The Moaney Tableau

1. Show your students the pictures and ask them what they see.  To us, now, these look like lovely pictures of a strong family.  In the 1930s these would have been almost unheard of, because Black people were rarely portrayed as proud, industrious, and sensitive as they are here.  These beautiful people are doing normal everyday activities, which is how most of us want to be represented.  Ask your students about stereotypes.  What are some different stereotypes about people of specific races that people have today?  How are they portrayed in movies, television, and advertisements?  Do your students think that the same stereotypes existed in the 1930s?

2. Ask your students if they know what blackface is.  It has been in the news some in the last few years.  If they do, ask them why it has been in the news, and why it is considered offensive.  Tell them that for some time Black people were portrayed either in this way or as a mammy (a large Black woman who took care of children), or as someone of lower intellect. 

(This link to the Ferris University Jim Crow Museum of Anti-Black Imagery provides images for contrast)