Coon card

Common card · No. 398078

Coon cards were anti-Black, racist picture postcards and greeting cards sold in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries. Coon was short for raccoon, an American mammal; coon was a commonly used derogatory term for African Americans. Especially after the turn-of-the-century, "the postcard was wildly successful both as correspondence and collectible" and thus postcards are valuable sources for cultural historians as both a form of epistolary literature and for the bank of cultural imagery included in the postcard illustrations reflecting historic popular culture norms and tropes. Coon cards were produced by white manufacturers for white customers and depicted an array of African Americans stereotypes common to the popular media of the day. The caricature was part of the popular appeal of the postcards as "image content was clearly driven by free market forces, rather than the intention to present an accurate depiction of people, places, or things." For example, children were typically...

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