Be-Bop Jigger
date: label: date made
content: circa 1940
name: label: maker
content: Louis Marx and Company
notes: label: Description
content: This Be-Bop Jigger wind-up tin toy is part of Black Americana, a genre of objects reflecting African American history. The Louis Marx & Company created this toy around 1940. It features a black man wearing a vibrant yellow suit dancing atop a stage decorated with musical notes and colorful circles. Unfortunately, Black Memorabilia like the Be-Bop Jigger personify negative stereotypes of African Americans by utilizing humor as a vehicle for racial oppression. Elements such as the toy's big red lips and bug-eyed stare caricature African Americans in ways reminiscient of minstrelsy of the eighteenth century. This derogatory toy is inaccurate, but 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
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York
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: 2018.0188.08
label: catalog number
content: 2018.0188.08
label: accession number
content: 2018.0188
objectType: label: Object Name
content: collectible
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 10 in x 4 1/2 in x 4 1/2 in; 25.4 cm x 11.43 cm x 11.43 cm