Highly offensive: Karen
Juanita Carrillo examines the ongoing currency of racist curios. (Culture).
Summer, 2003, by Karen Juanita Carrillo
"Ay, yie-yie-yieeee! "I
am dee Frito Bandito!" the Frito-Lay Company's
infamously caricatured Mexican American advertising mascot used to sing on TV
commercials:
"I love Frito's Corn Chips/I love dem I do/I
love Ftito's Corn Chips/I take dem
from you!"
As a pudgy, greasy, illiterate-sounding, jolly thief, the Frito Bandito was
an early 1970s racist offense. It took four years for Frito-Lay to pull the
image from its ad campaigns.
During that time, the company's years of aggressively marketing the
symbol--as a pencil eraser, a toy ring, and even as the feature on a
"Wanted for Theft" poster--made Frito Bandito items a hot commodity.
A writer on the toy collector's website ToyNfo.com notes that, "The controversy
plus the age of the Frito Bandito, makes anything with his likeness quite
collectible today.... A small pencil-eraser image of this gun-toting junk-food
bandit, in good condition, can bring up to $20 today."
The Frito Bandito is part of a growing trend in the world of racist
collectibles. Like Aunt Jemima, Fu Manchu, and Redskin Indians, the Frito
Bandito is a stereotyped ethnic image that may ignite controversy, but is also
quickly becoming an income-generating antique.
Activist groups are reliably boycotting and petitioning to stop the sale of
these items. What's strange, though, is to find that some of the newest
consumers of these antiques are members of the same ethnic groups its
stereotypes are slurring. Scores of recent magazine articles have featured
middle-class African Americans finding their niche in the world of antiquing by
collecting derogatory black memorabilia. Others, both white and non-white, are
debating the merits of bucking political correctness and daring to purchase
racially "edgy" items. Under the premise that "we could all use
a laugh," or that racist antiques are collectible documentation of
"how bad things used to be," ethnic memorabilia sell like hotcakes in
online auctions and other markers. These reminders of the ugly faces of racism
continue to have new permutations and continued shelf life.
To the Highest Bidder
There was a time when you could've typed in the letters "n-i-g-g-e-r" on eBay's search engine and pulled up
"Tragic Mulatto" books, "Coon" ashtrays, "Sambo" or "Jigger" masks, "Picaninny" toys, "Uncle Tom" matchbooks, and
tons of other so-called black memorabilia items.
In February 2003, the California-based National Alliance for Positive Action
and the owners of the website BlackNews.com took the lead in urging eBay to
stop selling such racially offensive objects. Although eBay
banned the sale of Nazi Germany/Third Reich and Ku Klux Klan items back in May
2001, its new policy regarding the n-word will still permit the sale of
"Mack memorabilia" and "extreme ethnic" items. eBay is currently setting up a new pop-up screen that will
surface whenever the n-word is used to describe an item for sale on its auction
site. The pop-up screen will advise sellers that the n-word is "highly
offensive" and that its use in describing an item will be checked and
could be against eBay policies.
But eBay isn't the only auction house to blame. Online sites like Yahoo!
Auctions and outfits like TrashTalkers.com have taken to selling ethnographic
antiques and toys. Sotheby's, Swann Galleries, Christie's, and other high-end
auction houses also sell racist items to the highest bidder. Items in
circulation include the "Talking Alligator Cookie Jar" which, when
you open the jar by tilting the alligator's head back, features the voice of an
alligator saying, "Mmm Mmmm,
them sho' is some tasty cookies!" At the website
TrashTalkers.com, Perleberg, a company based in
Racist dolls and ethnographic figurines and antiques have become so
voluminous that selectively protesting the companies who sell them can seem
like trying to stem a growing tidal wave.
Collecting Garbage
"A lot of people think they know about race and racism," notes
David Pilgrim, curator for the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia. "But
they don't."
A virtual tour of the museum is also available via Internet at
www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/menu.htm. Ever since he was a child, the African
American sociology professor says he has been both disgusted and fascinated by
the proliferation of anti-black, Jim Crow images and racial artifacts. But he's
found a way to overcome his disgust and use the artifacts as teaching aids.
Pilgrim points our, "These things are great visual aids in telling the
story I am trying to tell. I see it as such a unique opportunity to teach
people about race and racism in an educational setting.
"I hate them, I consider myself a garbage collector," Pilgrim says
about the items the museum displays, "but it's still important to know
about the Jim Crow period. So much of our race relations can be understood
based on that period."
Pilgrim has also collected racist ethnographic pieces dealing with other
people of color. His museum only displays Jim Crow related items, but Pilgrim
says it's easy to see how decades-long racist portrayals of people of color
helped to determine their station in life.
"A lot of people don't know what living under Jim Crow was like. But
it's relatively easy to go back into history to find our what
it meant," Pilgrim said. "You can take an image like 'Mammy,' and
just think about why it was so embraced by whites and hated by blacks. What was
the political and social climate that produced such an image? And how did it
affect how black and white people lived their lives?"
The museum's website explains the history of these racist caricatures and
the ways they were used to belittle blacks and deny their humanity. Physical
distortions of black bodies and stereotypical exaggerations were used, the
website notes, to maintain one-dimensional roles for African Americans. Many of
these roles--depicting blacks as thugs, jezebels, and brutes--can also be seen
in current portrayals by blacks of other blacks, Pilgrim also points out. The
website is also adamant about showing how Jim Crow images are still being
produced and utilized today.
"There is so much money in these things that people are even creating
fake vintage items, to fool those who collect them," Pilgrim says,
commenting on the eBay controversy. Although he has also collected anti-women,
anti-Asian, anti-Indian, and anti-Mexican images, Pilgrim contends that anti-black
images have been the most brutal and the most virulent throughout the history
of the
"It's powerful stuff and it certainly should
make people think," he says. "I think you can never understand racism
in this country until you understand how deeply whites hated blacks. And
unfortunately, these images were the norm, this was
the normal way whites treated blacks."
Sometimes when he speaks at schools or before community events, Pilgrim says
he hears from people who are uncomfortable with recalling racist images of
African Americans. But he's found that those who don't talk about race issues
are the people who have the most problems with other races. "So much of
our culture is about making people feel good. But people need to grow up. This
talk about, 'Well, if we don't talk about it, things will get better....' Those
are people who are not out there doing the work. I don't have time for
that--race is too important to me."
Karen Juanita Carrillo is a writer and photographer in
COPYRIGHT 2003 Color Lines Magazine in association with
The Gale Group and LookSmart.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group