Hypersignification of Successful Black Man

           The Cultural Logic of Cultural-based Meme Genres by Limor Shifman focuses on the multifaceted meanings behind memes. Often, internet memes are regarded as whimsical sets of pictures that help kill time on a slow day. While true, Shifman also argues that memes have cultural significance that is often overlooked.  While dissecting the undertone meanings behind internet memes, Shifman refers to the phenomenon as a hypersignification; which essentially is another way of describing the subversive meanings and symbols that are conveyed by a message.

                In the article, Shifman breaks down the idea of hypersignification in internet memes with three categories: photo fads, reaction photoshop, and stock character macros. Photo fads deal with memes that trend based off an original homemade photo; reaction photoshop entails memes that have been altered from its original photo; and stock character macros studies memes that use ordinary stock photos that are placed within the context of the comical meme. The meme in focus, Successful Black Man, would be considered a stock character macro.

Shifman notes that the purpose of stock photography is to provide standard images that display basic human emotions and activities; in turn, they rely on social stereotypes and scripts to get a message across.  A photo of a father and daughter playing catch on a lawn with a white picket fence suggest the script of a happy (perhaps nuclear) family; likewise, a photo of a middle-aged woman loading a minivan with sporting good supplies suggest the idea of a “soccer mom” taking her children to or from a soccer game.

The hypersignification of stock character macros allows the reader to see alternative possible meanings of the Successful Black Man meme. The meme consist of black man with a straight face wearing a business suit in front of a brown backdrop; the top of the page reads an aggressive statement that is later changed into the beginning of a positive/healthy statement when the viewer reads the bottom portion of the page (close to a set-up/punchline format).  Shifman notes that the meme would not make any sense if black men were not perceived as aggressive. Shifman also notes that the original stock photo was titled “handsome African American business man dressed in a black suit.” The makers of the stock photo could have just titled it handsome man in black suit, but by doing so, they wuld have challenged the general notion that a handsome man in a suit would not be a young black man.

The article also states that while looking into the hypersignification of an image can show progressive meanings, it can also show the opposite effect. With this meme, for instance, it uses the image in a way the article notes is rooted in racism. Although it can be seen as opposing racial stereotypes by having the punchline contradict the stereotypical set-up, Shifman notes that the use of the image and the irony within the meme can dismiss racial prejudices that minorities face. Memes such as this make racism seem like “only a joke.”

Work Cited

Shifman, L. (2014) The cultural logic of photo-based meme genres. Journal of Visual Culture, 3, 340-458.