Markup View

Author: Sackett

Dec 3rd 2011 at 9:08:41 PM

This is an interesting trope.  There is certainly a racist tinge to some versions of it.  Other versions I'm not so sure are actually racist as much as ValuesDissonance.  (The stereotype of a large motherly black woman does not strike me as intrinsically racist.)  The description seems focused on all the racist elements and gives short shrift to the non-racist versions.

In fact the most famous "Mammy" is Mammy from GoneWithTheWind, and that is probably where most people today get their image of what a "Mammy" is (in order of the strength of the association):

#: Large motherly black woman
#: Strict, no nonsense disciplinarian (often unable to control the SpiritedYoungLady now that she is older)
#: Strong willed, down to earth, common sense sort of charismatic.  (Larger then life, but not flighty)
#: Before the Civil War, is a house slave (usually the slavery issue is avoided- not such that she's happy about slavery, but that through force of charismatic presence it's hard to remember that she's a slave.)
#: After the Civil War a long term domestic servant. (Essentially a nanny.  Hispanic nannies often have similar depictions in media.)

Because of this association with strong will, the Mammy can actual be a form of empowerment of Black women in pre-Civil Rights settings.  (And in fact was often considered that way back then.  Mammy from GoneWithTheWind was hailed as a complex, strong, black woman character when GoneWithTheWind came out.)

It's also still around in depictions of black families where the matriarch is often this type of personality and character (just without raising anybodies kids except for her own, ie still has the first three items on the list above).

If anybody has ever been to the South they'd know that this certainly has some basis in fact.