The Black History Museum

Behind our grinning images
Here’s a very personal view by Richard D North, this site’s editor

George Eleady-Cole’s collection has thousands of images of black people, of which we show a tiny proportion here. If there was one thing which characterises these pictures and objects, it is the smile. Time and again, we see the ear-to-ear grin.

It is the standard image of black people. It is a smile which seems to wash away guilt. It is the smile which made many a black entertainer much loved. It is how white people like to see black people.

It’s probably not a coincidence that when blacks generate their own stereotypes of blackness, it’s often an image of an unsmiling tough guy. Think of the Gangsta rapper and his often ironic depiction of the black man. But that’s another story, of blacks biting back. Even the African fertility symbols – there are a few in George’s collection – are markedly serious faces.

Anyway, the images in the Museum are mostly images made by white people and often they were made for white people. So why the smiles?

Firstly, it has always suited white people to think of the black as a cheerful soul. If you are going to take a man into slavery, it’s as well to be able think of him as being disposed to accept his fate and even enjoy it. When he’s been freed from slavery to join the bottom of the working class, it helps if you can think of him as cheerfully unambitious and well-adjusted to his life of service.

Secondly, we have to remember that these portrayals are not portraits. At least they are not necessarily honest portraits. In most cases, we have no idea if there was a life-model for the images: we don’t know if a real person “sat” for them. Even if there was, we have no idea whether he or she was smiling. If he or she was smiling, we have no idea whether they felt like it.

Thirdly, there was every reason for black people to smile. If you are oppressed, it often makes sense to smile at your oppressor. If you are easy-going, agreeable, and compliant, things may go better for you.

So white people may have met a lot of black smiles. And they certainly photographed, drew, painted and sculpted them. There may have been rather fewer genuinely smiling black faces.