# Successful Black Man Successful Black Man is an advice animal image macro from 2010 that flips racial stereotypes through a bait-and-switch caption. Started on 4chan and Meme Generator with a stock photo of a black man in a black suit, the format drew tens of thousands of submissions and an UpRoxx write-up calling it 'borderline offensive, but hilarious.' ## Origin The photo behind the template came from a ShutterStock listing titled 'Handsome African American business man dressed in a black suit'[10]. According to an anonymous email the creator sent to Know Your Meme, the idea came out of reverse-discrimination discussions at their workplace[3]. The template and its earliest captions first showed up in scattered 4chan /b/ threads, and a Meme Generator page dedicated to the format went live in 2010[4]. - **Platform:** 4chan / Meme Generator (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown (anonymous 4chan user) - **Date:** 2010 ## Overview The format centers a stock photo of a black man wearing a black business suit against the brown and beige color wheel used across advice animal templates[3]. Each image works the same way: the top caption teases a stereotype about African Americans, and the bottom caption swings into something bland, professional, or upstanding, killing the joke's own setup[3]. The structural gag is the same one used in the Ordinary Muslim Man image macro, which does the trick with religious stereotypes instead of racial ones[3]. Meme Generator became the workhorse for the series, with users cranking out captions by the tens of thousands on the dedicated page[4]. UpRoxx summed the whole thing up as 'borderline offensive, but hilarious' in its August 2011 write-up[1]. ## How to Use Pick a stereotype about African Americans that a reader will see coming from the top line, then use the bottom line to reveal a wholesome, professional, or upstanding punchline that reframes the setup as innocuous. Common conventions include job titles, family life, hobbies, or clean grammar as the bottom-line twist. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Successful Black Man? It's an advice animal image macro built around a stock photo of a black man in a business suit, where the top caption teases a racial stereotype and the bottom caption reveals a bland or respectable punchline[3]. ### Where did Successful Black Man come from? The base photo comes from a ShutterStock listing[10], and an anonymous creator told Know Your Meme they came up with the format after reverse-discrimination discussions at work, first posting to 4chan before setting up a Meme Generator page in 2010[3]. ### What does Successful Black Man mean? It's a bait-and-switch joke: the reader expects a racist stereotype from the top line and gets an innocuous, upstanding punchline on the bottom, following the same structural gag used in Ordinary Muslim Man[3]. ### How do you use Successful Black Man? Write a top caption that sets up a stereotype and a bottom caption that reframes it as something ordinary, professional, or wholesome, then post to the Meme Generator template that hosts tens of thousands of user versions[4]. ### Is Successful Black Man still popular? It peaked between 2010 and 2013, with the Meme Generator page passing 26,000 submissions and Quickmeme topping 40,000 by January 2013[4][9], and is now regarded as a classic entry in the advice animal era rather than an active trend. ## References 1. [https://uproxx.com/viral/meme-watch-successful-black-man-is-borderline-offensive-but-hilarious/#page/1]() 2. [https://funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/228836/Collection/]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/successful-black-man]() 4. [https://memegenerator.net/Successful-Black-Man]() 5. [https://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/successful-negro/81174057/]() 6. [https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=130355243&page=1]() 7. [https://chanarchive.org/4chan/b/23311]() 8. [https://successfulblackman.tumblr.com/]() 9. [http://www.quickmeme.com/Successful-Black-Man/]() 10. [https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/handsome-african-american-business-man-dressed-1005241]() 11. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4jjpB-WSPM]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/successful-black-man Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library