Amos and Andy

As stated previously before Amos and Andy is a cartoon with minstrel characteristics. The black characters in it are shown to have large lips, dark skin, and all behave in a certain manner. This portrayal of black people during the time period was meant to be funny, but also represented how white people felt. Blacks are caricatured as often fat, lazy, uneducated buffoons in the cartoon. I find the issue interesting about which audience the cartoon had the most influence on. I agree that at first this was meant for entertainment of white adults. But as it progressed I feel as though more and more children saw this cartoon and began to soak up the ideals it was portraying. Being impressionable, children would not question a humorous cartoon about validity and would simply accept everything that happens within it to be true. This type of media is certainly offensive but I believe it helps to convey attitudes whites had about blacks during the time period. It is not out of line for this to be shown today in an educational environment because it is clear that this is how these people viewed blacks. These views, among other factors contributed to the ongoing racism during the early 20th century in the United States.