ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on stereotypes about Black women and how they are related to interracial relationships with Black women follows directly from the media images. Although Black women are no longer "absent" from the cultural landscape, the images that reflect their presence are often limited, highly negative, and bound by contemporary stereotypes. Interest in doing so is directly related to the role stereotypes play in determining the quantity and quality of intergroup interaction, as well as interpersonal and interracial relationships. Indeed, as evidence of this, it's almost impossible to talk about these types of relationships without having some understanding of the mental representations (i.e., stereotypes) of a person. Technically speaking, stereotypes are cognitive structures that contain information about a person (group, place, or thing). They help us to think about the way the brain processes social information. Stereotypes influence the extent to which we pay attention to specific information, store it in our minds, and then remember it.
