Just hearing the names - Sambo, Stepinfetchit, and Mammy - makes a lot of black folks cringe. The words are only the tip of the ice berg though. It's the images that do the most damage: the lazy but loyal slave, the ignorant black man who shuffles his feet and slurs his speech and the overweight black woman in the Aunt Jemima get-up. As Marvin Gaye once sang, "It makes me wanna holler and throw both my hands up."
Fortunately in the new millennium, we have put many of those stereotypes to bed. A Stepinfetchit character could never last on today's television screen. We have come a long way … or have we?
Today we see a wider range of the African-American experiences on television and in films. Shows like The Unit, Grey's Anatomy, Dirty, Sexy Money and others show, African-Americans as, leaders, surgeons, and billionaires. Yes, they are black but they are also a lot more. And, to its credit, 24 has had not one, but two, African-American presidents. Now that fact has followed fiction and we have elected an African-American to the nation's highest office, surely, broad-based stereotypes must be a thing of the past. Right?
Wrong. While these tried and true images of African-Americans may have fallen by the wayside, a new crop has come up to replace them. Like the old stereotypes, they conjure up equally strong images.
The Sassy Sista
She's a neck-twisting, lip-curling, eye-rolling, fiery ball of attitude. She is not happy (she is never happy) and she'll let you know it in her own ghetto-fabulous way. She's loud. She's bossy. And, she has no problem waving one of her long acrylic nails in your face. You have seen her in any host of commercials or in small roles in all kinds of movies.
Sassy Sistas that immediately come to mind include, Niecy Nash on Reno 9/11, New York from Flavor of Love and I Love New York, Mo'Nique in Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, and, literally, the grandmother of them all - Madea from the Tyler Perry movies. Others would include Taraji P. Henson playing an old school sassy sista in Talk to Me and a sassy baby mama in Baby Boy. Paula Jai Parker in Hustle & Flow and Tasha Smith in Why Did I Get Married and Daddy's Little Girls are a few of the more memorable ones.
The Flaming and Fierce Brotha
He's not just gay. He's super gay. He's wearing more make-up on than a cover girl and has swish in his hips than a hula girl during an earthquake. Strangely enough, he has a lot in common with the Sassy Sista. He's also prone to neck-twisting, lip curling, and eye rolling. He can have an attitude too - and when he does - watch out!
The Flaming and Fierce Brotha is normally not the main character but he is a member of the ensemble cast who steals scenes and is always ready for his close-up! Peaches the hairstylist on Girlfriends, Flame the Flight Attendant in Soul Plane (played by Gary Anthony Williams), and several popular radio gossip personalities fit this fabulous bill.
The Reality Diva
This sista is normally portrayed as being a little smarter than the Sassy Sista. She has to be smart to be so conniving and devious. The Reality Diva is always up to something and will stab you in the back faster than you can say, "Is that a knife in your hand?" To say she is self-centered would be an understatement. In fact, she woke up one morning with the sun in her eyes and got mad because she hadn't told the sun it was time to rise!
Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth from The Apprentice is the definition of the conniving, self-absorbed Reality Diva. In fact, she was so good that she went on to VH-1's The Surreal World and Fear Factor. Another that comes to mind is Eva Marcille (formerly Pigford) from America's Next Top Model. She was such a diva her nickname was Eva the Diva! The Real Housewives of Atlanta would also fall into this category.
The Thug
He might be in a gang or he could be your run-of-the-mill rough neck. Either way, he's done time or is doing something for which he will eventually do time. He is the quintessential bad boy. He's menacing and macho. He's the embodiment of strength in overdrive and he usually falls on the wrong side of the law.
Not surprisingly, a lot of rappers that turn to acting start out in the thug stereotype. 50 Cent in Righteous Kill and Get Rich or Die Tryin; The Game in Street Kings; and DMX in Cradle to the Grave all fit the thug stereotype. Fact-based shows like BET's American Gangster also glorify this type.
The fact that we have stereotypes at all shows that we have a long way to go, but when you consider that these new stereotypes exist alongside more vivid and diverse African-American characters, it's easy to see how far we've come.
Karyn Beach is the editor of
DivaSoulSista.com, a movie review site.
