Set against the backdrop of Emmett Till’s murder, the destructive imagination of white supremacy comes to life in this episode. After a brutal encounter with the white police captain who’s racing other characters for occult power, Diana Freeman is hunted by two grinning, grimacing racist caricatures of Black childhood. Only she can see “Topsy” and “Bopsy” as they dance after her through the city, seeking to remake her in their image.

Racist Imagery in American Popular Culture

Racist imagery has pervaded American popular culture since before the Civil War. The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia shares examples from cartoons to collectibles and provides deeper context on the ways in which these further anti-Blackness [includes racist illustrations]. In this episode, viewers experience a wide range of deeply racist stereotypes experienced by Black Americans, from that of Black boys as predatory adults to the caricature of Black children known as a “pickaninny,” described by Langston Hughes as:

“amusing undoubtedly to the white child, but like an unkind word to one who has known too many hurts to enjoy the additional pain of being laughed at.”

Stereotypes of Black Men and Women in Popular Culture

The episode opens with Diana and her family standing in line to view the body of her friend Emmett Till, “Bobo.” Till, a 14-year-old, was murdered after accusations of flirting¹ with Carolyn Bryant, a white woman. His mother, Mamie Till, insisted on a burial in Chicago instead of Mississippi, where he was killed. She held a public viewing of his mutilated body juxtaposed with a photograph of how he looked prior to his lynching. His murderers were acquitted by an all-white jury after they and Bryant called on the worst stereotypes of Black men and teenage boys as violent sexual predators.

Listen to Mamie Till Mobley speak about the murder of her son in this article about an invaluable Black public archive now accessible online.

A contrasting stereotype, often used in advertisements and other marketing materials, was of Black men and women as harmless, servile, and industrious but not necessarily intelligent. For example, the grinning man on the Cream of Wheat poster² seen in the episode was nicknamed “Rastus,” a degrading reference to a minstrel show character of the same name. In late 2020, after yet another call for change, the company agreed to replace the image.

The Charles L. Blockson Posters and Graphics Collection, 1970-2006 includes several Cream of Wheat advertisements as well as other depictions of Black Americans (many of them stereotypes) in popular culture.

 

 

Negroes : a handbook by Tia Blassingame

“What would it look like if each African American man, woman, and child had a handbook? A guidebook that would give you insight into who they are, what they feel, their accumulated experiences. Such books could show the diversity of the African American experience and maybe help white Americans move beyond prejudices and stereotypes. These guidebooks might help white Americans empathize with their African American counterparts. As this is my guidebook, it is letterpress printed in colors inspired by sea glass and shells collected on the Rhode Island shorelines”–Project statement from author’s online portfolio on Bēhance, viewed August 2, 2016.

Stereotypes of Black Children in Popular Culture

The anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin reinforced and gave rise to many stereotypical Black characters including the origin for the episode’s two monsters: Topsy and Bopsy. Topsy is an example of the “pickaninny” stock character, a Black child generally depicted as foolish, unintelligent (unless cunning) and mischievous. She compulsively steals, gets the other children into trouble, and lies about it. She is redeemed through the patronage of the novel’s white child protagonist, Eva, who decides to love her.

The 1908 illustrations of Topsy in “The Story of Topsy” [includes racist illustrations] from the book Little Black Sambo and the Story of Topsy strongly resemble the episode’s monsters. This 1908 publication was illustrated by John R. Neill, better known for his illustrations for The Wizard of Oz. The illustrations in the 1852 edition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin were meant to evoke hope, showing Topsy turning toward Eva and, by extension, salvation. The Topsy depicted in the 1908 illustrations, however, does not receive this grace, casting her as inhuman, contrasted with Eva’s innocence and inherent goodness (Robin Bernstein, Racial Innocence, 2011, page 66).

As the primary representation of Black children in popular culture, characters like Topsy influenced what many white Americans thought about them. The horrifying threat of the monsters “Topsy” and “Bopsy” is that, when they catch Diana, they will transform her from a unique individual into a baseless stereotype.

Naomi Wadler

During a scene in which Diana flees from/takes a stand against Topsy and Bopsy, the show plays an excerpt from 11-year-old Naomi Wadler’s speech at “March for Our lives”.

I am here today to acknowledge and represent the African American girls whose stories don’t make the front page of every national newspaper, whose stories don’t lead on the evening news. I represent the African American women who are victims of gun violence, who are simply statistics instead of vibrant, beautiful girls full of potential.

Her powerful words capture the essence of this episode’s message. Our history contains far too many episodes of “vibrant, beautiful girls” like Diana being sidelined or boxed in by stereotypes. They remind us that things have not changed enough between 1950s and today and that it is on the viewers to carry those necessary changes forward.

Minstrel Songs and Stereotypes of Black Music

The episode uses the minstrel song “Stop dat knocking” as a cue, signaling the approach of Topsy and Bopsy. Minstrel shows and songs were one of the many ways in which stereotypes about Black Americans were spread. The Library of Congress’s Songs of America introduction describes minstrelsy as:

Using caricatures of African Americans in song, dance, tall tales, and stand-up comedy, minstrelsy was immensely popular with white audiences. These caricatures usually featured the uncultured, parochial, happy-go-lucky southern plantation slave (Jim Crow) in his tattered clothing, or the urban dandy (Zip Coon or Dandy Jim), frequently presented as slow-talking, mischievous and gaudily overdressed. Both were dim-witted, lazy, and were intensely fond of both watermelon and chicken. For several decades these two stereotypes remained the most enduring of American minstrelsy.

Although the music purported to be in the style of Black musicians, it was an aggregate of many musical sources, including the Spiritual and European styles.³ Our Special Collections Library has a bound collection of popular sheet music that includes some of the Julius Quadrilles as adapted by John C. Scherpf from the performances by the famous Christy Minstrels. Although Penn State’s copy does not include “Stop dat knocking,” which was featured in the episode, a copy is available at the Johns Hopkins Lester S. Levy sheet music collection.

Continue reading about Episode 9 : Rewind 1921

Footnotes

1. Historian Timothy Tyson interviewed Bryant in 2008 and reports that she admitted to falsely testifying on the stand that Till had touched her and made specific sexual references. ^{return to text}

2. Although the illustration was based on a photograph of a real Chicago Chef named Frank L. White, the facial expression, name, and accompanying text were all devised by the company’s illustrators and depict a stereotype, not the real person. There is no record of White’s name being recorded or of him being compensated, as the women who modeled for “Aunt Jemima” were. ^{return to text}

3. Early Black celebrities likewise donned blackface and played into these same stereotypes. In the late nineteenth century, a new narrative began to emerge in Harlem, focusing more on their lived realities as fugitives of the post-Reconstruction South, but also portraying a more violent stereotype. For more information, see When Black Celebrities Wore Blackface by Dorothy Berry.^{return to text}