This exhibition deals with the role of Superhero Comic in reflecting societal perceptions towards African and African Americans in Mass Media. The different walls represent different "rooms" of representation. I have divided these time periods based on the trends and named them accordingly.
The first period is called the "ignorance period", from the 1930's -1940's. During this time, America was largely preoccupied with WWII, and was ignoring the role of Africans and African Americans in the war and in mass society. This is reflected in the "Aryan" superheroes emerging in the the time period.
The second period is called the "Reactive Era", from 1950's through the "1970's". Liberal, White
response to Civil Rights movement. Creation of these characters by White
artists and writers in order to include some much-needed diversity. However, the fact that
it was White writers looking at African Americans meant that the characters were meant
to represent entire peoples, rather than being individuals.
This leads into the "Golden Age", from "1980's" through to the early "2000's". This period saw the rise of African Americans in mass media and the control of media production sources by African and African American writers, publishers, and creators. This is reflected through the comics of the period, where the individual representation meant that writers could tackle real, representational topics about the African and African American experience, such as Police brutality, gang violence, and teenage pregnancy.
Finally, we reach the "Reconstruction Era" from the 2000's through today. In this period, as Black, African, and African American writers and creators have become integrated into the means of production, the creators are able to "reconstruct" the major characters to represent a post-colonial society.
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