Coon card

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.

[5] African American adults were depicted as intellectually and morally inferior to whites and were associated with cakewalking,[6] fried chicken, watermelon, cotton, lack of conscientiousness, laziness, ribaldry, sexual promiscuity, domestic violence, gambling, alcoholism, cannibalism, and farts.

[4] Coon cards—which were representative of general racial attitudes of the era and conveyed and perpetuated ideas about "appearance, behavior, and overall identity"—depict Black people as "subhuman, ape-like beasts.

"[4] African Americans were depicted with "protruding jaws and chins" that aligned their low status in a pseudoscientific racial hierarchy outlined by Pieter Camper, et al.[4] Bug eyes, pigeon toes, elongated limbs, and enlarged extremities contributed to the "simianizing" of Black people in postcard images of the coon card era.

"[6] Coon cards are now considered collectible ephemera and a useful tool for studying the history of racism in the United States.