Media Stereotypes about Africa by Maureen Minard https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57 Groups should add a padlet entry for each media reviewed. Describe the types of messages given by the media. en-us 2017-03-09 14:44:48 UTC 2025-11-06 20:37:17 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Bigthunderstorm.png Bring the Rain to Kapiti Plain https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/420760646 - This continue the stereotypes that Africans live in only rural areas surrounded by animals in bungalows in tradition clothing. 
- Also the author and illustrator both are not from Africa they are both white Americans
- They did however base the book upon an ancient African folktale]]> 2019-12-06 14:40:17 UTC https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/420760646 The Lion King zaph230 https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/420769131 - The Lion King portrays Africa as if it were completely overtaken by animals, humans don't even exist in this part of Africa.
- Along with that, they treat Africa as one country instead of making it multiple countries.
- Both of the directors of The Lion King (Rob Minkoff and Rodger Allers) are not from Africa, in fact they're both white Americans.]]> 2019-12-06 14:51:04 UTC https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/420769131 rupc230 https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421014997 In the save the children ad it depicts Africans who are in need of our sympathy/charity, It shows a young buy who is malnourished and goes to a clinic with and gets help from Save The Children doctors. The video describes Niger as  " The hardest place in the world to be a child."

The video is taken in a village that looks rather small and rural.

The charity was created by Eglantyne Jebb and Dorothy Buxton both of whom are  white and from the UK. 


]]> 2019-12-06 21:27:42 UTC https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421014997 Do They Know It's Christmas? bruj230 https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421201283 In this song, it is perpetuated that Africa is a place of poverty, starvation, and hopelessness. It is sung by a large group of white people and asks if the despondent Africans (location is never specified) even realize it's Christmas season. As a matter of fact, many Africans are actually Christians, so yes, they do realize. I was disappointed to find how many people are still listening to and enjoying and not realizing the negativity of this song in 2019. The only good thing about it was that one guy's eye makeup.]]> 2019-12-07 18:26:22 UTC https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421201283 White Savior Barbie sims230 https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421242280 Even though White Savior Barbie is a mockery of white saviorism and "charity" in general, it raises very important points about the problem with stereotyping Africans. Through the posts on the page, Barbie talks about how great it feels for her to save Africa and it's suffering people. The account also emphasized the attention and glory people often give themselves when helping "people who need their help". There are also lots of hints that some people who participate in these "humanitarian" causes are often inexperienced or ill- equipped/trained. The account also took advantage of the fact that they were making fun of Barbie and her character giving bad examples of body image, etc. which could theoretically be a bad example for the people she is "helping". ]]> 2019-12-08 01:06:47 UTC https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421242280 Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees cole230 https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421255844 This children’s book is about Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental activist who won the Nobel Prize and started her own successful movement. Firstly, the author Frank Prévot is not African, he is from France. He used a lot of language in this children’s book to make it seem more exotic, such as his talk about Wangari being “part of the forest.” An entire page was just filled with animal facts, even though they did not play a large role in the book’s theme. I also felt that Prévot was generalizing African communities, as he randomly dropped facts about her house made of mud and dung and the rural “village women,” which makes it seem as though the entirety of African society is structured similarly. It is important to recognize her culture, but not everyone in Africa lives that way. However, Prévot also contradicted his highlighting of Wangari’s culture by failing to name the country she was from until halfway through the book and not mentioning the name of her ethnic group (he only called them “Wangari’s people”). Throughout the book, Prévot implies the ignorance of Africans. For example, when Wangari travels to New York he says she “discovered” tall buildings, but there actually are major industrial cities in Kenya so she obviously knew they existed beforehand. Also, Wangari is depicted as the savior of her civilization’s environment, and Prévot makes it seem like others in her village were completely ignorant towards the environmental issue before she stepped up to the government to fix it. Speaking of the government, Prévot also depicts the American government as completely kind as they offer Wangari an exchange trip, and the Kenyan government as evil because they did not change their environmental policies as soon as Wangari appealed. They’re a developing country which requires a source of income, so it’s not surprising that large-scale reform in that area would be hard to accomplish. Complicated political issues cannot simply be shown as good or evil. - Ellen Colbert]]> 2019-12-08 03:37:55 UTC https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421255844 Coming to America fero230 https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421319451 Coming to America is about an African prince who is not content with his Father's choice of women in his home country which prompts him to move to the US in order to find an "independent" woman who loves him for what he is and not his status. Coming to America treats women from the princes home country as non-independent that just want money and an increase in status and treats American women as amazing people that don't care about the status of their partner. The cast and crew of CTA are not from Africa, the director is white, most of the actors are African American... the only person that is from a different country on the crew is a person that was born in Jamaica but who has lived in the US for most of her life. ]]> 2019-12-08 15:37:07 UTC https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421319451 Do They Know It's Christmas? preb230 https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421395563 The song, “Do They Know It’s Christmas,” portrays a certain view negative view on Africa. The song misleads and perpetuates that Africa is a place of poverty and starvation. A lyric from the song states, “The greatest gift they'll get this year is life. Where nothing ever grows. No rain nor rivers flow. Do they know it's Christmastime at all? This song depicts a negative view of Africa, saying that their hopeless just waiting for someone to save them. People continue to listen to this song, without truly understanding the lyrics, nonetheless even care to learn about Africa. Many don’t even know that snow is a typical occurrence in Southern Africa. Not only does it snow in Africa, but Christmas is celebrated all throughout Africa and is a very important holiday.]]> 2019-12-08 23:50:35 UTC https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421395563 Madonna and Africa's Celebrity Saviors tsae230 https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421423075 - The title of this article alone could be deemed as problematic. It groups a massive mix of countries and cultures together, this is one of the largest contributors to the common miss belief that Africa is a country. Labeling people who give charity as saviors is also a bit extreme, but it also brings up the idea that african needs saving. This is not true. There are many places in Africa that are developed as much as the U.S and other 1st world countries. The reason that celebrities are giving is also a massive problem, many of them are donating to charity in order to gain publicity and a sense of self righteousness. The mass donations of money can frame certain countries and governments as passive bodies that are not able to solve their own problems. This can also set up misconceptions about countries and governments. If people don't see a functioning government they might believe that the country is a lawless land. I was not shocked that this was the reason celebrities donate, although I was disappointed. Even though there are places in Africa that are developed there are also places that are not. Charities that are set up to benefit  people that do not have access to these developed areas are built with good intentions. Ultimately, the celebrity "saviors" are taking advantage of people and their issues in order to seem like good people.]]> 2019-12-09 02:30:49 UTC https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421423075 The Hat Seller and the Monkey's by Baba Wagué Diakité feaj230 https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421447621 There is obviously something wrong with the way the main character in this book is portrayed. This book was meant to bring children and parents together as they bond and laugh over this comedic book. However, when examining a little closer, this book is no where near funny. It's actually dehumanizing speaking that the main character speaks back and forth with monkeys and after he speaks with them, he dresses as one. Dressing up as a monkey and dancing is supposedly "traditional dance" in Mali. I did a little research and though I saw the different forms of traditional dance people of Mali enjoy, no where did I see a man dressed in a monkey costume dancing. The fact that the author allowed the man to speak back to the monkey's as if he understood them is degrading to many who may read. Even though, his intentions were good, the author should have done an over check to make sure that this is culturally correct and respectful in every way. ]]> 2019-12-09 04:52:06 UTC https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421447621 Madagascar and Blood Diamond leem230 https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421469487 Madagascar is an animated film about a group of animals that live happily in a zoo in New York, but they find themselves in Madagascar after being accidentally shipped there and the majority of the movie is them trying to find their way home. This movie is an example of othering because all of the main characters are animals,  and most of the movie is set in a rural area, which enforces the idea in peoples' head s that there aren't cities or people in Madagascar. 

Blood Diamond is a film about two men who join in a quest to recover the rare gem, Danny Archer, a white South African mercenary, and Solomon Vandy, a black Mende fisherman who is trying to find his son. In the trailer, Solomon is very intent of finding his son, and makes very impulsive decisions when he has an opportunity to get his son back. Danny Archer is accused of manipulating Solomon by another character, Maddy Bowen, an American journalist, who is basically doing the same thing herself. This movie depicts Solomon as impulsive and he doesn't have any of the complexity that Danny Archer has.
]]> 2019-12-09 07:28:02 UTC https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421469487 Macaylé’s book stereotypes https://padlet.com/minm0/9br42bygfl57/wish/421561476 This book is about a Kenyan boy that goes around his village in Kenya trying not to do his chores, and in the end his grandfather finds him and brings him back to his hut. The author Kelly Cunnane is not from Africa, and all she did was visit Africa for 3 years and after all that she thinks that she knows all of what happens throughout all of Kenya.In the beginning of the book the author describes the surroundings of the Kenyans boys house as “Roosters crow, and you wake one morning in the green hills of Africa, sun lemon bright over eucalyptus trees full of doves.” Which kind of signifies that all of Africa is rural and is only little towns. This of course is not true because there are many cities in Kenya that are more modern than what they are describing. In the book it also says the statement  “For you are a Kenyan Child” which is making it seem like all Kenyan boys are in the same setting as the one that is in this book.



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