The Coon Caricature
Digital Document
Document
Content type |
Content type
|
||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Collection(s) |
Collection(s)
|
||||||||||||
Title |
Title
Title
The Coon Caricature
Title Type
alternative
Title
Coon Caricature
|
||||||||||||
Resource Type |
Resource Type
|
||||||||||||
Description |
Description
The coon caricature is one of the most insulting of all anti- black caricatures. The name itself, an abbreviation of raccoon, is dehumanizing. As with Sambo, the coon was por- trayed as a lazy, easily frightened, chronically idle, inarticulate, buffoon. The coon differed from the Sambo in subtle but important ways. Sambo was depicted as a perpet- ual child, not capable of living as an independent adult. The coon acted childish, but he was an adult; albeit a good-for- little adult. Sambo was portrayed as a loyal and contented servant. Indeed, Sambo was offered as a defense for slavery and segregation. How bad could these institutions have
been, asked the racialists, if blacks were contented, even happy, being servants? The coon, although he often worked as a servant, was not happy with his status. He was, simply, too lazy or too cynical to attempt to change his lowly position. Also, by the 1900s, Sambo was identified with older, docile blacks who accepted Jim Crow laws and etiquette; whereas coons were increasingly identified with young, urban blacks who dis- respected whites. Stated differently, the coon was a Sambo gone bad. |
||||||||||||
Handle |
Handle
http://hdl.handle.net/2323/4779
|
||||||||||||
Persons |
Persons
Author (aut): Pilgrim, David, Dr.
|
||||||||||||
Genre |
Genre
|
||||||||||||
Subject | |||||||||||||
Origin Information |
Origin Information
|
||||||||||||
Note |
Note
Article written by Dr. David Pilgrim for the Jim Crow museum on the origins and legacy of the coon caricature in America.
|
||||||||||||
Language |
Language
|
Language |
English
|
---|---|
Name |
bitstream_12387.pdf
|
MIME type |
application/pdf
|
File size |
209755
|
Media Use | |
Authored on |
|
Download
Document