The Black Gothic

 Trenika Joseph

December 3, 2021

Engl 2016-44378

Blog Post

The Black Gothic

Stereotyping

Black gothic was defined to us as the categorization of specific things noticed in patterns. Ms. Jaleesa defined the black gothic as a depiction of the spectral consequences caused by racial capitalism for those daring to participate in economic advancement at the racialized Other’s cost.. The actual economic advancements of the Black middle-class place admittance into white zones as recursive and detrimental personal, social, cultural cost. The main point of class was for us to be able to form our own definition based on our understanding of the Black Gothic. My definition of Black Gothic would be defined as ‘The Other” because of the elements we explored throughout each text. In American Gothic the identification of “the other” is anything or anyone outside of normal standards. I chose this as my definition because as we explored different texts black people were always considered the other even when they would be the main character. Life has cast a shadow over black people and the way we live our lives. We have always preached that Black Lives Matter and everyday are fighting for our rights. In conclusion, I defined the Black Gothic as the other because it is the stigma placed onto black people that authors of the Black Gothic write about. 

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary the word stereotype is defined as believing unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same. Misconceptions are based on stereotypes, therefore, they are based on a person’s point of view or opinion that is not based on facts. People stereotype because they base judgement when not given enough information about people or their past. Ways to prevent stereotyping is by educating yourself to why the comment is offensive in the first place, never stereotype yourself, think of ways others may have stereotyped you, and focus on a better way of using your words to say what you need to say without stereotyping.Stereotypes are based on people’s expectations and can sometimes cause the lost of identity in one. When stereotyped, we often alter the way we think and how we may view ourselves. Stereotyping can cause violence amongst people or nations. Stereotyping can leave someone with a negative mind of how they view themselves and others. 

Many of the texts we discussed over the course of the semester portrayed real life stereotyping scenarios. Stereotyping is used in text, especially the black gothic, to help readers understand the characters true motives. Many authors use stereotypes in their text because even as people are reading, many are unaware of what it actually means and why people fight so hard to not be stereotyped. Most texts that use stereotypes are casted within times of slavery or close to. When putting together my research I wanted to know if modern books use stereotyping as profoundly compared to older text. What I found was that most authors use stereotyping when teaching others a lesson as to why they shouldn’t stereotype or the text further discusses stereotyping and explains in further detail for each example. The reason most older written books use stereotypes is because that was how the world is. In modern times, I would like to believe we have grown and stereotypes do not play a role in this life we live. However, we all know stereotyping is still happening and will continue to happen and that is why we sit down and discuss with others in order to educate and protect.


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