This event reinforces the "black brute" stereotype. Ferris State University defines the brute character: "the brute caricature portrays black men as innately savage, animalistic, destructive, and criminal -- deserving punishment, maybe death. This brute is a fiend, a sociopath, an anti-social menace. Black brutes are depicted as hideous, terrifying predators who target helpless victims, especially white women. "
How this instance reinforces the "black brute" is that Klein deemed a 9-year-old black boy who was sexualized and labeled a threat towards a white woman.
"Cornerstone Caroline" mirrors the story of Carolyn Bryant and Emmett Till in 1955. White women falsely accusing and sexualizing black boys and branding them as a "black brute."
-
