Macias 1

Erica Macias
Professor Batty
English 113A
21 October 2014
Racism is Still Alive
Racism has been part of our history for a very long time. Most people have
encountered some form of prejudice, whether it was intentional or not. In a cartoon by
Bearman, he restates a situation where a character is discriminating an African American.
We have seen countless racial discrimination in cartoons and one race group who has
been affected by this is African Americans. Also in an article Black Men and Public
Spaces by Brent Staples, he illustrates how he has experienced others discriminating
him just because he is an African American. Over the years African Americans have been
easily targeted because of how society has perceived them to be. Although some say
racism is not as bad today as it ones was, we still see racism in many forms like cartoons.
Unfortunately, it is something that we have gotten use to seeing that we might not view it
as being racist but in reality it is.
To illustrate the background of the cartoon, it reveals a white man dressed in
black face. Black face was popular back then and it was used to imitate African
Americans and humiliate them. In an article, by Jason Swayne Ivey, he gives an insight
of what black face was all about. He describes how black face first started in the 19th
century where white performers would blacken their faces with burnt cork to appear to be
black (Ivey 1). He explains that black face dehumanized African Americans because

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they made them look like they were uneducated and loud people that were not able to
move up the social latter.
In the Bearmans cartoon he demonstrates a white man dressed as black face
pointing at a black man dressed as a KKK, both characters are in a comfortable distance
and they are looking towards one another. There is a caption bubble over the white
characters head that has dialogue inside of it with all capital letters saying, COME ON!
THAT IS JUST OFFENSIVE!! The all capital letters gives off a strong connotation of
how the character is feeling. Also we can see it in his face because his eyes are wide open
and his eye brows are raised up as a form to express his rage. Even though we cannot see
the black guys face because it is covered we can still see his eye and they express
something. His eye is not as wide open and his eye brows droops down which expresses
that he feels shocked or afraid. The role that the characters play in this cartoon is dressing
as offensively towards each others race.
To add, the white man dressed in black face finds it rude that the black man is
dressed as a KKK. Back then the KKK where known to be a white social group who
seized to kill African Americans because they were different and seen as inferior. It is
ironic that the white man finds it insulting that the black guy is wearing a KKK suit that
goes directed toward him because he him self does not see that he is being prejudice
towards the black guy. It is racist for anyone to be dressed up as black face because that
was used back then to discriminate against African Americans. African Americans were
not able to be on live televisions because they were seen to be inferior to the white man.
African Americans struggled to try to fight for their rights so dressing up as black face is
racist because it would be humiliating them.

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Many may say that both characters are being racist towards each other because
they are both dressed negatively towards one another. However, in reality the guy in the
KKK outfit is not being racist he is just trying to prove a point. His point is that that
though dressing as a KKK might offend some white people, dressing up as black face is
far more offensive then dressing up as a KKK. Dressing up as black face is racist because
it goes back in time where African Americans where being humiliated on national
television.
To emphasize on racism, in the article Black Men and Public Spaces by Brent
Staples he reveals that he was judged because of the color of his skin. He explains that
often he would walk alone at night and when he would encountered a white women
walking alone, she would suspect he was a mugger, [or] a rapist and she would quickly
pick up her past an walk faster (183). African Americans are placed into a stereotype that
they are criminals, uneducated, unstable, and live in low-income communities. Seeing
African American being display in cartoons in a negative way can have an influence on
how people will see them. This relates to the cartoon because it goes to show how people
would judge African Americans by dressing as black face and displaying how they are on
live television to humiliate them. In this case Staples encountered a women that had
already perceived him to be a threat to her because of what society has said about African
Americans. Society has a great influence in racism and it can affect the way others view
different types of race not just only African Americans.
To summarize, we see a connection between racism in Bearmans cartoons and
racism in Brent Staples with both directing to African Americans. Still till this day we
cannot say that racism is not a problem anymore, because there are countless factors that

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have occurred where racism is being displayed. No matter what race someone is, society
will already have placed a stereotype over that race that limits them from succeeding. A
way that society has an influence in that is by putting it in the media or cartoons where
people well not easily grasp the racial aspect behind it. Today we are blind to the hidden
messages that cartoons place over racism. We are use to seeing racism that it becomes
normal and less offensive that we dont easily grasp that they are being prejudice towards
a certain race.

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Work Cited
Cartoons, Bearman. "Bearman Cartoon: Aussies and Racism - Bearman
Cartoons."Bearman Cartoons. 9 Jan. 2010. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.
http://beartoons.com/2010/01/08/bearman-cartoon-aussies-and-racism/
Ivey, Jason Dwayne. "Blackface Minstrelsy." Antebellum and Civil War America, 17841865. 2 Nov. 2001. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.
Staples, Brent. Black Men and Public Spaces. 75 Thematic Readings: An Anthology:
McGraw-Hills. 2003. 182-186. Print.

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Appendix