Stereotypes In Television Shows

Even though now we live in a time where television shows are integrated, it was not always like this. Up until 1969 television sitcoms were segregated and shows with Black actors were non-existent. When shows came out and they included Black men and women, both genders were portrayed as stereotypes society had for them and unfortunately this still occurs today. The characters in past shows had the stereotypes of the Jezebel, Sapphire, Sambo and Uncle Tom and in today's shows they still portray these stereotypes but they have evolved sometimes combining multiple stereotypes. Due to these stereotypical images in past and present day television, it affects white Americans by reaffirming the stereotype they have continues the cycle of how they
the original show was a radio show by an all-white cast that imitated Black voices and when adapted to a television series the creators decided to cast Black people. In the show, many of the characters represented stereotypes that were created since slavery, and because of that, the NAACP got it pulled from the airways. Since then, there were no television shows that had an all-Black cast or the included Black people until the late 1960s. The show Amos ‘n Andy was the first show to display stereotypes about Black people. The stereotypes that came out of slavery are the Jezebel, Sapphire, Sambo and Uncle tom. The Jezebel stereotype originated from the enslavement of Africans in America; these Black women were described as "seductive, alluring, worldly, beguiling, tempting, and lewd" (Pilgrim). Depicting Black women as hypersexual supported the impression that Black women wanted to have sex with their white slave owners and provided a strong justification for the numerous accounts of rape by white men on Black slave women (Chaney). The Jezebel would be equivalent to a "hoochie" in today's shows. Similarly, the Sapphire stereotype came out of slavery, they were the women working just as hard in the fields next to the men. Centuries later, on the 1951 television show Amos 'n Andy, Black women were represented as "rude, loud, malicious, stubborn, and overbearing" (Pilgrim) all traits included in the Sapphire stereotype. This is related to the Angry Black Woman that is seen in television shows today. The Sambo stereotype became very popular through the 1898 children's book The Story of Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman. Sambo was "by nature docile, irresponsible, lazy, dependent, prone to lying and grinningly happy" ("Sambo Stereotype") equivalent to the Lazy Black Man in society. Lastly, the stereotype of Uncle Tom was also born out of slavery. The idea that Uncle Toms were