Japanese Celluloid
date: label: date made
content: circa 1940
notes: label: Description
content: This plastic toy of a black child and dog is part of Black Americana, a genre of objects reflecting African American history. Interestingly enough, this toy was made in Japan during the 1940s. This toy is a crying child wearing red polka dotted overalls and holding a watermelon slice and a brown dog bitting the child's backside. Unfortunately, Black Memorabilia like these figurines personify negative stereotypes of African Americans by utilizing humor as a vehicle for racial oppression. Elements such as the child's big red lips speak to stereotypes perpetuated by minstrel shows and the child's love for watermelon references how southern whites following the Civil War caricatured free blacks as unclean, lazy, ignorant people inordinately fond of watermelon. While this derogatory toy is inaccurate, its existence speaks to American race relations and the prejudice African Americans encountered daily in their struggle for equality.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Stereotypes
label: Subject
content: Racism
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Entertainment
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2018.0188.13
label: accession number
content: 2018.0188
label: catalog number
content: 2018.0188.13
objectType: label: Object Name
content: toy
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: child: 6 in x 3 in x 2 in; 15.24 cm x 7.62 cm x 5.08 cm
label: Measurements
content: dog: 2 in x 1 in x 4 in; 5.08 cm x 2.54 cm x 10.16 cm