Media Post 4

This is a cartoon picture which depicts an African American as someone who is lazy and poor. He is shown with a big nose and huge lips. He is drawn to look like an ape since many people look at blacks and think of them as animals since they come from Africa.
This cartoon picture is a good example of what is seen in the movie Ethnic Notions that we watched in class. In the movie they talked about how in cartoons blacks are shown as savage animals and their features are over exaggerated. The picture above is no exception, the African American is shown as a monkey and has a huge nose and lips. In the movie they talk about one looks at these and they get the wrong idea of blacks and it can be true. When you look at this picture the first thing that comes to your mind is that blacks are lazy and poor. This is shown by the sign that says "will make excuses for food". With this people then get the idea that most to all blacks are like this. In the movie they talk about how black men are perceived as lazy and this is true when looking at this picture.
My thought of this is that the cartoon is funny. One does not become a racist or have racist thoughts just because of something they see. They need to experience something or be taught it. When watching Ethnic Notions I felt that blacks where just yelling at whites for their form of entertainment and saying its wrong since they do not like it. Somethings are meant to be racist and some stuff is there to be funny. This cartoon picture is there to be racist and be negative toward blacks but I find it funny and some people need to just laugh and not complain about it.