What you don't "see" is often the most insidious of things. Black cultural stereotypes, invisible through their omnipresence, are the subject of Marlon Riggs' sobering documentary. An impressive array of media images, Pop icons, film clips and household artifacts makes a dizzying case for the historical persistence of racist typing. Ethnic Notions pays particular attention to specific Black caricatures, tracing the evolution of "loyal Toms, carefree Sambos, faithful Mammies, grinning Coons and wide-eyed Pickaninnies" from the Civil War to the present. Riggs' conclusion is that shifts in stereotypes can be linked to reentrenchments of white society's need to rationalize Black oppression. Actress Esther Rolle's narration serves as the hub to a group of scholarly commentators who situate ethnic notions within a dehumanizing system of cultural representation. What Riggs' documentary finally addresses is the pernicious underpinnings of any such system of cultural images.