Invisible Man: Chapters 18-20

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

• Did you know that the character depicted in the image above is known as Little Black Sambo?

This character was created by Mary Bannerman, an Englishwoman, in 1899 in a children's book that describes the encounter the Indian Sambo has with a group of tigers.

However, the pictures of the book became part of American culture and inspired many other Sambo stories and books that focused on American Blacks rather than Indians, such as the one shown above.

These images are racist because they perpetuate negative stereotypes about their Black characters. Racist imagery is a way to degrade other ethnic and racial groups by mocking their physical features or actions in exaggerated and unrealistic ways.

Looking at and reading about racist images can be uncomfortable. Still, it is important to address these areas to understand why these images are so offensive and how to prevent future use and proliferation.

Only by understanding why certain images are created to offend, degrade, and mock people can we, as a society, prevent the creation of these images.

Read Racial and Racist Stereotypes in Media and answer the following questions in your notebook or journal.

• What was the original purpose of stereotyping?
• When does stereotyping become a negative and harmful process?
• What are two ways negative stereotyping damages its victims?

After recording your answers, check them against the ones below.

Stereotyping has led to the justification of many crimes against other people, which is one of the reasons why racist imagery must be avoided.

If people see images that negatively portray other groups, they can think such attitudes are acceptable. This is why racist images hold so much power and why the narrator in Invisible Man addresses them to show how damaging they are to people.

Negative racist imagery has affected many ethnicities and races throughout the years. At the bottom Racial and Racist Stereotypes in Media, there are links to pages that explore different forms of racist imagery.

1. Choose any link except the link on blackface because you will explore the exploitation of black racist images in the Go! section.

2. Look through the images and website with an adult or peer. Discuss how these images make you feel.

• How are these images damaging to people?
• Whether you are a member of the group represented in the images or not, how would you feel if these were images created about you?
• How do these images lead to discrimination of other ethnicities and races?

The image of Little Black Sambo is an infamous racist image belittling black people. Read Little Black Sambo and the JCM to learn more about the controversy of this story and its images.

As you read, answer the following questions in the notebook or journal you have kept for this series.

• What physical characteristics do Little Black Sambo, Black Mumbo, and Black Jumbo all share in the story?
• How did a British book about Indians become an American book about Blacks?
• How did the 1930s cartoon versions of Little Black Sambo heighten the racist images and make them even more offensive than earlier ones?
• What did the term Sambo mean at the time Bannerman wrote her story?

After reading the article and answering the questions, check your responses against the answers below.

• Why do you think people changed the story's characters to be black in the United States?
• How would you feel if someone drew you in this manner?

Think about these questions and the legacy of racist imagery, and then read Chapters 18-20 in Invisible Man.

Continue using the copy of the novel in the format you chose to complete this series of Related Lessons (right-hand sidebar). If you do not have access to the novel, you may download Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison from the Internet Archive.

As you read, take notes on the narrator's evolving sense of identity, the appearance of the Little Black Sambo character, and how it affects the narrator.

When you have finished reading and taking notes, move to the Got It? section to explore the details from these chapters more closely.