Images of Mammy from YouTube
October 26, 2014 § 2 Comments
Text from YouTube: From the 1860s to the 1960s one of the few employment opportunities for black women in America was as a domestic servant. Consequently, the Mammy stereotype became the standard characterization of black women in film and television. The mammy roles, played by actress like Hattie McDaniels, Louise Beaver, & Ethel Waters, put a happy face on black women’s lowly position in society, helping to set at ease the hearts of white audiences. Mammies were so happy to serve whites that they were shown giving up their pay and even their freedom for the chance to continue serving “their white family”. These images are juxtaposed with news footage of the civil rights movement to show that this was not the case in the real world.
Spectacular! (And I’m so glad you’ve posted again. This is a wonderful blog.)
[…] The “mother” figure of the plantation was often considered the “mammy” who was stereotyped as a large, jovial, kerchiefed black woman beloved by everyone on the place. This caricature of a […]