Journal Article

Breaking the Shackles: Reshaping the Stigma of Stereotypes in Character Development

Thrash, Shontelle

2022

Overview

For centuries, Black people have lived under these stereotypes, a \"widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing, but which is often not true in reality. When a white man, cloaked in blue, puts his knee on the neck of an unarmed forty-six-year-old Black man and leaves it there for nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds without any regard for the value of this Black man's life, that says something.2 When a Black woman is raped by six white men while walking home and the men are tried twice but never convicted, that says something.3 When the first Black president of the United States witnesses people touting depictions of apes eating bananas as a reflection of him, that says something.4 This way of thinking became the foundation upon which the institution we call the United States was built. According to Psychology Today, \"Identity encompasses the values people hold, which dictate the choices they make. Because of her careful analysis, she was able to avoid the repercussions from the use of this stereotype.

• Publisher: The University of Alabama Press,University of Alabama Press
• Subject: Actors / American literature / Black people / Characters (Roles) / Criminals / Men / Psychology / Stereotype (Psychology) / Stereotypes / Stereotypes (Psychology) / Theater / Williams, Tennessee (Thomas Lanier Williams) (1911-1983)