I perticularly liked the story about Dolly in the Brownies Book. I feel like it was light hearted enough but also would send African American children a positive messege about their heritage. I feel like the story of Dolly is a common one for most children whether or not they are African American. At some point all children feel unhappy with an aspect of themself. These feelings of unhappieness definatly stem from societys pressure on people to conform to the norm or status quo. It is not easy for children to feel different becasue one of the most important things as a child is to be accepted. I liked how the author in Dolly explained that if you change yourself you no longer have connections to the things that are most important to you like family and community.

In the film the common sterotypes of African American's were discussed and it was explained why they are extremely problematic to not only individuals but society. The idea was that characters not actual people molded the American perception for more than 100 years. These images included exaggerated mouths, the "simple, docile, laughing black man" that was only interested in food and song not work, along with the image of the female mammy. These images all played a role in constructing how white Americans views African Americans and how African Americans viewed themselves.

What was dangerous about these charactures is that white Americans that had no contact with black people really bought into the stereotypes portrayed. This included the image that there were "happy content" slaves. The Sambo was the happy male slave who sang and danced while the mammy loyaly served her master nad his family and put their needs above her own. She was not portrayed as a sexual being when in reality she often ended up as a mistress in the masters home. These images also led the public to believe that black men were powerless within their society. Men were supposed to be the dominate force in the home and workplace but the portrayl of African Americans left this role to women.

During the time of racial integration images of the angery or aggressive black man were portrayed. These images were used in order to enforce public fear of agressive behavior by black men towards white women. Because women in society were supposed to be everything pure violence was a justified tactic to use in their defense.