Racial Stereotypes in Comics

Open up a comic book or graphic narrative and you are likely to discover not only words and pictures that form a story, but also many colorful assumptions, predispositions and prejudices held by its creators (Royal 7). Critics have long associated comics with the perpetuation of racial stereotypes (Singer 108). Cartooning relies on simplification, generalization, distortion and exaggeration. When suppressing the individuality of a person’s appearance to conform to a preexisting racial stereotype instead of exaggerating an individual’s features to bring out his humanity, caricatures can become racist stereotypes (Aldama 33). Stereotypes in comic books commonly generalize simple ideas about a few people and apply them (often incorrectly) to their whole race.

Through repetition, the stereotypes in various media become normal to viewers (Singer 108). Case studies have demonstrated that once a cultural stereotype is internalized (often before the “age of judgment”), the person unconsciously interprets experiences to be consistent with the underlying stereotype, “selectively assimilating facts that validate the stereotype while disregarding those that do not” (Rifas 3). Even stereotypes without racist or prejudicial purposes can reinforce racism. There is always the danger of negative stereotyping and caricature dehumanizing characters and exposing prejudices (Royal 8). Most of the comics by white creators have typically shown non-whites as inferior and subhuman in comics, if they are present at all (Singer, 107-108). Stereotypes can be harmful or helpful in their depiction of race and should be used with care.

Stereotypes may not be all bad. Illustrator Lee Weeks said, “We need a certain amount of racial stereotyping in this medium. We have to define the limits who is what, then you can stretch it” (Agorsah 281). Will Eisner agrees that they are a necessary tool in making comics (Eisner 17). They are the most effective way to convey a character without words. Stereotypes create distinctions and make characters recognizable to the audience, easing communication of larger concepts (Agorsah 281). The stereotypes found in comics can actually make the narrative more effective. Will Eisner points out that comics are a heavily coded medium that rely on stereotyping as a way to concentrate narrative effectiveness. He argues that unlike film, where characters have more time to develop, graphic narrative, with its relatively limited temporal space, “must condense identity along commonly accepted paradigms” (Royal 7). Stereotyping “speeds the reader into the plot and gives the teller reader-acceptance for the action of his characters” (Royal 8). Stereotyping can create a means by which readers can become more “present” within the work (Eisner 17). In comic books, condensing the story along commonly accepted paradigms helps the reader to better absorb the story (Royal 8). The use and deployment of stereotypical imagery and narratives has a certain amount of creative utility, especially in the shorthand of visual media such as comic books (Agorsah 281).

Eisner explains that stereotyping has a bad reputation because of its use as a weapon of propaganda or racism (Eisner 17). It may be harmful or offensive when it simplifies and categorizes an inaccurate generalization. He says that the stereotype is a tool of communication that is an inescapable ingredient in most cartoons. Comic book drawings are a mirror reflection of human conduct and depend on the reader‘s stored memory of experience to visualize an idea or process quickly. This makes the simplification of images into repeatable symbols necessary (Eisner 17).

In his work of literary and visual criticism, Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud examines cartooning as a form of “amplification through simplification.” “When we abstract an image through cartooning, we’re not so much eliminating details as we are focusing on specific details. By stripping down an image to its essential “meaning,” an artist can amplify that meaning in a way that realistic art can’t” (McCloud 30) McCloud notes that the broader or more abstract a cartoon figure is depicted, the closer we come to identifying with that subject. A more photo-realistic style, which should theoretically emphasize the particularity of its subject, tends to create a distance between the reader and the character. This emphasizes the “otherness” of the subject (McCloud 43-44). Stereotypes are frequently introduced when commonly accepted characteristics become icons used as part of the language in graphic storytelling.

Unlike film, comics leave little time or space to develop the character, so stereotypes are used to settle the matter instantly (Eisner 18). The use of commonly accepted stereotypes can evoke a viewer‘s reflexive response (Eisner 20). The general rationale is the need for speed and certainty of recognition which, to a large degree, means giving people what they already expect. The task of the graphic narrator when it comes to the visual creation of characters is to select and exaggerate those details which summarize or embody expectations. These representations end up drawn not so much from life as from the storehouse of previous representations. For Eisner, there is no question of using stereotypes. They are virtually inevitable. It is simply a matter of preferring positive stereotypes to negative ones (Eisner 20).

Comic artists adjust the telling of their stories to meet popular expectations and appeal to popular tastes. Many adopt a naturalistic style that is based on the observation of actual persons but that reduces realistic detail to better outline a type or stereotype. However, most representations are based on recognizable images that are “too ingrained in the public consciousness to be ignored.” It is difficult to create a character without engaging in some way with the imagery that came before it. Unfortunately, many of these images come from stereotypes (Carpenter 401).

Minority ethnic groups did not show up very often in comic books prior to World War II and when they did, they tended to be grammatically challenged and rough around the edges (Dotinga 1). This is the case of the Africans in the popular Tintin stories. In Tintin and the Congo (1930), author Hergé “admitted that he depicted the African people according to the bourgeois, paternalistic stereotypes of the period,” which may be offensive to some readers (Tintin forward). The outdated stereotypes and images in Tintin and the Congo depict the typical colonial view that Belgians were superior. The dog Snowy seemed to be higher in the hierarchy than the local Africans, even defeating a lion. There is also little difference between the monkeys and the Africans in Hergé’s depictions. They are portrayed as primitive and simple-minded people who are ready to follow Tintin’s command and invite him to educate them. This contributes to the normalizing of colonization and racism at large. Sometimes, what is and is not acceptable may change over time.

The stereotypes in Tintin were even seen as racist when they were published. However, black character names such as Sunshine, Snowflake, Sunny Boy Sam, Whitewash Jones and Ebony White were all acceptable terms in their time (Dotinga 1). A comic book character introduced in the 1960s may not have seemed racist back then, but today we can see it as racist. Many of the early black characters portrayed in the comics were clearly racial stereotypes, often resembling minstrel characters – Ebony (“The Spirit”), Smokey (“Joe Palooka”), Mushmouth (“Moon Mullins”), Asbestos (“Joe and Asbestos”), Catfish (“Don Winslow”). At a time when most comics had portrayed every non-white race as a stereotype, Stan Lee attempted to present every race equally, such as in his depiction of The Black Panther. His work was not always devoid of stereotypes, but his attempt sparked others to do the same (Dotinga 2).

Oversimplification can lead to pejorative stereotyping, such as in the case of people of African descent. Africans, for example, are typically drawn in a very racially stereotyped way, and their only purpose for inclusion is often as an oddity, as a ‘baddie’ or as a buffoon. Early images of Africans in popular print were not based on actual observation of Black people but instead, on ideas of the savage or primitive that conformed to accepted ideas of the other (Stromberg 29). Graphic novels depicted Africans with long unkempt hair, broad noses, enormous, red-tinted lips, dark skin and ragged clothing reminiscent of those worn by Black slaves. They were also depicted as speaking accented English. In his visual history of black images in the comics, Fredrik Stromberg identified seven African American stereotypes: the native, the tom, the coon, the piccaninny, the tragic mulatto, the mammy and the buck (29-30). Stanford Carpenter noted that black characters wear costumes that expose their skin in order to show their blackness, are more likely to use slang expressions than their white counterparts, have names that identify their ethnicity such as Black Panther and Brother Voodoo, and have powers that refer to ethnic stereotypes such as physical prowess and voodoo magic (Agorsah 281).

Before World War II, black characters were comic foils, ignorant natives or brutal savages or cannibals. After the war, the stereotypical characters disappeared, but so did the black characters, not to return until the 1960s and the adult comics movement (Dotinga 2). When comic artists tried to revive the lost traditions of American cartooning, they brought back some racist minstrel stereotypes of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but most of their meanings and struggles had been lost. The 1960s and 1970s brought a series of diverse superheroes such as The Black Panther, and today more comic characters are black (Dotinga 2).

African American comic stereotypes have historically been used to rationalize slavery, segregation, and imperialism by depicting non-white people as childlike, dependent, incapable, and grateful for white control (Aldama 33). A 1976 investigation led by Senator Frank Church showed that the FBI even misused stereotypes by forging cartoons claimed to be distributed by the Black Panther Party to weaken the support of the party (Aldama 37). Ralph Ellison wrote an essay entitled “Twentieth-Century Fiction and the Black Mask of Humanity” in 1946, which stated that stereotypes of African Americans become a means “by which the white American seeks to resolve the dilemma arising…between his acceptance of the sacred democratic belief that all men are created equal and his treatment of every tenth man as though he were not” (28)—a means of “reconciling the contradictions between an ideology of democracy and a history and practice of prejudice” (Singer 107).

In early American comics, many Asian characters appeared opposite White American protagonists because of real-world political distrust of foreign Asian powers. During the 1930’s and ‘40’s as America drew closer to the Second World War, master criminals and spies were often portrayed as Oriental (Wu Fang, Fu Manchu). War comics regularly showed white Americans fighting barbaric Japanese, Korean, or Vietnamese enemies (Aldama 28). Because of the influx of Chinese immigration to labor on the railroads (Chinese and Filipino depicted very negatively, often associated with “rat poison,” men were considered to be emasculated and inferior to their dominant white counterparts, and they were viewed as “heathens” lower than humans), comics featured stereotypes of Chinese inferiority, and their inability to assimilate into American culture. When upper class Asians immigrated to America, they showed that they were not inferior and became stereotyped as highly intelligent with plans for world domination.

Mainstream American culture typically stereotypes Asian American men as short and emasculated with yellow skin, long braids and a long wispy moustache. Women were seen as passive, submissive, silent “lotus blossoms” or exotic-erotic “dragon ladies” (Aldama 75). Asian stereotypes have transformed from bestial, violent, and savage to the postwar fantasies of the quiet, studious, inscrutable, mysterious and robot-like Asian American (Aldama 133, 143). Another early Asian stereotype was the clumsy sidekick, often short with bucked teeth, speaking broken English. Yang’s comic character Chin-Kee employed “every popular cultural stereotype of Asians and Asian Americans over the last two centuries,” both in appearance and in manner of speaking (Aldama 139). Asians are also often portrayed as masters of martial arts.

Native Americans are also misrepresented in comics as a savage (noble or brute) or that of an ecowarrior (Aldama 7). For example, Shelton’s Feds ’n’ Heads features a story in which a conventional, liberal white couple invites a very stereotyped (loincloth-and-feather-wearing, tomahawk-carrying, dog-eating) Indian to dinner to celebrate “national-bring-an-Indian-home-to dinner week.” The laconic Native American turns his hosts on to peyote, and this inspires them to go native, ridiculously replacing their clothes with loincloths made out of their towels. Chad Solomon, Anishinaabe graphic novelist, has attempted to negate those stereotypes. He said, “I really needed to create a book that shares with the universal audience, a better understanding of what native people are really about. Not just warriors or the side-kick that most non-aboriginal artists and writers create when they are writing about Native people in pop culture stories” (Aldama 55).

This paper dealt primarily with the stereotypes of certain other races by White American comic creators. However, even White Americans are subject to stereotype. An example is the Japanese stereotype that people from the United States are tall blue-eyed blonds. Most of the research on racial stereotypes in comics seems to be related to African Americans, they are by far not the only race to be misrepresented. Identities only rarely encountered in comics included Arabs, Chinese, Japanese, Jews, Indians, Mexicans, Polynesians, Puerto Ricans, and Vietnamese (Aldama 31). There is not as much research about other racial stereotypes. Latino characters are frequently portrayed as lazy, unintelligent, greasy, criminal, and alien. Arabs are portrayed as villains, even terrorists. Anyone can fall victim to stereotypes, but the research does not lead toward a more conclusive examination of every racial stereotype.

Some comics have attempted to address and make amends with the historical racial stereotypes. They may attempt to show unity of characters of different races through made up alien races such as in DC Comics series Legion of Super-Heroes, in which the characters are shown to say, “When it comes to race, we’re color-blind! Blue skin, yellow skin, green skin…we’re brothers and sisters…united in the name of justice everywhere!” Marc Singer points out that representing these fantastic races is a means of ignoring real ones. Some comics point out the disparity with real races. A notable example is an issue of Denny O’Neil’s Green Lantern/Green Arrow (no. 76, Apr. 1970). In it, an elderly African American man admonishes the Green Lantern for his selective heroism: “I been readin’ about you . . . How you work for the blue skins . . . And how on a planet someplace you helped out the orange skins . . . And you done considerable for the purple skins. Only there’s skins you never bothered with . . . ! The black skins! I want to know . . . How come?!” And to this, the superhero shyly responds, “I . . .can’t” (Singer 112). However, even this comic uses some degree of stereotype, both in the character’s appearance and use of language.

Comics can greatly shape the attitudes and prejudices of a culture. There has been an attempt to reconcile the history of racism, but it is imperfect. According to Scott McCloud: comics should “directly address the current state of race relations in the United States, but also reclaim the history of minority participation in the comic book industry” (Royal 8). Comics have often been used to stereotype and marginalize “the Other,” but also hold “the power to address ideas of marginality, subalterity, hybridity, and identity” (Aldama 1). Comic book creators can use their medium to dismantle the stereotypes, but must be careful in addressing the problem of racism. Comic artists should consider the consequences and implications of creating representations that can affect individuals, shape culture and form attitudes of self and other. Stereotyping people—over-generalizing them, often in an unfair or unbalanced fashion—is probably not a good thing, but it can be hard to imagine comics working without resorting in some way to stereotypes such as those of race. Readers should be critical of the messages they receive and comics’ creators should be careful in their depiction of race because stereotypes influence the outlook of the culture. People should not learn to judge others negatively based on a social construct such as race. In the end, we are all part of one race: the human race.

Works Cited

Agorsah, E. Kofi. Africa and the African Diaspora: Cultural Adaptation and Resistance. Bloomington, Indiana: AuthorHouse. Google Book Search. Web. 15 February 2013. Aldama, Frederick Luis. Multicultural Comics : From Zap To Blue Beetle. n.p.: University of Texas Press, 2010. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 15 Feb. 2013. Carpenter, Standford Wayne. “Imagining identity: Ethnographic investigations into the work of creating images of race, gender, and ethnicity in comic books.” ETD http://hdl.handle.net/1911/18514, 2003. Dotinga, Randy. Coloring the Comic Books, Wired News. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,59683-0.html?tw=wn_story_page_prev2 2003 Eisner, Will. Graphic Storytelling. Tamarac, FL: Poorhouse Press, 1995. Herge. Tintin in the Congo. Paris: Editions Casterman, 1946. McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: Perennial, 1993. Rifas, Leonard. “Racial Imagery, Racism, Individualism, and Underground Comix.” ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies 1.1 (2004). Royal, Derek Parker. “Coloring America: Multi-Ethnic Engagements With Graphic Narrative.” Melus 32.3 (2007): 7-22. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Feb. 2013. Singer, Marc. “‘Black Skins’ And White Masks: Comic Books And The Secret Of Race.” African American Review 36.1 (2002): 107. International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text. Web. 15 Feb. 2013. Stromberg, Frederik. Black Images in the Comics: A Visual History: Seattle: Fantographics Books, 2012.