From slavery to freedom to the present, whites’ power to caricature or negatively label blacks has been a major source of conflict in race relations. Even after Brown (1954), which overruled school segregation, our society rarely embraced its racial-ethnic diversity and black stereotypes persisted. For example, the NAACP continued its campaign to remove the stereotypical Amos ‘n’ Andy Show from television; it was removed in 1966. Today, the association lobbies film, television, the press, and other media to present nonracist images and reports as well as to provide equal employment opportunities.

Negative black labels persist. The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (1994) and Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word (2002) include many. Slavery spawned black stereotypes: the docile Sambo, loyal Mammy, lewd Jezebel, and carefree Jim Crow. All were labeled inferior or “lazy and pretentious.” Segregation saw little alteration in white perceptions of blacks, largely confining them to servant status. Aunt Jemima, Uncle Mose, and Uncle Ben, the faithful servants, became major money-makers for American advertisers during the first-half of the twentieth century. Their smiling black faces advertised food products, dishware, and varieties of collectibles. Also popular were Jim Dandy, a city slicker, and Sapphire, a bossy “negress.” The childlike “negro” image in Gone With the Wind (1939), which romanticized the Confederacy and the Ku Klux Klan, was persistent and Amos ’n’ Andy reinvented it. Many civil and human rights and progressive groups fight against the labeling or profiling of African Americans today.