were increased by the slave trade. And during colonialism, there was violence driven by resistance to European rule. Africa also faced external violence when battles of World War II were fought upon her soil (Lee & Vaugh, 2008, pp. 349-351).
The stereotypes of African-Americans have their roots in slavery and discrimination. Africans were taken from their homeland and transported to the United States where they became slaves. As slaves, they were deprived of the ability to earn their own money and were dependent upon their masters’ whims for food, shelter, and basics of survival, which led them to be stereotyped as childlike and dependent (Guterman, 1975, p. 187). Despite the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, African Americans were not able to be truly free in the South or even the North as discrimination and Jim Crow laws kept them from earning an education and finding well paying jobs, which would have led to reliance on government and other handouts. As for the stereotype of the violent Black man, being unable to find work due to discrimination led many young black men to turn to violent gangs as a way of earning a living and creating close social ties (Richardson & St. Vil, 2015, pp. 72-23).
My regret in writing this short post is that I did not have time to adequately explore connections that I intuitively believe exist, but was unable to find documented. For instance, I believe there is a direct tie from slavery to the stereotype of black women on welfare and a direct tie from slave hunters to the stereotype of black men as violent, but due to limited time I was unable to explore these connections.
References
Fletcher, K. (2023). Spirits & Hereafter .
Friends of the Earth UK. (n.d.). Natural Resources and the Envirnment. Retrieved from Friends of the Earth UK: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/consumption-natural-resources#:~:text=Overconsumption%20worsens%20climate%20breakdown%20and,health%20and%20quality%20of%20life.
Guterman, S. S. (1975). Alternative Theories in the Study of Slavery, the Concentration Camp, and Personality. The British Journal of Sociology, 186-202.
Heldring, L. (2013, January 10). Colonialism and development in Africa. Retrieved from CEPR: https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/colonialism-and-development-africa
Johnson, J. K. (2018). Who’s Afraid of the Big Black Man? Educational Studies, 229-236.
Lee, R., & Vaugh, M. (2008). DEATH AND DYING IN THE HISTORY OF AFRICA SINCE 1800. Journal of African History, 341-359.
Oxfam International. (n.d.). Drought in East Africa: “If the rains do not come, none of us will survive”. Retrieved from Oxfam International: https://www.oxfam.org/en/drought-east-africa-if-rains-do-not-come-none-us-will-survive
Peffley, M., Hurwitz, J., & Sniderman, P. M. (1997). Racial Stereotypes and Whites’ Political Views of Blacks in the Context of Welfare and Crime. American Journal of Political Science, 30-60.
Richardson, J., & St. Vil, C. (2015). Putting in Work: Black Male Youth Joblessness, Violence, Crime, and the Code of the Street. Spectrum: A Journal on Black Men, 71-98.
Ried, R. (2011). PAST AND PRESENTISM: THE ‘PRECOLONIAL’ AND THE FORESHORTENING OF AFRICAN HISTORY. The Journal of African History, 341-359.
Roberts, D. (2014). Complicating the triangle of race, class and state: the insights of black feminists. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 1776-1782.