The meme chosen shows the upper body of a straight-faced African American male in a business suit in front of a brown-patterned background. Above the man’s head is a sentence that presents a stereotypical statement about black men, such as “I’m going to get fried chicken and grape soda.” On the bottom of the page, there is a continuation of the above fonts that, within context, changes the at-first stereotypical declaration into a well-intended and educated statement. The fonts that follow the fried chicken and grape soda quote is “off school lunch menus and replace it healthier alternatives.”
The meme is widely known as “Successful Black Man.” The image itself was originally taken from ShutterShock and listed under the name “handsome African-American man dressed in a black suit.” In 2010, it was submitted onto the website memegenerator.com where it gained popularity through the internet meme community. As of today, there is an estimated 40,000 versions of the meme floating around the internet.
One has separate views for what Successful Black Man meme can be symbolic for. On one hand, it can be seen as a reflection of how America perceptions of African-Americans have shifted over the last decade. Instead of a meme that portrays black men as angry and aggressive matter, it shows a business man with good intentions and a penchant for healthy lifestyle choices. One finds the meme’s growing prominence during the presidency of Barak Obama to be an interesting parallel: both the man in the image and the president are seen as being upright citizens that speak properly with good leadership skills- all traits that defy racial stereotypes of black men. Perhaps the message behind the meme would not be as widely received by the general public if it were not for having an African-American president.
On the other hand, it can be giving the impression of being an empowerment to black men by dismissing racial stereotypes; which can be counter-intuitive if what’s primarily being highlighted is the racial stereotype. Although the meme dismisses the stereotype by using the technique of misdirection, it still relies on the portrayal of black men being angry, aggressive, and taking part in criminal activities to get the joke across. Just as the meme can be a reflection of how America perceives African-Americans in the era of president Obama in a positive light, it can also be a reflection of how America perceives African-Americans in a negative light. The meme can be symbolic of certain people’s claim that America is in a “post-racial” state. With this false notion in mind, some people may be more prone to not noticing (or acknowledging) when something is racially insensitive because they believe such an insensitivity no longer exist. Associating black people with fried chicken and grape soda is no longer offensive, but rather, a light-hearted jab at a social group. If this indeed is what the meme is a reflection off of, then the primary target audience would likely be people that subscribe to the idea of being in a post-racial America.
