The picaninny is an African American child, typically portrayed as poorly undressed with unruly hair and exaggerated features, eating a watermelon, or being eaten by an alligator. What particularly struck me about these images was the way they were made to be jokes~how the image of a child being eaten by a wild animal was somehow funny
Fast forward to this weekend~after seeing The Celluloid Closet, I found myself really wanting to watch a black and white movie so I watched 1936's "Poor Little Rich Girl" with Shirley Temple.
I was surprised to find hear Shirley temple's character using words like 'mammy' and 'picaninny' when referring to her Black doll. Additionally, when she plays with her Asian doll the music becomes oriental, she starts squinting, and she uses an stereotypical Asian accent.
I posted a video of it above. Its a little difficult to hear her say it but: the accent is at 3:00, mammy is 3:21, and picaninny is at 3:24
I just found this really interesting because it just shows how common these beliefs were. Since Shirley Temple has always been depicted as an innocent child, the clip also displays how widespread, accepted, and normalized these views were.
Excellent post! I'm sure if you can find examples of the racially motivated archetypes from Ethnic Notions in movies made more recently than this Shirley Temple movie. It should be noted, however, that Shirley Temple was the #1 movie star in Hollywood in the 30s, so this film was probably widely viewed.
ReplyDeleteFor more recent examples, what do you think "Buckwheat" is all about?
I like how you point out that these racist things are coming out of the mouth of an "innocent child." It just goes to show how racial profiling, in the media and otherwise, is cultivated as a part of a normal upbringing. The rational seems to be that if everyone says these things, and if the TV says it too, it can't possibly be bad. Clips like these make me look closer at present day media to find stereotypes we portray now.
ReplyDeleteWhen "Poor little Rich Girl was made Shirley Temple was 7 and a half years old, and she was repeating her lines from the movie not spewing disturbing content as if these were her own thoughts. Does America have a controversial past? Yeah she does, but don't try using a small girl from the movies, and turn her into a racist.
ReplyDelete