ENTRY 10: The American Dream in Black and White cartoon

(From The Black Commentator http://www.blackcommentator.com/8_cartoons_black_and_white_amer_dream_pr.html)

This is a cartoon titled The American Dream in Black and White. On the left hand side it features characteristics that are classified as “white” and on the right side, characteristics classified as “black”. It is evident that whites get more privileges than blacks: new subdivisions vs. new prisons, economic growth vs. cancer growths (and asthma), white flight vs. black blight, and so forth.

I picked this cartoon because it shows how people classify whites and blacks, and how they classify them in the wrong way. Not all whites and blacks are what the cartoon represents, and it gives people the wrong impressions. It may be funny to see this cartoon at first, but it further exploits blacks and further oppresses them in society.

This cartoon features many of Howard Zinn’s ideas in “Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom”. In this article Zinn says that even after the inception of the Emancipation Proclamation, blacks were still not free. They were still treated inferiorly, and looked at as savages by whites. This modern day cartoon shows that some people still see blacks as inferior. “Black Blight” shows that blacks are seen as impaired people who will contribute to the world’s diseases and afflictions. “New Prisons” shows that blacks are seen as criminals and people who will never ascend in life. Why are these characteristics still popping up in the modern world? Many years after the Emancipation it is still evident that blacks are not treated the same, and will probably never get as much recognition as whites.

According to Allan Johnson’s “Capitalism, Class, and the Matrix of Domination”, whites developed the idea of whiteness and defined a privileged social category where they were above everyone else who wasn’t like them (46-47). This is also evident in the cartoon: new subdivisions and economic growth show that whites are the only ones who can live better lives and contribute to the health and growth of the economy. To them, blacks aren’t civil enough to live in suburbs, and blacks would only further cripple the economy because they are not as smart as the whites. “All the best public schools!” shows that whites only see themselves as the ones who can experience an education because blacks would probably just drop out, and turn to the “school of hard knocks”. This white privilege has given whites so much power to say, “Hey, I’m the dominant race, and I always will be.” Many of these characteristics are not true and whites are not always the ones with the privilege.

I picked this cartoon because it is another case where I first look at it and think it’s funny, but after actually thinking about it, it isn’t that funny anymore. While most will say that a lot of the things on this cartoon are meant to be jokes, some will also say that they believe in everything this cartoon says. There are still whites out there who see blacks as inferior or even less than inferior. Obviously these type of cartoons won't ever go away, but the real messages behind them go all the way back to the times of slavery in America.

Johnson, Allan G. Privilege, Power, and Difference. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006.

Zinn, Howard. “Chapter 9: Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom.” A People’s History of the United States: Teaching Edition. 129-160.