NWANONYIRI: Too much self-stereotyping within Black community
The rise of YouTube dating shows and reality shows, such as "Baddies West" and "20 v 1," have emphasized the prevalence of self-stereotyping in the Black community. The creators of these shows risk the exploitation of individuals and a poor portrayal of the Black community for the sake of their views.
The Black community has struggled for years in the media to stray away from false narratives and stereotypes that have been established for centuries. Amplifying these dating and reality shows helps promote these stereotypes and may cause audiences to create generalized ideas about the Black community as a whole.
Multiple stereotypes have been curated through Black history for the last few years. Two that are most prevalent in this type of content are the "Sapphire" and "Mandingo" stereotypes.
According to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Sapphire is a caricature from the 1800s through the mid-1900s that portrayed Black women as sassy, emasculating and domineering. This also falls into the "angry Black girl" stereotype since Sapphire depicts Black women as loud, aggressive and angry.
The Mandingo stereotype is a racial trope used by slave owners to promote the strength, breeding ability and agility of muscular young Black men when trading slaves. They were depicted as "animalistic and brutish."
Even though these stereotypes have been established centuries ago, they still haunt the Black community today. This time, by other Black people. In reality shows such as the Zeus Network franchise "Baddies," Black women are hypersexualized and exhibit the "aggressive, loud, and angry" traits of the Sapphire.
The show derives from the 2006 reality show "Bad Girls Club," where a group of women with anger and control issues come together and try to improve themselves. "Baddies" uses this same narrative but with a predominantly Black cast.
In this show, made by Black people for Black people, women are seen fighting, cursing and promoting intense promiscuity as the norm. In this setting, the Sapphire stereotype is endorsed by Black women themselves, which is not only harmful to viewers but also to themselves.
Stereotypes influence behavior on both ends. They can cause a person to avoid certain racial groups in public or have a bias toward such as using physical distance away from other groups in public and developing microaggressions.
According to Very Well Mind, "self-stereotyping can be a way for marginalized people to band together in a world that oppresses them and places them at the bottom of a hierarchy. It may help them experience some cohesion." Yet this "cohesion" may confirm these stereotypes. The more Black individuals play into the stereotypes, the more likely they are to become them.
While predominantly Black reality shows mirror the Sapphire stereotype, YouTube dating shows like "20 v 1" mirror the Mandigo.
"20 vs 1" is a YouTube dating show by creator Lah Mike that typically consists of 20 women competing to find love over one man, sometimes vice versa. Similar to the Tinder app, the man decides whether he would like to swipe right to continue talking to the girl or swipe left to reject her. From what I've seen, Black creators mostly perpetuate this content.
What is worse is that these are sometimes exhibited through children as well. The YouTube channel posted a video titled "20 Girls vs 2 Rappers: Lil RT & FNG Lil King," which consisted of two young boys who were asked to pick out from a selection of other young boys and girls to be friends with judging based on their looks and talking to them for the first few seconds.
The two "rappers" behaviors mimic the traits seen in their adult counterparts. They are aggressive, curse and even make fun of some of the contestants as they come out, all while also presenting traits of toxic masculinity. Viewers found the video disturbing. One comment said, "You can tell the type of adults they hang around cause they didn't have to disrespect that little girl like that and tell her she was too big that was messed up."
Self-stereotyping is not too different from a child becoming the environment that they grow in. A child who grew up where gang activity is present and who has been socialized to believe that people of their race engage in crime is more likely to engage in illegal activity during their lifetime.
Another comment reacted, "Can we please report this for child abuse? This is why they laugh at us as a race, when do we take accountability."
Century-old stereotypes are being kept alive by Black creators in the form of entertainment. These predominately Black hubs continue to spew harmful stereotypes that may endorse preconceptions of viewers and instill specific behaviors within the Black community that promote these stereotypes. Accountability should be taken along with acknowledging the self-stereotyping that occurs today.
Uju Nwanonyiri is a junior in the School of Arts and Sciences majoring in journalism & media studies and public health. Nwanonyiri’s column, “Debrief Discussions,” runs on alternate Thursdays.
*Columns, cartoons, letters and commentaries do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
YOUR VOICE | The Daily Targum welcomes submissions from all readers. Letters to the editor must be between 350 and 600 words. Commentaries must be between 600 and 900 words. All authors must include their name, phone number, class year and college affiliation or department to be considered for publication. Please submit via email to oped@dailytargum.com and eic@dailytargum.com to be considered for publication.
