Say Brother; Distortions of Black Life; 724

Good evening and welcome to side brother. Tonight we will present a special evening entitled distortions of black life. We have chosen the adjective distortions to clearly identify the continual injustices that have been imposed upon the African-American for a period of four centuries. My guest Miss Brenda Vernon a historian and media specialist will give us some insight on what we need to know and how to evaluate the degrading practices that have existed for so long. Welcome to say brother Miss Furner. The music of Eubie Blake was enlightening.

However I don't know if I can say that about some of those pictures that we were looking at. I wonder if you can give us some insight as to the tar baby and some of the other pictures we were looking at and explain to us what we were what we were saying. Well actually for the most part the majority of them with the exception of the first car which was the tar baby type effect was a greeting card and the last one was of the African couple. Was a post card. But all of the others in between were what we called trade cards. These were cards that were used as a form of advertisement before and during early newspaper advertisements and before there was mass media advertisement there M. medicine. Medicine Show that and wagons used to go around advertise the product and hand out these cards and the cards were a good way of advertising the product but also advertising a way of life.

And that way of life was denigration of African-Americans and they found degrading African-Americans helped them in terms of the market. Yes these were allegedly humorous answer but a very serious thing and oppression was carried out as you could see in some of those. There were other mythical things that were carried out to along with them particularly the one where you see the demand washing the Africans face with soap and he allegedly watch it washes the color off and half his face is white and half his face is black. The implication is that the color comes off and the other one is that the soap is so good it washes the dirt off of a black person's face so you can see that many many things in effect that once. What what how long have these particular cards been into use and when did they stop. Circulating around. Well trade cards for the most part stop circulation about the turn of the century.

When do they come into existence. Well they came into existence in the mid 19th century around the 1850s early as the 1840s. And how did they come about. Well brought them about. It was a combination of things. The advent of the abolitionist movement and the influx of. The Irish into the south as the last Twilight citizen to and to be introduced into the south. He came in with little or no skills and one of the means that he established himself within the community as a viable citizen in the community was to take away trades that were generally handled by Africans and until that point such as a blacksmith's carpentry all of the crafts that were generally done painters and all of that type were done by Africans until that. You know these last immigrants came in until the

second wave came in after the turn of the century. And in order to dislodge these Africans from their jobs they had to use harsh social denigration of Africans to establish themselves as superior. Well in using them for advertising. I don't see how that would discourage using an African-American. And I want to talk to you about that. That phrase that you constantly use African-American. I don't see how that would discourage using having them continue in their particular trade. Well. The whole the whole area is to be treated lightly with something of humor. The in the introduction the subject as humorous means this not to be taken seriously. Problems are not associated in popular advertisement with Africans as only the problems that they may get into for lack of intellectual

ability. As you can see in some of those take us they call them in trouble of being knocked off a ladder while picking some apples. As always while carrying out some domestic sure. That was a way of stigmatizing as you could possibly see. The role of the African within the society it's always lower domestic carrying out some productive domestic chore or as a source of amusement. Maybe you can clearly identify and explain some of the specific photographs that we were looking at. I saw a gentleman cartoon figure black cartoon figure on top of a corn cob. Or was that supposed to be symbolic. Oh that was one of the popular phrases that came into being around the 1850s referring to black people as Coons. I said the name of that car was a new coon in town and you can see that this is the black man

dressed in a cut corn cob which could be associated with the scarecrow which is also a dehumanizing Association. And then the association with a lowercase animal such as a raccoon the raccoons were dancing as you can see in the background welcoming this new coon in town. As you can see it's all dehumanizing socially denigrating and implies intellectual inferiority and over and above all of that this is that this African is a lowercase animal. How should we view such materials as this no. Nowadays we don't have the chance really unless we go about looking for it to see that kind of materials it's it's hidden or it's been destroyed. Those of us like yourself who have had an opportunity to go out and research and find it collect it and take care of it and we're given an opportunity to look at it now how should we view this what can we learn from this.

I see it as a source of understanding where the mythical attitudes about African-Americans in the larger society was started and also primarily as a source for how our attitudes were formed. So I remember when I was a child and I remember hearing white kids make jokes about us and watermelons and feeling you know ashamed and inferior. When I first saw one of these cards I knew they existed and was this in the South that you were talking about. Oh no I live in Chicago so about this north as well. All of course isn't even rational because some of the pieces I have of these children sitting on fences eating watermelons are fighting each other over a piece of watermelon come from Germany so you can see that you know it's a Western world type attitude. Not exclusively confined to the United States. But as I was saying I believe that these are true and primary sources which we can understand why.

Where some of our attitudes within the culture within the culture have been derived you know of course and we don't talk about it too often but we have color problems you know people prefer people of a lighter skin color and you can see that we have been made to feel ashamed of our skin color there with our house even with the oppressor you can see where this man has washed the color off of this other this and one of those cards washed the color off of his face which is a source of shame for young children or that tar baby effect. That has been the fact in the past however do you feel that the African American society really views themselves now in terms of dimension or grades of color based on that you still feel that exhausting to still exist. I think we've set up a social code whereby we don't talk about it. But if you look at the trends among say for instance middle class America and professional America the preference has gone

underground. When I was a child I would hear it openly. You know we would hear all kinds of statements about what we want our children to look like. Sure but now I can write early here point in those yes even to the line of Don't Bring You know you know dark or other kind of deriving a person in the house I don't want that. Yeah. But I believe it's gone underground and I found that it's important to be able to document firsthand where these where these these kinds of feelings have come from. And but in order that we can rid. Not only our culture but the dominant culture of these kinds of pervasive attitudes that exist and they stubbornly go underground. You know we see them support it. The concept of Mammy is supported over and over again and Popular Television. It even goes to the word. You know it goes from the source of the overt the overt

manifestation of the stereotype to the subtle just in the word. For instance we can see constantly in all of these old pieces that people are in rags. And tattered clothing which is not necessarily true of the time given you know where you may have been in your situation. But today the the word welfare is a stigmatized to black people. There are many many hookups that go back hundreds of years that have turned into simply words that evoke the image. Do you feel that words or terminology has it plays an important aspect in terms of degrading or demonizing African-Americans. Surely surely. How so. What what we call ourselves and what we see ourselves as a very important thing. The language of English can be twisted and perverted in such a way in order that the initial meaning that a

group chooses or adopts a word can be changed to turn back on that group particularly the word black in the media. In the sixties I saw the use of the word black as a way of people identifying themselves primarily saying that we're not negroes as you call us or colored coons or any of that other stuff we're black like you're white. But in the interim the word has been changed over the past 10 years it's been changed to have a deriving effect particularly now. You feel that now. Right. In the media they call us the blacks. Yes they also say a black instead of a black man or a black woman. During this time of Jimmy Carter's inauguration into the White House and his appointment of a cabinet and you know other subservient offices they constantly refer to in the New York Times or on television or wherever. A Black has been appointed whereas we at the same time the

feminist movement has had an effect upon the language whereas a white woman becomes a white person. We have lost persons that we are no longer a black male or a black woman. Do you think that's something that's consciously done we refer to ourselves as blacks. Well I don't think that we are aware of the initial change in the use of the word until we pick up on. The use of the language because we're all media people. All Americans generally 95 percent of Americans 95 percent or 97 percent of Americans homes are saturated with television to say the least not to mention the other supporting media. And they are the primary source of terminology in the language and it has it has a subtle even insidious effect upon us. We don't know until it's been turned upon us. I don't believe that. We intend to call ourselves a black a black means

anything a black desk a black shoe a black shoe. We are people and we must constantly move to head off these kinds of subtle changes that have front us as people. So you're saying that the African-American should be one of the first people to take the step in changing the terminology and how and I believe that we should also be aware that we as people. Have to identify ourselves as a world community and American citizens come from all over the world. Yet they maintain their identity with their land of origin. Chinese people are called Chinese Americans Italian Americans so on and so forth. There was no reason for the term Africa or Africain to be diverted into afro. You know it's in respect for the land of our origins. We can call us selves just what other people call and any video that came about Afro MRU that during at the bout the turn of the century

when. Some black businessmen in New York City found it a reel to company and they were supported by Booker T Washington machine and they were encouraged and supported in part by finance. I understand there's a story that Booker T Washington went to Switzerland and he was saying he was one of the few Africans who was seen in Switzerland. I have some doubts as to the origins of this. But at any rate they refer to his hair you know as being different wire re type hair and shorten the term from African to Afro. And he saw this as a as a badge of honor. And he wrote you here encourage people to call themselves Afro-American in our effort. And as the as the as a result this is the realty company of the Afro-American realty company was founded which

ultimately founded Harlan but a distortion nevertheless is a distortion. And in that time when we are more or less concerned about our roots and Alex Haley has done a great spiritual service for the community not only intercultural but the entire American community. We must recognize the use of the language and how it's subtly been turned against us. You have you are known to be a lecturer throughout the state of Massachusetts and maybe even further. Oh I know. What have you for the response to be a part in delivering lectures such as this. Overwhelmingly positive. Who is your audience. African-Americans are of a generally concentrated in the area of women and. I do. I have lectures that cover. I do a main lecture that's

on women stereotyping of women and then one on stereotype the African-American culture in film and television. And I take the antiques and track them through not only popular forms of advertisement but into old movies how they were modified and onto the television and into the word. You have some visuals with us that we should be able to take a look at very shortly that would show us women and children at another era unlike what we saw at the top of the show maybe Surely we can take a quick look at that. But go ahead continue telling me how you found the response to. Well most of the time people do not. They're shocked. They're shocked that the overt racism and these pieces that were as popular in America as the any of the greeting cards you may find in the store now they're shocked at the level of debasement to every faction of the American African-American community from children to old people.

No no fat member of the community was left to normal thought patterns by the dominant society. I think we have an opportunity to take a look at some of the slides I was speaking of earlier. You can refer to. We're looking at what looks like to be a young child who's dressed up in. Yeah this is a regular dress was 1898 as you can see when you look at the fantasy and the myth of the society the myth systems as opposed to reality. You can say that these children are real people. We have a young baby here looks very well-off. Well who are we looking at do you know who it is and where did you collect this trial. I got this. Found this family album from three generations of doctors in April Massachusetts and these are African-Americans right here in the state right. New Englanders who had always been New England were from a long line of New England. This is also a child from the same family. This is a beautiful baby.

That's the same child as a young teenager. She looks like she's very wealthy and maybe after we've looked at this we can stop for a minute and just talk about this. She looks like she's very wealthy is she. Yes she is wealthy. OK. Now the average. Collection your collection the average person within that collection does it appear to be that the people who are dressed in what appears to be some silk and lace and even Polish cottons. Are they normally wealthy or are they just average to do in them for the most part as you can see. Average people wore good clothes. There was no such thing as polyester then. There was no such thing as you know a Dacron people either whatever it was that's whatever it was or not. Now in this case of this picture of this child with her and her coming out car you can see opulence that's apparent opulence. But in most of the other pictures you will see them just well dressed.

OK so in all of the pictures that we star at the beginning of this discussion we're just totally taken those people were taken out of context those that were not obviously cartoons were totally taken out of context in terms of what their natural habitat would be the clothing and whatever. We would imagine that people in rural settings as opposed to any people all and the only people in rural settings would dress differently than people in urban settings and care. And we can take a look at some more of those. But we have a minute where are they doing that we can. Go ahead and talk I'm going to get into how did you get into this collecting anyway. Well. When I was in school and at the canoe York I was teaching a course on the history of black and white women since slavery. And while teaching that course we were doing slave narratives and it was difficult for me to impress upon the white students in

my class that there was a difference between the mythological system that was set up to entrap the image of Africans in this country and the reality of the situation given then and now. And I've always been an avid collector of antiques. I've always gone to garage sales and one Saturday morning I was out at a garage sale and I found a trade card with a mammy stereotype on it the mammy image on it and I said here is perfectly. It was from eighteen fifty five and I said here's a perfect example of what it was really degradative the mammy image was a was hardly human compared to the white woman that she was standing next to. Let me let me interrupt you and let's take a look at what we have here. This child. I can tell the child looks maybe like my lotto number one and number two looks again very wealthy to explain to me what status and who is this child.

Well this is probably what we have learned so she is obviously not necessarily originally from mixed origins. Maybe her parents are from mixed origin. But you can see that she's just an average child dressed like an average child throughout history here in a urban environment. This picture came from Boston founded in the Boston area. Now this child as you can see as opposed to the other child has. Not only. Address that implies. Higher up the income bracket but you can see that her stance and her pose and her demeanor implies a sense of security and this child is also a member of that family from Avril. The three generations of doctors from Avril this girl is one of my favorite photos superadded. She is beautiful. Who is she. Do you know I don't know specifically I found a book that was of from a school in Cambridge where there was a boarding school for black children. They came most of them came from out of state. Many of

them came from the South and many of them were from mixed unions. And they sent the children out of state to come to the school which was a refined school gave them upper crust education and social contacts. It was this this woman is the housekeeper from that family. You know they look like a housekeeper. You know she is you would probably call her a domestic engineers who control the House. So she took care of everything and the family and you can see that she and her family were well taken care of. This is another ghost another one of my favorite photos. She is writing she is a member of that school that I mentioned then came on to say and you can see that that was that I schooled you haven't you. No I have an awful lot of stuff that we're trying to get this up. This girl is also from that school. We're trying to get grant money to research all of the pieces that we have. And what do you intend to do with them. My ultimate aim in a

lot of my work is I would like to found an institute for the Study of African-American women in the western hemisphere. I would like for that institute to have a museum and a library and a school of performing arts and research departments in order that we can be able to carry on our own research home long have you been collecting these materials and if anyone wanted to locate or locate you or. To inform you of some materials that they might have to sell or give to you. How would they do that. Well they could call me. At 5 4 7 3 2 9 5 or 4 4 2 4 8 5 6. If they're interested in the lecture series they can call me at the same number and inquire about the different lecture series that we offer. OK would you encourage other African-Americans to try to go out and look around and collect these kinds of materials.

I would encourage people to start ride within their families. I would encourage them to go into the trunks and bring out the pictures and into the paper bags and I know there were paper bags because that's where I had the five things in my family and to put these photographs in a safe. Congenial place for them for their preservation and also to to collect anything that looks old and good taste. Your own personal taste if you have good taste you will collect good things. OK we've run out of time but I have really bad size and lightened by this whole half hour and I'm sure a viewing viewing audience has as well. I hope that you've learned something in that you do contactless Brenda Vernon at the numbers that we gave you. Thank you for watching so brother and good night. Thanks.

Thanks.