SUNY Geneseo Department of Computer Science

Race and “The Gold Bug”

Thursday, February 13

Intd 105 13, Spring 2014
Prof. Doug Baldwin

Questions?

Reading summary re minstrel shows’ portrayal of African Americans

Entertainment for upper-class to lower-middle-class
- Early audiences mainly northern white
- Later some African American
Caricature
- Makeup
- Stereotype characters (dandy—clown, slave—happy, loyal)
- “Slave dialect”
African American actors often started in minstrel shows
Long-term impact on the portrayal of African Americans in American (and foreign) media, views throughout society.

What does this have to do with “the Gold Bug”?

Jupiter is like caricatures (e.g., loyal, happy w/ master; unintelligent; dialect)
But not singing, dancing; not always content with Legrand’s requests

Is “the Gold Bug” racist?

Yes, based on language used, caricature and Jupiter’s mis-interpretations of others’ statements

How should we react?

Take in context it was written in, use as reflection of time?
Reminder that we aren’t over racism yet?
Sanitize it?
- But this won’t work well, because the racism is in the portrayals of characters (mainly Jupiter) that are hard to change without changing whole story, not in individual words (even though some are offensive) that are easy to change

Summarizing others’ views

Read They Say, I Say chapter 2