Comments on: Challenging Stereotypes of African Men

By: jsmith0552

jsmith0552 — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:14:00 +0000

I see this more when it comes to anything positive concerning Blacks in general, but the criticizing of something simply because it doesn’t try to tackle every issue really needs to be addressed. That is simply unrealistic and impossible, as there are too many issues that plague the international Black community for one short film to tackle. Quite possibly there are too many issues for even one full length film to tackle, but this particular short makes it’s point quite well. After watching it I was hard pressed to think of many films which portrayed modern day Africa as anything more than a land of tribal warlords. I’d love to see the Middle Eastern version of this as well.

By: Zikittyzakitty

Zikittyzakitty — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 22:03:00 +0000

“Smiling is stupid” hahaha. This is nice! It does have some problems (like I think they should have said what country/countries the guys are from, seems odd not to?) but overall very nice and a step in the right direction.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:08:00 +0000

Sure those things matter, but many Westerners aren’t even to the point yet where they care to distinguish between countries and ethnic groups! The stereotypes aren’t generally about Kenyans (which the guys in the video are), or Ghanaians or the Congolese but about Africans in general. I don’t think the video is trying to fully replace a negative stereotype with a limiting positive one, but broaden the image of who African men are perceived to be.

By: Umlud

Umlud — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:05:00 +0000

I disagree. It’s a spot, not a feature-length documentary. It takes a lot of the more recent, more militant depictions of Africa (and black Africans) in a very specific light, and this spot was meant to combat that one, specific depiction.

It would be nice if there could be a series of these spots, each discussing a theme of negative stereotype.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:05:00 +0000

It’s a little too “Look! We are human too!” but I can’t hate on trying to combat stereotypes.

By: Anna

Anna — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:02:00 +0000

I think so too, my previous post is not written well. Perhaps the men were trying to convey that other people think that their lives contain absolutely no joy, just misery and despair. Even so, smiling is a peculiar way to delve into that stereotype.

By: Rebecca Campbell

Rebecca Campbell — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 02:51:00 +0000

When they say smiling is stupid, I got the impression that they were saying that other people think they think this.

By: Natalie Red Morse-Noland

Natalie Red Morse-Noland — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 23:35:00 +0000

Doug, can you elaborate on what racial-cultural prejudices/stereotypes related to rugby you’re referring to? I’m not familiar with rugby or the culture surrounding it, so I’m curious.

By: spinel

spinel — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:39:00 +0000

“Don’t you have a Matthew McConaughey poster in your room?”Was that a Homestuck reference?

By: ctl

ctl — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:35:00 +0000

Only educated Africans are respectable Africans!

By: ctl

ctl — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:33:00 +0000

When I read “stereotypes of african men” I assumed they would cover stereotypes about cockiness and listen-to-me-woman syndrome and general lack of humility – because, for me, that is the message I get from the select few representations I see. But, I don’t watch hollywood militant-blow-‘em-ups.

By: PS

PS — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:29:00 +0000

I really like this movie. It sounds like there are some stereotypes of rugby players that could be addressed as well!

By: Anna

Anna — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:16:00 +0000

Actually, there are plenty of cultures where smiling in situations in which one is not explicitly conveying happiness is deemed to be pretty stupid.

‘Stupid’ is a harsh word and it’s definitely not one I would personally use to discuss frequent smiling or the lack thereof, but bringing a stereotype about smiles speaks more of the target audience’s cultural norms than it does about the subjects.

By: Skada

Skada — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:52:00 +0000

No, it’s not perfect. Yes, there’s room for improvement. But I think it’s a step in the right direction. We have not one but four African men getting the opportunity to have a voice. Maybe the story that emerges is still rather simplistic, and maybe we have exchanged one set of stereotypes for another. And that’s something we should examine and discuss. But I think it wouldn’t hurt to spend at least a couple sentences talking about what this clip does right.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:42:00 +0000

Is it just me, or does this video exemplify a parallel “limited narrative” more effectively than it challenges the ones it describes?

For one thing, it seems really exceptional that being “African men” is the only context Westerners are assumed to want about these charming fellows. Does it not matter which city and country and culture they come from in their enormous, incredibly diverse continent? If the Monolithic Africa narrative is problematic in negative stereotypes, then surely it’s no less so in positive ones.

Moreover, what are they really saying by assuring us, in the end, that 3 out of these 4 men are medical students?