Do you collect Black Americana?
William Jenkins 
Since ebay and etsy banned these items from being listed, where do you buy and sell? What's your favorite piece? What's the most you've paid for an item? How long have you been collecting? Do you display them, or keep them hidden away? Spill your mammy's tea, eldergays!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 61 | September 20, 2022 5:35 PM |
I didnt realize they stopped them from being listed. A lot of Blacks collect these.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | September 19, 2022 4:32 PM |
A "pre-teen" Mammy and Uncle Ben salt and pepper set (they're dressed in little aprons and chef hats). Adorbs!
Made in Japan in the late 40s. Hidden deeper than my porn stash.
A dubious inheritance from one of my grannies. But still keeping it.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | September 19, 2022 4:46 PM |
No it’s frighteningly ugly.
And I surround me only with beauty.
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | September 19, 2022 4:53 PM |
Is this is what they call Negrobilia?
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | September 19, 2022 4:58 PM |
I think it is odd (and probably a BLM knee jerk reaction) to ban their sale. For one, it will just make their price go up. Plus, people could be buying them for all sorts of reasons: an art project, educational tools, or they could be a Black collector.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | September 19, 2022 5:16 PM |
We had a mammy cookie jar and fridge magnet in the 90s when I was a kid. But I don’t know where they are now.
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | September 19, 2022 5:19 PM |
I had a gollywog as a child, and my nan's fave show was the Black and White Ministrals. Does that count?
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 8 | September 19, 2022 5:20 PM |
Uh, are you guys trolling? I seriously hope this is not a real question with actual responses.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | September 19, 2022 5:21 PM |
Slavery has been extinguished. We now have to do menial jobs ourselves or hire Mexicans. Pity.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | September 19, 2022 5:23 PM |
That's bullshit banning their sale -- whether or not you like them.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | September 19, 2022 5:24 PM |
An ex-gf's mother collected this stuff -- she had tons of it. On display in a case, of course. She swore it would be worth a lot of money some day.
When I was with that gf (her daughter), she was around my age now, so if she's still alive, she's probably closing in on 90.
I wonder whatever happened to her and her collection. She was a real bitch. And of course, she was a native Floridian three generations back.
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | September 19, 2022 5:25 PM |
R12 I bet you all smoked cigarettes and drank Miller High Life on a back porch
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | September 19, 2022 5:27 PM |
Are Aunt Jemima memorabilia considered in this genre of old junk?
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | September 19, 2022 5:27 PM |
I collect "Colonial" memorabilia
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 15 | September 19, 2022 5:28 PM |
R5. Ay behave. That was funny tho.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | September 19, 2022 5:30 PM |
What is the point of the black menstrual song? Recreating black culture? I guess they liked negroes in the seventies. Blacks sure changed.
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | September 19, 2022 5:31 PM |
Actually no, R13. They had three homes and quite a bit of money and owned and operated a flower shop in a small town outside of Orlando. But thanks for putting your stereotyping on full display.
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | September 19, 2022 5:32 PM |
In the 1940s someone gave my mother a white china McCoy Aunt Jemima Cookie Jar. I have never used or displayed it. At some point I’ll sell it.
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | September 19, 2022 5:34 PM |
They probably still sell this stuff at Cracker Barrel.
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | September 19, 2022 5:39 PM |
yet they still sell confederate merch.
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | September 19, 2022 5:42 PM |
I have a mammy set I inherited that I used to have on display, but I've since hidden. I will not get rid of them, I cannot. They are too beautiful.
I see a lot more of this type of memorabilia in antiques stores now since people are trying to offload them, but the prices are slashed. Nobody wants to buy, nobody wants to own, but nobody wants to destroy either.
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | September 19, 2022 5:44 PM |
R9, this is Matt-fatso doing what she always does: posts something racist then vpn-agrees with herself.
| by Anonymous | reply 23 | September 19, 2022 5:44 PM |
R20 your reference could not be more appropriate.
CRACKER Barrel, INDEED.
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | September 19, 2022 5:49 PM |
If you are interested in donating and preserving things you have, one of the schools in Michigan, I think Ferris State, has a curated collection.
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | September 19, 2022 5:50 PM |
These are now considered and listed as "folk art" on websites. Plenty to be found in antique stores.
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | September 19, 2022 5:56 PM |
I seriously doubt that most white Americans who collect this stuff have altruistic motives in mind. They are not collecting it for any other reason than hatred and entitlement. I. The right context and setting, this memorabilia can be used to educate and inform.
| by Anonymous | reply 27 | September 19, 2022 5:58 PM |
IN the right context and setting…damned iPad Air.
| by Anonymous | reply 28 | September 19, 2022 5:59 PM |
R10, it hasn't really. It is just that you are part of the hoi polloi. You're too poor to benefit from it
| by Anonymous | reply 29 | September 19, 2022 5:59 PM |
Huh, I didn't remember until someone upthread mentioned it, but I have vague recollections of a brown cookie jar growing up. (but it wasn't the blackface kind of thing in the pictures) I think it was probably Caribbean in origin, which is where my parents were from - it had kind of a Caribana kind of costume on it.
| by Anonymous | reply 30 | September 19, 2022 6:03 PM |
R27 I agree that it is odd for anyone non Black to collect this stuff. Maybe about 20 years ago I could see someone using it ironically, along with garden gnomes and pink flamingos. Thankfully we have evolved. BUT I think banning the sales are a bit much.
| by Anonymous | reply 31 | September 19, 2022 6:03 PM |
What about black folk collecting Confederate stuff? That OK?
| by Anonymous | reply 32 | September 19, 2022 6:05 PM |
I'm an antique dealer (jewelry) and the more 'upscale', antique version of the mammy jar is something called 'Blackamoor'- the brooch that Princess Michael of Kent (a known racist-I do believe this was intentional) wore to Meghan's thing is one such example. This motif goes all the way back to the 17th century and has it's origins in Venice, oddly enough. Unlike the Mammy stuff, in which blacks are always portrayed as grotesques, Blackamoor designs don't really depict dark skinned people as ugly/coarse/dumb......rather it exoticizes them. So its' tricky. Often they are depictions of slaves (the slave trade route through Venice being the primary influence) but they are also given a dignified, often regal treatment, studded with glittering jewels and and posed in in ways that seem to celebrate their toned, strong bodies. So...is Blackamoor a 'bad' thing? It's tricky and I've never been entirely sure. I can tell you that I wouldn't touch a piece that came up at auction with a ten foot pool and that even the most beautiful examples of this traditional languish in auction house sales and sell for way, way undervalue relative to materials used.
Fun fact: In the US, the states buy and sell the most Blackamoor pieces are perhaps, unsurprisingly Texas...and Connecticut. Make of that what you will.
| by Anonymous | reply 33 | September 19, 2022 6:06 PM |
We knew this shit was hateful and disgusting back in the 80's
| by Anonymous | reply 34 | September 19, 2022 6:10 PM |
You can buy them at Trump / MAGA rallies and fundraisers today. Kimberly Gargoyle usually has a booth set up in the half-empty arenas.
| by Anonymous | reply 35 | September 19, 2022 6:11 PM |
R17 I have never seen a black menstrual show, but I did see some poor white girls in high school with red stains on their backsides cuz the brown paper towels in the bathrooms they used for sanitary pads weren’t as absorbent as store bought Kotex.
| by Anonymous | reply 36 | September 19, 2022 6:15 PM |
There's a black Mammy cookie jar on the kitchen counter in some tv episodes of Leave it to Beaver. I have a neighbor who has a Statue of a Black country boy with a fishing pole in his hand sitting on a cement bench in her front yard, it's been there for years, no complaints that I'm aware of. Also, the wrought iron Painted Black Jockey statues still pop up now and again. This is a suburb of New Orleans. Private property, private decision I guess...
| by Anonymous | reply 37 | September 19, 2022 6:21 PM |
I've seen a black menstrual show. It featured a few rags.
| by Anonymous | reply 38 | September 19, 2022 6:34 PM |
Doesn't Whoopi collect this kind of art?
| by Anonymous | reply 39 | September 19, 2022 6:37 PM |
@r37, "There's a black Mammy cookie jar on the kitchen counter in some tv episodes of Leave it to Beaver. "
It's a clown 🙄
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 40 | September 19, 2022 6:45 PM |
You people think that’s bad- My brother had a girlfriend in college who’s family was originally from Louisiana ( they lived in the NYC area) they still had their certificate showing ownership of their slaves .
I guess it was a family heirloom.
| by Anonymous | reply 41 | September 19, 2022 7:16 PM |
I'd hang it up in the kitchen to give the place an ironic down-home country feel.
| by Anonymous | reply 42 | September 19, 2022 7:18 PM |
Barbra Streisand has a mammy washing advertisement over her kitchen sink and a golliwog on her piano.
| by Anonymous | reply 43 | September 19, 2022 7:26 PM |
[quote] What is the point of the black menstrual song?
I’ve never heard of this before, R17. Is it a Michfest thing?
| by Anonymous | reply 45 | September 19, 2022 8:31 PM |
R15- She looks like Livia
Don’t Eat The Figs!
| by Anonymous | reply 46 | September 19, 2022 8:39 PM |
I inherited a Le Golliwog Vigny perfume bottle with box. I remember seeing it as a kid and thinking it was a weird mythical creature, but it’s actually an African caricature with a tuft of black marabou hair and an animal print collar on its neck. Even the box resembles a shipping crate with side flaps that open out like a crate. It’s worth hundreds of dollars, supposedly. 😬
| by Anonymous | reply 47 | September 19, 2022 9:01 PM |
I have a collection of coon hollering cylinders from the golden days of racism. It is horrifying, yet I play them nonetheless in context to the other songs of the era or in contrast to some of the horrifyingly sexist or homophobic cds of today. I enjoy music and don’t presume my species to be evolved or perfect. Most of the music I enjoy ignores that nonsense, yet, sadly, I realize that shit is an undercurrent to all my merrier melodies.
| by Anonymous | reply 48 | September 19, 2022 9:30 PM |
R48 WTF is "coon hollering"? Google was unhelpful, as was Spotify - or do I really not want to know?
As to OP's question, I dont anything like this and wouldnt want to
| by Anonymous | reply 49 | September 19, 2022 10:15 PM |
I distinctly remember a Blackamoor bust/statue in the movie "Meet Me in St. Louis."
It was displayed prominently at the bottom of the staircase of the Smith household, which made the bust even more obvious because the staircase was a focal point in the movie.
| by Anonymous | reply 50 | September 19, 2022 11:48 PM |
In mid-century white suburbia, Blackamoors were still popular as home decor. As a matter of fact, the few POC in those neighborhoods were typically garden statuettes or table lamps.
| by Anonymous | reply 51 | September 20, 2022 12:03 AM |
[quote] As a matter of fact, the few POC in those neighborhoods were typically garden statuettes or table lamps.
Lawn jockeys?
| by Anonymous | reply 52 | September 20, 2022 12:08 AM |
Lawn jockeys, happy Buddhas, sleeping Mexicans in sombreros, Hawaiian hula girls, etc.
| by Anonymous | reply 53 | September 20, 2022 12:13 AM |
My neighbors in Hyde Park, Chicago had black lawn jockeys in the late 70s-80s. They moved in 1984 and took them with them.
| by Anonymous | reply 54 | September 20, 2022 12:22 AM |
R54- Archie Bunker had one of those lawn jockeys too.
| by Anonymous | reply 55 | September 20, 2022 12:34 AM |
Nominated for Worst Thread of 2022
| by Anonymous | reply 56 | September 20, 2022 12:39 AM |
OP don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies.
| by Anonymous | reply 57 | September 20, 2022 1:27 AM |
I’d never heard of this until I saw the Nip/Tuck ep where Brittany Snow played a racist bitch whose mom collected this stuff. Iirc they used they called them N-word jars or something.
The kicker is that Snow’s “white” mom was actually part black, & Snow smashes all the collectibles when she learned the shocking news.
| by Anonymous | reply 58 | September 20, 2022 6:42 AM |
My ancestors spent their fortune purchasing slaves only to have the slaves freed. Trump has never addressed this.
| by Anonymous | reply 59 | September 20, 2022 2:21 PM |
It is actually called Negrobilia.
| by Anonymous | reply 60 | September 20, 2022 3:33 PM |
Threads like this and many of the responses are why I stopped feeling bad about making ethnic jokes about other groups.
| by Anonymous | reply 61 | September 20, 2022 5:35 PM |
