Critical Thinking Exercise #2

This exercise asks you to take the knowledge you gained from watching the Ethnic Notions documentary and apply it to a new text/film.  See the transcript here.  Also refer to the notes that you took in class and posted to your blog.

In Ethnic Notions, director Marlon Riggs identifies five primary African American stereotypes found in film and in popular culture:  the mammy, the pickaninny, the sambo, and the uncle (among others) and explains how destructive these were concerning notions of behavior (passive, lazy, shiftless, violent, etc.) and appearance (unrealistic and exaggerated notions of ugliness, etc.).

For this assignment identify 5 moments in "Black Museum" (season 4, episode 6 of Black Mirror), where the director reinforces, deconstructs, or rebels against those earlier negative stereotypes.

Please follow this format:

Example #1:  Time Counter (56:20)  Stereotype Engaged:   Identify the stereotype

Explanation:   In one or two very well-developed paragraphs, explain how the director (Colm McCarthy) either reinforces, rebels against, or deconstructs (identify what is wrong with them) these stereotypes and then replaces them with something more empowering and positive.



Upload the completed exercise to Ulearn by class time on the due date identified on the course schedule.