Kara Walker in her actual art does not use many colors and generally all the people portrayed are silhouettes.  We are forced to look at aspects of the person, such as shape, hair, facial features etc. Because of this simplicity she manages to portray stereotypes strongly. For example, in her art titled  “Mississippi Mud” we  have no choice but to stereotype the child. Through her use of stereotypes she also depicts racism, the south and what actually went down there, treatment of women etc. Together the stereotype and history shown makes her work stick around in our mind thus forcing one to address the stereotype and the history that comes along with it.

With that in mind, obviously there are many different stereotypes that exist today.  Often they are subtly conveyed in images.  A very dangerous stereotype is that the successful person is one who earned a lot of money and has a high power career.   In the attached image, Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook is deemed “successful.” The article itself writes about her “mission to reboot feminism.” However, a glance at this cover photo and one gets the feeling she is successful because she has an extremely high position and earns a lot of money. It is true that Sheryl Sandberg is very successful. However, I think it is harmful when it is conveyed as the ultimate success. Most will not become really wealthy or have positions such as Sheryl’s. Yet, if the expectation is that earning money and having a powerful career is making it in life, and one does not accomplish that, then they will feel like the ultimate failure and become depressed. Therefore, I think that “success” in our society should be redefined. 

With Kara Walker, the message resonating through this single piece is only one in a kingdom of millions. Walker, with most of her art, uses silhouettes and plays with the limits of ambiguity and everything but. She paints a scene with enough detail to understand the concept she is trying to convey, but leaves space for detailed interpretation. It sometimes become difficult to decipher which limb belongs to which character, but this becomes a clever tactic that feeds personalization. In the image above titled, Cover of my Negro Novella, it resonates a feeling of exhaustion, It pulls the viewers into its time and place, and allows them to physically feel the torment of the past. Walker often tampers with landscapes and this is the prime example. The man (below the other), seems as of he is trudging up an exponentially steep slope. The man above him, also black, pulls his arm back, as if to remind his fellow negro that the only position they must remain in is to be inferior than the whites. His face speaks volumes; he looks up through the crack of the walls to something grander. The very idea of autonomy keeps his soul alive, as if enslavement fails to trouble him if he’s still connected to something bigger than both the prisoner and the jailer.

Edwin Forbes was an extremely influential artist during the American Civil War. In order to portray the time objectively as possible, he was known to draw anything and everything in its most natural state. In the image above, Edwin sketched the shabby exterior of a southern cabin used by the house servants and farm-hands. The house looks as if it will collapse, as if it lacks a proper foundation to support its weight. This, however, is contrasted by the spirt exerted from its inhabitants. Thousands of soldiers recalled with immense pleasure the kindness they received from the blacks in the south. The sick and wounded soldiers would receive not only love but pies and pastries from the old ‘aunties’;no one would be turned away. The liveness of the enslaved would be so impactful, where the town depicted above would radiate, not from eloquent houses or architecture, but from the dense souls living in it. Both Forbes and Walker speak about similar times using two drastically different art styles and manners. They, however, uniformly project the concept of breaking stereotypes and bringing the truth to light.

Kara Walker aims to take back symbols and stereotypes of Antebellum South with appropriation in her art. The black people are portrayed with the common stereotypes of big noses, flat profiles and bigger lips. Specifically, she depicts black females on the ground, usually with a snake near the body, usually in distress as a white man is above her.   This use of symbols and stereotypes is not meant to be deconstructive, but rather constructive in portraying the cruel and harsh reality of slaves during this time. Rather than look at racism through soft scope, Walker takes her art straight to the hard truth in hopes to change the way American’s look at slavery.

The image above is an advertisement from the 1950s for the stereotypical housewife. Where it was sanctioned that a woman’s only purpose was to be enslaved to her family. In this ad, they call it “Specialist in Proper Family Nourishment,” giving the illusion that it is a real job when really all this woman is allowed to do all day is cook, clean, and provide for her children. This stereotype is trademarked by a perfect looking woman, with kempt hair and perfect makeup. She even has a perfect manicure. She is also depicted carrying three large helpings of food. Obviously, this stereotype has been beyond damaging in woman’s strife for equal rights and while we have been moving away from images like this, woman continue to face disparities in the real world with equal wages and fair treatment.