amos and andy reflection

The characters in the amos and andy cartoon are clearly exaggerated figures representing African Americans. They are represented with greatly exaggerated lips and seen bumbling around in ways that reflect the minstrel music performances. The wrestling trainer is very ape-like in appearance, and Andy's wrestling opponent looks like a moose (to match his name). These figures are depicted as animals in appearance and in thier actions, which harkens to the theory of eugenics. This cartoon is representative of the sentiment toward African Americans at that time.
I am sure that his cartoon was intended for a white audience, as any African American who saw it would undoubtedly be offended, and rightly so. This cartoon was created in a post-WWI time when African Americans were struggling for rights against social (color-line) boundaries as well as unjust segregation laws.
In lecture last week he spoke about how cartoons use symbolic and exaggerated forms to make a point. I definately think that is the case here. African Americans are depicted as bumbling and stupid, or crazy and animal-like which reflects the way they were thought about in that era. In the reading of A chance to Make Good it talks about how race had become an obsession, and how race had become an important way of categorizing people and cultures. African Americans were seen as inefficient, incapable, emotional, and below everyone else. Even though many African Americans were intelligent and advancing in society they had a hard time breaking through these stereotypes, and were hindered by the laws that reinforced them. In the larger contest of this course this cartoon shows who was "in", in terms of the nation at the time, and who was "out".