Black Postcards, Stereotype/Hate mail

Racist postcards were not just harmless souvenirs-they were weapons of dehumanization, mass-produced early 1900's to 1960's by companies that built their profits on anti-Black hatred. These postcards were churned out in factories, sold at train stations, drugstores, and gift shops, and mailed across the country as if mocking Black people was a national pastime. And in many ways, it was.

These companies-printing giants like Curt Teich & Co., Bamforth & Co., and countless smaller operations-flooded the market with grotesque images of Black people as lazy, ignorant, chicken-stealing buffoons, grinning wide-mouthed and foolish. They printed scenes of Black children being chased by alligators for "comedic" effect, exaggerated caricatures with bulging eyes and swollen lips, and captions written in broken, mocking dialect, reinforcing the lie that Black people are stupid, incompetent, and subhuman.

Make no mistake-this was an industry. A well-oiled machine that thrived on racism, packaging and selling anti-Black propaganda to an eager white public. These weren't "just jokes." These weren't "innocent relics of the past." These were tools of oppression, designed to cement white superiority by ridiculing Black existence. They were visual reinforcements of the Jim Crow system, reminders that no matter how hard Black people worked, no matter how much dignity they carried, they would always be reduced to a racist punchline.

The impact of these postcards didn't fade with time. They shaped generations of white Americans' views on Blackness, feeding into systemic racism that still haunts us today. They helped justify the denial of rights, the exclusion from opportunities, the everyday violence Black people endured. And the companies that printed them? They never faced consequences. They printed, sold, and profited from anti-Blackness without shame or accountability.

These postcards were more than ink on paper. They were instruments of harm. They were reflections of a country built on its own racist delusion. And they remain undeniable, evidence of the calculated, deliberate ways Black people were mocked, humiliated, and dehumanized for white amusement. The question is-How many whites who sent, received, and laughed at these images? Ever stop to consider the damage they caused?