The piccaninny stereotype (c. 1852-1950s) was the common way that White Americans pictured little black children in the late 1800s and early 1900s:
- eyes: big and wide
- lips: big and red on a wide mouth
- hair: sticks out in all directions
- dress: ill-clothed to naked
- favourite foods: watermelon, chicken
- parents: where are they?
- language: Coon English – “I is”, etc.
- threats: alligators and other wild animals
- intelligence: low
- darkie status: a helpless darkie meant for amusement
Examples:
- 1852: Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Topsy
- 1899: Little Black Sambo: Little Black Sambo
- 1922-1944: The Little Rascals: Farina, Buckwheat
- 1939: Gone With the Wind: Prissy – “I don’t know nothin’ ’bout
- birthin’ babies.”
- 1980s: Saturday Night Live: Buckweat again, played by Eddie Murphy
Related stereotypes:
- coons – grown-up piccaninnies;
- golliwogs – a common toy in Europe in the early 1900s with the same eyes and lips;
- helpless darkies – what they are an example of.
The word “piccaninny”, also written “picaninny” or “pickaninny”, means a little black child. It seems to come from the Portuguese slave traders, who probably called them pequeninhos, “little ones”. In the Caribbean, Nigeria, Melanesia and Australia forms of the word are used as mere description. It seems it was used that way in America too, but since at least the 1920s it has become a racist slur.
The first recorded use of the piccaninny stereotype was Topsy in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. The book was written against slavery so Topsy was meant to show the bad effects of slavery on children. But she quickly became a character to laugh at in the minstrel shows.
From the minstrel shows they made it onto film, like “The ‘Gator and the Pickaninny” (1900), Thomas Edison’s own “Ten Picaninnies” (1904) and Hal Roach’s “The Little Rascals”.
One of the old minstrel songs was made into a book for children: “Ten Little Nigger Girls” (c. 1900) by G.H. Thompson. It shows ten girls, drawn as piccaninnies, disappearing one by one, sometimes harmlessly by, say, leaving the room, but sometimes in presumably deadly ways, like by being burnt alive, taken by a bear or eaten by a fish.
The hero of Helen Bannerman’s “Little Black Sambo” (1899) is not a pure piccaninny: he is well-dressed, speaks Standard English, outwits his enemies and is the hero of the story – no helpless darkie, he. Yet he is threatened by wild animals and is drawn like a piccaninny. Also, even in Bannerman’s time “sambo” was a racist slur. The book’s huge success makes the Little Black Sambo the most damaging piccaninny of all.
What is so wrong about piccaninnies:
- They stereotype blacks as bad parents. This part of the stereotype still seems to be alive.
- They make black children seem less than human through:
- their not-human appearance,
- frequent nakedness,
- being threatened by wild animals as a form of entertainment for whites
That last bit about wild animals is utterly sick. So sick that I have to seriously wonder about the minds of white people.
Thanks to commenter Eshowoman for suggesting this post.
See also:
Abagond,
This stereotype only highlights the atrocities of mankind.
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This is a very good post. I spent time in college studying blackface and dark iconography, and it was always picanninys that always got me. Children are helpless and completely innocent, yet they’re being set-up for failure in this stereotype as much as they are if they are taught, “everyone is the same, don’t look at people’s race and they won’t look at yours.” I am also thoroughly enamored with that Jim Crown Museum, and have referred to it for years 🙂
I want to add something, if that’s alright: The story of Little Black Sambo originated from a white woman, Helen Bannerman, living in India. Little Black Sambo was actually Indian (meaning that it was more a reinforcement of the Indian Varna System that placed light-skinned individuals above the dark-skinned individuals), of course, by the time it reached a US audience, “Little Black” anything was automatically associated with Black people. Animated versions of the stories made the story of a black-skinned child being pursued by wild animals even more painful: it was in the animate version that that seemingly straight to wavy hair that you see in the original story vanishes and it replaced by a cap of tightly-curled hair, a very prominent race-marker in the United States, as you well know. Little Black Sambo also looses the shoes he was originally drawn with, and his mammy is usually present for a short period of time.
In Japan (a country that I love to obsess over), the book has gone back in forth between being on the shelves because it’s considered a classic, and being out of print because the Afro-Japanese Community (might make and interesting post) finds it completely racist. The book was re-released in 2005 under the name “Chibi-Kuro Sanbo” (literally ‘Little Black Sambo’), but I am not sure whether or not it is still in print this time around.
I’ve always thought of picaninnys as the sort of live-action version of golliwogs–the connection here the association with children: picaninnys are the anti-thesis of white children, yet they come in the form of pets when white children owned (or own) golliwogs (and slaves).
For future commenter that may think this post out-of-date or completely off, a friend told me that, while in a photo booth in California, she found options to add a hair style to your portrait. Some of the styles were as much as I expected: blonde pigtails and straight-as-a-bone brunette hair, an afro, etc. Then she saw hairstyles for children. As sure as the sky is blue, there was a head of black, short braids going in every direction. She was annoyed and slightly angry, as she was clearly looking at someone’s interpretation of a natural style for black children’s hair, and it wasn’t graceful, it wasn’t put-together, it was nappy and almost looked like the remains of burnt-off hair.
I can honestly say that I rarely contemplate the fact that the picaninny stereotype does also effect that way Black people are viewed as care-givers to their own children. In images of picaninnys, you never see the parents. Do you think it would have been just as bad or worse if, in picaninny art, the coon father and mammy were also typically pictured? I know this question is a bit irrelevant, but I had to ask.
~*~ Pretty Star
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…”Do you think it would have been just as bad or worse if, in picaninny art, the coon father and mammy were also typically pictured?..”
Somehow your question is odd.
Great thread/blogspot ‘abagond’. I do’nt know the truth to this, but, I have read that, supposedly, little black American children were ‘fed’ to alligators, ie used a bait for gaining allligator skin. There is/was a youtube video that addressed this, and I am not certain about this as a ‘real’ atrocity.
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lol…I know it’s kind of a weird question. Let me try articulating it this way: Would it have been just as bad or more damaging to the image of black people as parents if they were more frequently displayed alongside their picaninny children?
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I have often thought that to be remembered by a white mind is possibly one of the most dreadful afterlife that would befall a non-white sentient being.
Heck, even those cute dogs and cats are probably in for a ride to white hell, all twisted and warped.
Since those stereotypes are definitely deliberate and serving a purpose, i wonder which facet of their reality was the picaninny designed to neutralize.
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@~*~Pretty Star…”Would it have been just as bad or more damaging to the image of black people as parents if they were more frequently displayed alongside their picaninny children?…”
Oh, it’s like that. Got it…
But at any rate, I ‘m intrigued by your comment, ‘JGreyden’,
Ie. ..”which facet of their reality was ”the picaninny designed to neutralize’..
Makes me think of the song, by Sting, “Hope the Russians love their children too”, suggesting that the Euro/anglo psyche can’t conceive that Africans do love their progeny/children, toddlers, infants. Cherish them in fact, which compounds the horror of what happened during slavery when parents could not protect their children.
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Some of the same stereotypes are still strong to this day. If you were to look at the white savior movies, almost all comedies featuring black comedians, and talk shows like Maury Povich and Jerry Springer, you will some of the stereotypes mentioned.
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It seems it was used that way in America too, but since at least the 1960s it has become a racist slur both in America and Britain.
As far as I know it always has been a racial slur. My stepmother told me of how a picture was put in the newspaper during her childhood during the 20’s, which was captioned “Piccaninnies eating watermelon.” This had upset her very much, I don’t remember if she said she was in the picture. I was eating in a restaurant in Barbados in 1987, some British woman was speaking of the Bajan children as picaninnies, the tone didn’t speak to me as being benign, but I was the only one who turned to stare her down.
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That last bit about wild animals is utterly sick. So sick that I have to seriously wonder about the minds of white people.
you are JUST NOW wondering about the minds of white people. well let me throw you a bone THEY ARE SICK!!! remember they even created a word called HUE MAN, which they know they are not. they know what they are. when are black people going to realize what we are dealing with on planet earth?
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Not all Blacks find the word offensive. I know Jamaicans who when speaking patois will refer to children as “pickneys” or “pickineys” — both obvious variants of pickaninny.
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^^ make that Black Jamaicans (before someone brings it up that not all Jamaicans are Black).
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Paisley, Jamaicans do use ‘pickiney,’ but here’s the thing. I don’t think any of them realize it’s origins or how bad it is.
I know this because my background is Jamaican.
The meaning is lost to them. Most just grow up thinking it’s a slang term for children.
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@Mel, It’s not so much that the word itself is so bad, but that racists always manage to corrupt everything they touch. Come on, eating fruit is degraded into a stereotype! This is plain madness. They can take any word, any damn word, and turn it into something horrid.
So I don’t believe that because Jamaicans use the word pickiney that it meant as a bad thing. Maybe they took the word for what it truly translates from and used it for that reason. NOT to degrade.
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@ Abagond—When it comes to the things of race and racist ideas and rhetoric—YOU ARE RELENTLESS!!!!
Keep it coming, because you may change the landscape all by yourself!! True influence!
Mad props to you Abagond! 😈
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excellent post, yes i have seen the pics of the pickaninny being used as gator bait and i had to wonder about that too…
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Regarding “That last bit about wild animals is utterly sick. So sick that I have to seriously wonder about the minds of white people.”
Another poster brought up a youtube video. The guy in the video did his research. It wasn’t just a joke. Apparently it was very real.
Maybe you can share as a post. Been lurking on the site for a long time. Keep it up.
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@ Mel
Another born and raised Island person ringing in here. Most English speaking Caribbean people (that I know) think of the term as a slang term for children because it is JUST that and nothing more, it is used to refer to children who aren’t even black.
———
And as Anna Renee (like the do btw) said, you can paint anything negetively you just have to decide to do it. On a hot ass day, a nice ripe watermelon is friggin delicious. Trying to put down someone because they eat it says more about that person than the one eating the fruit. And wait, weren’t white people eating watermelon when they were hanging innocent black people??
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OD:
So they used to use black babies to catch alligators, and let the alligators EAT the babies? I thought these pictures were just a sick joke. Man, it just gets worse and worse and worse. If I can find enough on it I will most certainly do a post on it.
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Anna Renee has it right: piccaninny became a racist word because of how white people used it. It is STILL a perfectly fine word in its different forms in the West Indies and Melanesia where there are few whites to mess it up. Not so in America and Britain.
From what I can tell it has not yet become a racist word in Australia.
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Not surprised, never ceases to amaze me how wherever you go in the world, and white people have been, there is bound to be this sort of mind boggling hatred!! Sick!!!!!!!! I’m disgusted. There have been similar crocodile stories in South Africa. The first time I heard of the word Piccaninny was when our current London Mayor was brought to task for using it. J can correct me if I’m wrong here but he said it before he was voted Mayor and the good ol people still elected the walking waste of space!!!!!
When it comes to hatred of the purest form, all hail the white race.
I dare anyone to say differently.
This gives me heartache…seriously *sniff*
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Nigerians speaking Nigerian Pidgin English will also refer to all children as ‘pikin’ which seems to be a short form of pickaninny. not meant to be and not seen as offensive
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Radommer and Hathor:
Thanks for the info.
1. Pikin is a very common form of the word – you see it in Sierra Leone and New Guinea too.
2. It makes sense it was a racist slur in America back in the 1920s – because of the stereotype. In which case it was probably a racist slur as far back as the 1860s.
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omg rupert bear is totally ruined for me 😦
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Alligator baits? WTF??? This got to be one of the most horrible examples of racism in the planet! If you get more info and/or pictures etc on this abagond, put it out! This is something that must be brought up and made to be known.
I knew that whites did all kind of sick things in Africa during the colonial days, king Leopolds Kongo for example, but using kids as alligator baits! Twists ones stomach.
This happened in the US? This is a fuckin crime against humanity and a very fine example of what racism produces. I mean I’ve been steaming about lynchings and all that stuff for decades but somehow I missed this! What an outrage!
Special thanks to you abagond for this. I have one more historical fact bullet to use against racists everywhere.
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[…] The piccaninny stereotype via Abagond by abagond on 8/6/10 […]
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The thing about these slurs is that some of them were words that African used themselves in their own language but white Europeans messed it up and turned it into something hateful like the “N” word I won’t get into it now maybe you can do a post about it Abagond
And the aligator bait. Bloody hell that is terrible and white people want us to get over slavery and jim crow and forget about it so they won’t feel guilty
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Thank you for this post.
Can anyone tell what the last postcard (alligator and baby) says? I’m very curious to know, especially in light of the info about alligator bait (shudder).
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i would like to know how in the hell did black people end up on the same planet as white people?? white people need a planet all to themselves.
words just do not describe white people. they are a horrible, sick, gruesome creation.
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@Fatima— Ha ha! But they’d leave that planet, come to the one black folks are on and colonize it!!
It wouldn’t work, Fatima!!
;-D
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Just speechless at the very last photo and the Youtube video re alligator bait — never heard of this before.
The one thing I can say is that Whites have gotten away with alot. They should be very happy that Blacks haven’t retaliated and that we are so caught up in our own problems to get back at them.
Ironic that so many Blacks idolize and want to be look like, emulate and marry Whites. I guess no matter what they’ve done, they’ve made sure that they are on top and will always be in a position of power.
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..”Ironic that so many Blacks idolize and want to be look like, emulate and marry Whites. I guess no matter what they’ve done, they’ve made sure that they are on top and will always be in a position of power….” (Patricia Kayden)
———————————————–
Blacks ‘idolizing’ the white power structure is relevant to the ‘Stockholm Syndrome”. I liked the, “how did Blacks end up on the same planet with whites” comment, hilarious, in a sad, sick way. This is ‘Our’ hell.
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I’m tired of your anti-whitism. As a whole, multi-racial societies are not needed and don’t work. But this is what you wanted: globalism, anti-racism, universalism and all those perverted ideologies. I don’t think most blacks will ever admit they own everything to the europeans and europeans owe them nothing.
Our ancestors tried to solve this by creating Liberia and sierra Leone. As a whole colonization of Africa was a failure, for europe that is. It was the best thing that ever happened to Africa. From the Stone/Bronze age to Industrialization in a few decades, can you image? Yet the black man, who tried to become European and was shunned by the whites and his own kind, realizes there is no black Cesar, no Alexander the Great, no Genghis Khan or black Napoleaon. It sucks for him, like the Papuans, the Aborigenes, the American Indians, he “lost” in History. He now wants to invaded europe thru mass immigration and high fertility (thanks to colonial medical systems that brought African population from 200 million to close to 2 billion in less than 150 years). And yet I will probably find some who will claim “No, the whites, have ravaged the blacks, colonialism was a atrocity…bla bla wha wha wacist” If only they could say a heartfelt Thank you! not to me personally but to European civilization collectively it would be so great. But no, when Europe becomes Africanized, eliminating what made it attractive in the first place, we will only end up with a massive Third world and no first world
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@Boubou
Thank you Boubou , for sharing your insightful review of history.
I thought history was some serious stuff but the way you explained it, you make it look so simple.
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@Boubou
I think you meant to say how European/American whites stole everything–art, science–modern medicine has yet to thank the Africans, Asians, and Indigineous Native Indians for advancing it for the white world.
Yes, white “adventurers” were very slick–Nothing like going to the native medicine man/woman to find out how to cure aches and pains from drinking a bush tea, then going home to America or Europe, call it your discovery, patent and bottle it, then sell it back to the natives and the rest of the world in the form of a pill.
and no, our African/Native ancestors have not lost their rightful history but it is continually surpressed because people like you continue to pervert and teach lies.
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@ Linda
Right on! Unfortunately it makes little difference arguing with the likes or Bobo, they try to pass their disgusting, self serving hate filled lies off as rational and informed while telling marginalized people that their knowledge and concerns are meaningless. Lol gotta love these inadequate people who try so hard to hold unto a bs ideology that’s just riddled with holes.
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Another Jamaican here to say that ‘pickney’ is not seen as an offensive word here. I only became aware of the piccaninny stereotype after looking around on the internet and anti-racist blogs, I don’t think most West Indians even realise there’s a stereotype associated with the word. The only time I ever hear the word ‘piccaninny’ was as a joking kind of diminutive for ‘pcikney’.
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I’m tired of your anti-whitism.
Never heard of the word, whitism! You learn something new everyday!
I don’t think most blacks will ever admit they own everything to the europeans and europeans owe them nothing.
No blacks wont’ admit they own Europeans, but the Europeans did in fact own black people!
As a whole colonization of Africa was a failure, for europe that is.
They shouldn’t have gone there to start! Problem solved!
It was the best thing that ever happened to Africa.
No, it was the best thing to happen to Europe. Without colonization, they would not have the wealth and power that they have today. After they got tired of killing their own kind, they moved on to other poor unsuspecting people. They still didn’t learn as they went on to embroil the poor deluded fellow white folks into two World Wars and other wars. What they did learn is to wage wars in mostly racialized countries, not to swift if you ask me.
Yet the black man, who tried to become European and was shunned by the whites and his own kind, realizes there is no black Cesar, no Alexander the Great, no Genghis Khan or black Napoleaon.
You forgot Hitler and Stalin and the other lesser known psychopaths dotting your history. And before you resort to that old tired argument ‘they did it too!’, remember, these racialized psychos had the finest teachers, the Europeans!
If only they could say a heartfelt Thank you! not to me personally but to European civilization collectively it would be so great.
If only they could! Thanks Europeans for all you have done for us! I’m selling the London Bridge, interested?
when Europe becomes Africanized, eliminating what made it attractive in the first place, we will only end up with a massive Third world and no first world
Ohhh nooo, you don’t say! I am sure the Europeans will put a stop to the immigration from these ‘third world’ countries when they reach the saturation point! If you bothered to read the news you will already have seen this happening with the anti-immigration moves in France(Expelling the Roma for example), so-called assimilation laws(again in France with the ban on hijabs, burquas etc) It will only get better for you dear! It will spread to other countries! Take heart. don’t be so sad!
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I stumbled on your blog while helping out my niece with her home work. It’s just sad knowing now the origin of this word and how it is in my 8 year-old niece’s English text.
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Do you all think all remaining pieces of old “black memorabilia” should be destroyed? Or should it be preserved as reminders of racial stereotypes?
I ask because a while back I saw a price guide at the book store for black memorabilia. Alot of it has monetary value and was made in Germany in the the late 1800s and early 1900s.
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I am for preserving it: the more people know the truth about the past, the better off they will be.
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OK nobody in their rigght mind can justify this but I am sick of all this anti white stuuf when equally bad or worse things are being commited by balck, brown and yellow people around the globe. There is no god and thank god that there isnt… hell would be full up… of all races !
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Well as far as “The Little Rascals” tv show wasn’t “Buckwheat” and “Farina” treated as equally as the other children? After all they were the best of friends and were always playing together. Enough with the “Race Card” already – it is really annoying to hear one ethnic group constantly bring up the past as a sort of excuse to get free hand-outs. EVERY GROUP that came to America was discriminated against at first. Should Italians ask for “Affirmative Action” because they were called “WOPs” & not liked at first when they came to America? And guess what? – some BLACK African tribal leaders sold their OWN PEOPLE into slavery! – how come Al Sharpton & other possible Black Racists don’t mention THAT fact?!
White people have been attacked by racial slurs, insults & hate too. Ever hear some of the HORRIBLE hate & other offensive sh*t in some “‘rap’ noise”? (I refuse to call some of it “music”). Ignorance & racism is all the same no matter what color skin it hides under. Now it seems that some Black people are the racists after complaining for so long about the past. “The pendulum it seems has swung in the other direction”. What about the “Picaninny” stupid incompetent bungling White Landlord stereotype in the tv show “The Jeffersons”? Black racists are just as bad as White racists or Yellow racists etc.. WE ARE ALL HUMAN.
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This type of real history has been omitted in our schools today! I live the videos and I will be visiting the museum with my family.
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I love this piece & found it quite informative, BUT I must disagree with the very last part:
“That last bit about wild animals is utterly sick. So sick that I have to seriously wonder about the minds of white people.”
I hope you more likely meant that it makes you “seriously wonder about the minds of *SICK, FAR-FROM-NORMAL* white people *who would EVER find child endangerment entertaining*.” I’ve never met a person of ANY race who would take that lightly or find any humour in it. It IS truly disgusting. The good part in a lot of this is I didn’t even realize these things were still seriously being propagated by anyone but the very worst bigots; so, that shows that it is at least becoming old news in the much more integrated, main modern population of the U.S. 🙂
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An ugly word and ugly stereotype created by ugly people with ugly hearts and minds.
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white did a whole lot of horrible things in africa/?????? blacks sold their own people into slavery . the whites were not the ones capturing them , it was their own race doing that.
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Stop drinking and typing Miguel!
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@ herneith…what’s wrong??when reality does not line up with your totally incorrect world view , the person bringing it to your attention has to be drinking?? you need to read some more history my racist friend.it’s still happening today, Africans using other africans as slaves.
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A good many of those enslaved Africans ended up not only in the US, but in Cuba as well, the results of which is a present day Cuban population where the vast majority of its citizens is at least partly of ‘African slave’ ancestry. Hell, Lucy’s husband Ricky Ricardo was not doubt part ‘African slave’.
Reading history can be enlightening indeed.
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I am southern born and I find it very offensive that all “white” people are put in the same category in the above comments. Not all southern white people have owned slaves and not all are racist. I believe that God, our creator, created each and everyone of us equal. He loves us all the same and we are equal in his eyes. We should all start viewing each other as equal and give each other love and respect.
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SouthernMom, kindly go here:
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How can you talk negatively about stereotyping and yet you do it with “seriously wonder about the minds of white people”. That is the pot calling the kettle black if I have ever seen it. That’s not a racist slur in case you have never heard it before. From you lack of understanding of stereotypes I can only assume you would jump to conclusions when seeing the word black.
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Pot calling the kettle black
I am going to assume from your post that you are not very educated. The statement “seriously wonder about the minds of white people” is not a stereotype. I suggest you use Google and find out what one really is. Your remaining response is just to ridiculous that I won’t bother.
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@Sharina,
It might be that when some white-identified persons read
“That last bit about wild animals is utterly sick. So sick that I have to seriously wonder about the minds of white people.”
the person’s first impulse will be that the author of that sentence is talking about THEM personally. They will read that as having made a stereotype about white people in general and that stereotype has somehow lumped THEM in with it.
However, if being “white” is not central to the reader’s identity, they will not think that the author is talking about all white people or about them, nor are they making a stereotype about white people in general.
I think it is even possible to be of European descent and yet not having “white” as central to one’s identity, so such a sentence would not have felt personal.
Maybe for those readers, the sentence would have to read
“That last bit about wild animals is utterly sick. So sick that I have to seriously wonder about the minds of white people (who would write about such things or of those would find that entertaining, even those who would not flinch just contemplating the idea).”
or to save words
“That last bit about wild animals is utterly sick. So sick that I have to seriously wonder about the minds of white people who would do that.”
Still in the last case, some white readers would imagine that to be a negative racial stereotype.
In some cases, it could be a form of projection. If a reader holds negative stereotypes about blacks, if they read a statement like that about whites, they interpret it as a negative stereotype about whites, when it is not a stereotype.
“Pickanninny” is a stereotype. Calling white people who use pickaninnies placed in threatening situations to wild animals “sick” is not a stereotype. You know that, but some readers do not. They think you are talking about them personally.
The affliction is called “Reading While White” and you can direct them here:
(https://abagond.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/reading-while-white-this-blog/)
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My Alabama grandmother used to borrow the Little Black Sambo books from the library and bookmobile and read them to me when I was a small kid. I remember that it was easy to get Little Black Sambo books back then in Alabama.
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@ Jefe
I have read the “reading While White” thread over and over again and it still amazes me how well it applies to white identified people.
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[…] worth of controversy, Wright and Warner Brothers chose to highlight the existence of the cringe-inducingly named Piccaninny Tribe. Casting Rooney Mara alone was a faux pas but based on this first look, they […]
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Pickney.as a old jamaican, i know this word is a word from west africa.i am an Old maroon
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It wouldn’t matter so much is Europeans didn’t consider themselves superior. The only thing they have shown themselves to be “superior” in is technology. Their historical actions have shown themselves to be morally inferior. I mean, they had the Christian religion, but they never practiced what it teaches, especially on universal charity and brotherhood. Assuming Christianity is true, Jeaus will send them lower into hell than the “savages” they think they are better than. What do you think that brown, Middle-Eastern Jesus will do to those devout conservative Christians who believe his real ethnicity is inferior?
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^
Only for a short period of human history. It will change.
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@ Brown Savage
When you follow White Jesus, you get to feel morally superior to everyone else without having to actually take any of his words seriously.
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Interesting that all Whites are stereotyped by Abagond et al as vile, racist, slave masters. With the exceptions of a number of Native Tribes, I can assure you that no one suffered worse in early America than the Irish. While sub-Saharan Black African slave were coveted by Whites (and some Black slave owners), the Irish were treated as sub-human slaves below the stature of Black slaves. As such, they were often abused then cast aside as human fodder. 20,000 plus Irish slaves were worked to death to hand dig a canal (New Basin Canal) thru the swamps to New Orleans in the 1830s. While most Eastern ports refused to let the Irish laden ships land, the New Orleans canal project welcomed this ready made slave population. No Black slave was used on the project as it was deemed too dangerous to risk them.
Never once did my White ancestors, who were Irish, ever own any slave. They were poor and only found work as tenant farmers. They struggled everyday to survive. The slave population of sub-Saharan Black Africans were their direct competitors in agriculture. After the War, the now Black Americans, still provided competition as paid farm laborers and share croppers. When my White Ancestors Served with the Confederacy, they did so with absolutely no inclination to protect slavery.
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@ SammyD
Your arguments have been refuted over and over and over again on this blog.
I suggest you start with this post: “The Irish had it hard too”
You also might want to check out the Broken Record Dept.
They cut your lame and dishonest arguments off at the knees, which is all they deserve.
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Maybe Sammy will believe the NYT:
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@ Herneith
Great article! I love how Irish scholars are leading the charge in slashing these pernicious myths to ribbons.
Just goes to show the lengths White people will go to try and stop Black people from discussing our legitimate concerns about race and the history of race in this hemisphere.
Right now it is a popular meme for White people to wail about how “discriminated” White people are in the society. Yet, when asked how White people are discriminated against or who discriminates against them, it’s crickets and the rustle of tall grass in response.
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A singular lack of empathy explains all.
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@ Herneith
Great link. I have been wanting to do a post on Irish slaves. Thanks!
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All White should be treated just like they did all black people so they can feel the reality of sheer torture that black people had to endure and let’s see if they survive like black people ,white are the true SATANS OF THE REAL WORLD,THE DEVIL NOTHING BUT THE DEVIL,VERY SICK MINDS
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