African-American Stereotypes

How has colonialism affected our world through its own propagation of stereotypes? In today’s present, images of stereotypes are ubiquitous as they are distributed again and again by the media. The media in itself hands out these caricatures of colored women and men, while presenting complex shows of the white man. We see it in the three works of “Alright” by Kendrick Lamar, “The Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Adichie, and “Pearl of the Orient” by The Jam Handy Organization. In this, stereotypes recur as an overall theme and its interaction with the “white man” or the oppressor. Images are disseminated through these different mediums of media and presented to us. Adichie gives different images of the “African” immigrant created by

In this, there is the lack of complexity found in these images. As Chimamanda had mentioned, races become one-dimensional and flat due to the assumptions propagated and believed by our own oppressors. This intersects with ourselves as Chimamanda mentions. She recounts how she didn’t know Africans could be part of literature itself when she was young wherein she wrote about white men rather than her own. This issue comes up again as Lamar tries to spin the issue of police brutality and criminalization of young African-American men as positive. He repeats the word “Alright” again and again, a beacon of hope for the audience. In the end, he is shot. Lamar accepts the end of his time as an African-American as he gives into the brutality shown to his race. The complexity he tries to add as African-Americans of being innocent is put to an end by their own oppressors due to the lack of complexity and empathy given to the African-American youth. In the “Pearl of the Orient” documentary, the idea of a static stereotype is shown as the western company of Coca-Cola boxes Filipinos to either be exotic people who live in their provinces or workers of Coca-Cola. They become either a spectacle or a utility for the