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>The photo below is captioned with casual racism: One way of carrying bananas: At the docks of the United Fruit Co., mechanical carriers, so perfected as not to

>The photo below is captioned with casual racism: One way of carrying bananas: At the docks of the United Fruit Co., mechanical carriers, so perfected as not to bruise the fruit, have replaced the leisurely negro. Nitpick: That wasn't a prevailing stereotype back then so dismissing it as simple racism reduces the historical insight that can be gleaned. The idle black man stereotype comes from the 1960s and later and originates in the US. Prior to that they would be stereotyped the latin Americans are typically stereotyped today, hard working but low class laborers, so the commentary from the period that was added to the photo actually raises the question why these dock workers were being considered leisurely. Now I'm wondering why they wrote that...

stronglikedan 2y ago
> Now I'm wondering why they wrote that... Probably one of the usual suspects: projection or virtue signaling.
- teachrdan 2y ago
  >> Now I'm wondering why they wrote that... > Probably one of the usual suspects: projection or virtue signaling. Pretty sure the post you're referring to is wondering why the original caption referred to the "leisurely negro". The alleged virtue signaling you refer to seems to be an honest misunderstanding by the author of the Myth of Bananaland.
pessimizer 2y ago
> That wasn't a prevailing stereotype back then The stereotype has always been that black people are so lazy that the only time we show intelligence is in the creative ways we use to get out of work. It's a slaveholder's stereotype and a justification for torture. This is the stereotype now, this was the stereotype then, and this stereotype has been applied to any group of slaves or low-waged workers who were ethnically distinct from the people who benefited from their labor. That's why they wrote that.
- sporc 2y ago
  My grandfather who was raised on a dairy farm in what is now Bellevue, WA, once said to me in reference to the hills east of Lake Sammamish where Army truck drivers trained during WWII: “the best driver is the American Negro.”
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
lupusreal 2y ago
> That wasn't a prevailing stereotype back then [...] The idle black man stereotype comes from the 1960s and later and originates in the US. I dispute that and present this racist cartoon from the 1940s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrub_Me_Mama_with_a_Boogie_Beat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrub_Me_Mama_with_a_Boogie_Be... More like it can be found. Lazy black people was a common trope in minstrell shows and similar.
- boomboomsubban 2y ago
  For an example from a century earlier, the "father of American minstrelsy" Jim Crow https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/who/index.htm https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/who/index.htm
aspenmayer 2y ago
I’ve read that some of the roots of these negative stereotypes of laborers and/or their entire races as well as Southerners generally may come from historical prevalence of hookworms in some members of those populations, which can present itself with symptoms such as low energy. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/how-a-worm-gave-the-south-a-bad-name/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/how-a-worm-gave-the-so...
- thaumasiotes 2y ago
  That was specific to Southern whites. The hookworms came from Africa; blacks were already adapted to them.
  - selimthegrim 2y ago
    Citation?
    - thaumasiotes 2y ago
      Here, try this one: https://web.archive.org/web/20120220133040/http://www.weldonrailroad.com/hookworm.html https://web.archive.org/web/20120220133040/http://www.weldon... > Hookworm is endemic in tropical Africa and was brought to North America in the bowels of African slaves where it became a regional affliction below the Mason-Dixon Line. In the 19th century, probably as much as 40% of the region’s population harbored the parasite. So prevalent was hookworm infection and for so long was it a feature of Southern rural life that Americans mistook the physical appearance of hookworm sufferers to be the distinct genetic expression of an unfortunate economic and social class. > This regional stereotype for the poor white rural population (the “Georgia Cracker”) exhibited, in varying degrees, a prematurely aged, emaciated appearance with striking lankness of frame and slackness of muscle, a misshapen boney scarecrow look with a peculiar “fish eyes” stare, and a sallow complexion. These lethargic and shambling (interpreted by the outsider as lazy and ignorant) poor white farm folk were a hallmark of the Deep South. One Northern visitor caught this when he described the physical appearance of the white inhabitants surrounding Andersonville “as listless and apathetic in look, lank and haggard in form.”

stronglikedan 2y ago

> Now I'm wondering why they wrote that... Probably one of the usual suspects: projection or virtue signaling.

teachrdan 2y ago
>> Now I'm wondering why they wrote that... > Probably one of the usual suspects: projection or virtue signaling. Pretty sure the post you're referring to is wondering why the original caption referred to the "leisurely negro". The alleged virtue signaling you refer to seems to be an honest misunderstanding by the author of the Myth of Bananaland.

pessimizer 2y ago

> That wasn't a prevailing stereotype back then The stereotype has always been that black people are so lazy that the only time we show intelligence is in the creative ways we use to get out of work. It's a slaveholder's stereotype and a justification for torture. This is the stereotype now, this was the stereotype then, and this stereotype has been applied to any group of slaves or low-waged workers who were ethnically distinct from the people who benefited from their labor. That's why they wrote that.

sporc 2y ago
My grandfather who was raised on a dairy farm in what is now Bellevue, WA, once said to me in reference to the hills east of Lake Sammamish where Army truck drivers trained during WWII: “the best driver is the American Negro.”
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

lupusreal 2y ago

> That wasn't a prevailing stereotype back then [...] The idle black man stereotype comes from the 1960s and later and originates in the US. I dispute that and present this racist cartoon from the 1940s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrub_Me_Mama_with_a_Boogie_Beat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrub_Me_Mama_with_a_Boogie_Be... More like it can be found. Lazy black people was a common trope in minstrell shows and similar.

boomboomsubban 2y ago
For an example from a century earlier, the "father of American minstrelsy" Jim Crow https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/who/index.htm https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/who/index.htm

aspenmayer 2y ago

I’ve read that some of the roots of these negative stereotypes of laborers and/or their entire races as well as Southerners generally may come from historical prevalence of hookworms in some members of those populations, which can present itself with symptoms such as low energy. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/how-a-worm-gave-the-south-a-bad-name/ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/how-a-worm-gave-the-so...

thaumasiotes 2y ago
That was specific to Southern whites. The hookworms came from Africa; blacks were already adapted to them.
- selimthegrim 2y ago
  Citation?
  - thaumasiotes 2y ago
    Here, try this one: https://web.archive.org/web/20120220133040/http://www.weldonrailroad.com/hookworm.html https://web.archive.org/web/20120220133040/http://www.weldon... > Hookworm is endemic in tropical Africa and was brought to North America in the bowels of African slaves where it became a regional affliction below the Mason-Dixon Line. In the 19th century, probably as much as 40% of the region’s population harbored the parasite. So prevalent was hookworm infection and for so long was it a feature of Southern rural life that Americans mistook the physical appearance of hookworm sufferers to be the distinct genetic expression of an unfortunate economic and social class. > This regional stereotype for the poor white rural population (the “Georgia Cracker”) exhibited, in varying degrees, a prematurely aged, emaciated appearance with striking lankness of frame and slackness of muscle, a misshapen boney scarecrow look with a peculiar “fish eyes” stare, and a sallow complexion. These lethargic and shambling (interpreted by the outsider as lazy and ignorant) poor white farm folk were a hallmark of the Deep South. One Northern visitor caught this when he described the physical appearance of the white inhabitants surrounding Andersonville “as listless and apathetic in look, lank and haggard in form.”