One of my favorite childhood memories was going to the carnival with my grandma whenever it was in town. My grandma and I would spend a whole Saturday riding all of the rides and eating as much junk food as our stomachs would allow. Then one year we came across a booth where an artist was drawing caricatures. I didn't know what a caricature was at first so I decided to look it up. The Merriam Webster Dictionary Online defines caricature as, "An exaggeration by means of often ludicrous distortion or parts or characteristics" ("Caricature"). It seemed fun and harmless, so we decided to spend the $15 and give it a try. I remember the process. The guy looked us over and told us to smile, and then he started to draw. It only took him about six minutes or so to draw the caricature. After he finished adding in the color to the picture he gave it to us to look at. The first parts of the caricature that I noticed were the humungous teeth and the micro-sized ears he gave me. I knew that I had big teeth and small ears, but I looked nothing like this. I just told myself that it was just something silly and I just laughed it off. It was quick and simple. However, this was not the case for caricatures back in the era of the minstrel shows. African Americans were turned into caricatures in minstrel shows. Their personalities, characteristics, and physicality were terribly exaggerated for the white people's enjoyment. Although minstrel shows are no longer performed, the caricatures still live on. Mammy, the most well known caricature, is still used and seen in the media today.
The stereotype of Mammy started in the 1830's, thirty years before the Civil War (Robinson 51). The stereotype was created by the white slave owners. According to Angelo Rich Robinson, an Associate Professor of English at Goucher College, the perception of Mammy is based on a predominantly white point of view. In his article, " 'Mammy Ain't Nobody Name": The Subject of Mammy Revisited in Shirley Anne Williams's Dessa Rose," he talks about the stereotype of Mammy through the perspectives of both black and white with the use of Anne Williams's book, Dessa Rose.