Mammy. Coon. Sambo. Picanniny. Jezebel. Sapphire. Hootchie. Thug.

These are just some of the negative racial stereotypical labels or caricatures that have been peculiarly ascribed to African Americans in America spanning over a period of many years. Sadly, they have become so entrenched and etched into the American subconciousness, that modern-day versions of these stereotypes still exists to this day. They have also been detrimental and disastrous to the social progress of Blacks.

What is the history of such negative, self-defeating stereotypes and why do they still continue to bedevil the Black Community to this day? Like many of the pathetic conditions that plague the Black Community, these stereotypes are deeply rooted in American Slavery. Let’s look at the history of the above racist epithets.

MAMMY: The “Mammy”, derived from “mama”, as in “mother”, is conceived more in myth than in actual fact. In the antebellum period, the period roughly before the Civil War, the sexual exploitation of Black women and girls was very common. The mammy caricature was misleading because it implied that White men did not find Black women sexually attractive, when in actuality they did. Therefore, the mammy caricature was invented to neutralize that view and to deter the Slavemaster’s wives from incurring jealousy. During Slavery times, only the very rich could hire Black women as “house servants” ; even long after Slavery was supposedly over, even during the Jim Crow Era (1877-1966), African American women were hired mainly as “domestic workers”, since there were even fewer, if any work opportunities for Black women than there were for Black men. But these women were not the stereotypical mammies.

According to popular stereotypes, the mammy was charcoal-black, with huge breasts, whose kinky or “nappy” head was often covered with a kerchief. She was strong, kind; particularly to her White “family”; in fact, she loved her White “family” better than she did her own and very devoutly religious. Because she was supposedly hopelessly unattractive, she had no sexuality; hence, she was not sexually desirable. She often spoke in broken English. The mammy was portrayed as being happy and contented in her role in life - which was ultimately to serve Whites until she died. She was not allowed to pursue her own separate life or individual career in another field of endeavor, otherwise, who was going to take care of her “family” after she was gone? The mammy was the family cook, cleaner, laundress, arbitrator. She settled disputes between White family members, she was in effect, a surrogate mother when the White man (and sometimes his wife) was busy making his millions and she was barely making enough to take care of herself and her own family.

In reality, nothing was further from the truth. In reality, many mammies were physically attractive Black women whom the White man secretly lusted after and who could not wait until his wife was gone so he could either seduce her or force himself on her. Most mammies were young; in fact most of them barely made it past 50 years old; they were often literally ‘worked to death’, and also contrary to popular opinion, mammies hated their miserable lot in life.

Nevertheless, the mammy stereotype became etched in American “culture”. By the late 19th and early 20th Century, the mammy caricature was so commonplace, that in the minds of many White persons then, this was their image of how a Black woman was supposed to be portrayed.

In time, the mammy stereotype became a part of Hollywood folklore. In the early days the only role that a Black female actress could play was as a mammy, since there were few roles in motion pictures for African Americans then. Such well-known Black Actresses of the day as Hattie McDaniels and Louise Beavers were portrayed as mammies for nearly their entire careers. Even in recent times, such actresses as actress-singer Abby Lincoln in the Sidney Poitier film “For Love of Ivy” (1968,) in which she played a mammy to a White family who interestingly did not want her to leave the household once she was considering a job as a secretary in the city, and the late Nell Carter, who played an 1980’s mammy in “Gimme A Break”.

Since the late 1960’s onward, there has been a positive effort to depict Black women in a more positive and dignified light, starting particularly with Dihann Carroll in “Juila”. But the psychological harm, nontheless, has been done. To this day, many Black women - especially older ones - tend to take domestic-related jobs, which though may not seemingly carry the stigma as it did in their grandmother’s day, still is considered offensive to many Blacks, especially younger ones.

Still, to this day also , some Black women literally spend their entire lives raising children: Their younger siblings, their own children, their grandchildren and even their great-grandchildren as well as White people’s children as “domestics” or “home attendants”; in many cases they are so burdened down with raising other people’s kids they are not even able to enjoy their own personal lives. These are among the sad legacies derived from the mammy caricature.

COON: The Coon Caricature is one of the most offensive stereotypes ever inflicted on African Americans, especially Black men. The term is derived from the animal, the racoon. In time, the term began to develop as a racist epithet, ascribed to not just Black men, but Blacks in general. The term was used extensively, particularly from 1890 onward, when it was first introduced in a song, that interestingly was written by an African American songwriter named Ernest Hogan, when he composed the song “All Coons Look Alike To Me.”

The coon was depicted as a lazy, shiftless, do-nothing Black man who was a easily frightened, inarticulate buffoon. He was in effect, an overgrown little boy. He was not worthy of anyone’s confidence, love and respect, especially a woman. He was always eating watermelon, drinking gin, gambling and stealing chickens and he always carried a razor, or sometimes a gun or both. But this too was untrue, because no one in 19th Century America worked harder than Black men. In fact, like their female counterparts, they were often worked to death. But because fear of the Black man’s upward social mobility in the real world at this time, the White man feared that one day he may merit the interest of White women. So he used such stereotypes to demean them, to make them unlovable, undesirable.

But like with the mammy stereotype, the coon was epitomized on stage and in film. Such actors as Stepin Fetchit and Willie Best portrayed the coon to a hilt. With their foot-shuffling, slurred, unintelligible speech, and childish antics, they made White Americans roll in the aisles with roaring laughter. But it was no laughing matter to Blacks. To this day, these stereotypes have hurt the Black Community to this day, especially Black men, by portraying them as lazy, shiftless, immoral, corrupt and totally irresponsible in everything, which has adversely affected his relationship with Black women in particular, and many Black women’s overall view of Black men as husbands and fathers or even as men.

SAMBO: Sambo wasn’t any difference basically than the Coon, only he tended to be more subservient, non-threatening, well-behaved; just the way the White man wanted him to be. He was only around for comic relief, for entertainment, or to serve as host to the White man and his guests. The legendary tap dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson was often notably portrayed in this light, among various others as well.

PICANINNY: The Picaninny, or “picks”, as they were called for short, were Black children who were portrayed as younger versions of coons,. They were derived from an 1850’s character known as “Topsy,” who came to epitomize the picaninny. They were often around, like their adult counterparts, for comic relief, for entertainment. In fact, many popular entertainers of the day, like Sophie Tucker, for example, used them to either open or close her shows. They were often dressed in ragged clothing, or their hair was either nappy or braided. They were always pictured as being next to animals and they were always being chased and eaten by alligators.

The picaninny stereotype continued well through the 20th Century. Such well-known Black child actors such as “Sunshine” Sammy Morrison, and “Farina”, “Buckwheat” and “Stymie” from the “Our Gang” and “Little Rascals” movie shorts, from the 1920’s to the 1940’s were in effect, 20th Century picaninnies.

Even as recent as the 1980’s, comedian Eddie Murphy caused a storm of controversy when he appeared as “Buckwheat” in an episode of the popular nighttime TV show “Saturday Night Live”. The Picaninny Caricature has contributed to the breakdown of the Black Community as portraying Black children as being dirty, lazy, uneducated “nappy-headed” kids who seem to have nothing better to do with their time but idling it away dancing and singing or getting into local juvenile mischief.

JEZEBEL AND SAPPHIRE: The Black woman was not only portrayed as a perpetual servant, but also as a high-wheeling, sneaky, treacherous, conniving tramp. Or she was a bossy, domineering, loud-mouthed buffoon, who was always verbally abusing and dominating her weak, wimpish Black husband, who was like a little boy constantly being chastised by his mommy. Just as the domineering Jezebel of Bible times and the “Sapphire Stevens” character, the dominant wife on “Amos and Andy” on TV in the 1950’s, or the loud-mouthed, brash, buffoonish character “Aunt Esther” in the 1970’s TV sitcom “Sanford and Son”, who was depicted as a religious fanatic. These negative stereotypes has destroyed relationships between real-life Black men and Black women influenced by such negative stereotypes.

THE HOOTCHIE AND THE THUG: And finally, we have the hootchie (or hootchie mama) or the thug stereotype, derived in recent times from the Gangstarap “culture” . This baseball cap, doo-rag wearing, pants-hanging-down wearing buffoon along with his whorish-looking counterpart with her skin-tight jeans or translucent, dianphonous leotards are basically up-dated, modern-day versions of some of the above caricatures, particularly the coon and the jezebel. Many young Black people think these things are cool, but it makes them look like fools. It also make Blacks in general look and appear ridiculous even in the eyes of today’s White America, who ironically enough today are themselves shocked by such modern-day negative depictions, whose grandparents and great-grandparents helped to create and re-inforce such negative portrayals of Blacks.

When will Blacks overcome such negative images and redefine themselves? The answer is left up to them.