Making Mammy examined the construction of a racist visual stereotype

THE STORY, IN BRIEF

Writing about the California African American Museum’s Making Mammy exhibition, historian Brenda E. Stevenson examined how films, domestic objects and popular imagery distorted Black womanhood. The article traced the stereotype’s role in romanticizing slavery and obscuring violence, while emphasizing enslaved women’s agency and resistance. The exhibition situated these representations within the wider history of racism in American visual culture, rather than treating them as neutral historical illustrations.

Summarised from ART AFRICA · Brenda E. Stevenson. AFROSCOPE Daily has not independently reported this story.