Black men, racial stereotyping, and violence in the US South and Cuba at the turn of the century

The first part of this article analyzes and compares the different images of otherness that emerged in the South after Reconstruction and in Cuba after independence. These images exemplified and shaped the power relationship between dominant and dominated. Expressed in a racial and gendered form, these stereotypes asserted white males' domination. They presented the dominated blacks as fearful 'others, ' thus helping to establish a social hierarchy and boundaries of inclusion and exclusion. Racial images also fueled the dominant group's violence, which was used to further teach blacks their 'true place' in society. The second part of the article explores broader comparative questions related to racial domination in the U.S. South and Cuba. Although all people of African descent were stereotyped as generally inferior in both regions, why were black men more likely than black women to be represented as fearsome 'others?' How did the stereotypes of black men reflect and affect racial relations, gender hierarchies, and interracial sex in both regions? Finally, how did differences in black stereotyping and racial violence reflect differences in white society in the U.S. South and Cuba?.