Reflection

For this project, I chose to focus on controlling images and how those controlling images create racial projects and power structures that uniquely benefit non-African Americans. The reason why I focused on controlling images specifically is that I enjoy looking at the history of categories and how the boundaries of those categories are defined. It is an extension, in my eyes, of my love of etymology; after all, what are caricatures and stereotypes than a specific word used to define a thing. How the word came about and evolved is something I have always been interested in. The loosening and redefining of the boundaries that these words define is something that I find very interesting. The real-world impact of this characterization shapes history and language itself, and I wanted to see to what extent my own language and perception have been shaped by these controlling images.

With the study of the history of the various types of caricatures, we learn just why those caricatures were created to begin with. The creation of all three of them can be summed up as the result of a racial project. As Omi and Winant argued, race is arbitrary within itself, and it is with the creation of categories by which humans are split up into that a power structure is formed that benefits one group over another. The creation of these caricatures was used as a justification and a way to reinforce the power of white, Southern men during the pre-Civil War era and beyond. Of course, as caricatures, it was a wholly inaccurate representation of the actual lives of African Americans at the time and during the present day. African Americans were neither hyperviolent, lazy, nor as maternal as portrayed; nevertheless, the exaggerated depiction negatively impacted the lives of African Americans, whose effects can be felt to this day.

One of the most important things I learned during the research and creation of this project is that the power held within controlling images is profound. What might seem to be a simple mischaracterization can quickly spiral into a whirlpool that sucks in everybody into believing a lie. The coon, and how African Americans are believed to be lazy, for example, is easily disproved through observation and statistics; nevertheless, as mentioned on the page featuring the caricature, a great many people to this day still believe them to be taking advantage of the welfare system. Just how pervasive a thought could simply be through the constant depiction of it is quite frightening at a higher glance.