Understanding the history of blackface and why its so harmful

[Music]

when i was 10 years old

we traveled from colorado to new jersey

to visit relatives

at christmas time we did a host of a

variety of things

i actually got to see the original cast

and the wiz and did a lot of sightseeing

but one of my favorite moments was to

stay up late at night and wait till

everyone else had gone to bed and then i

would sneak downstairs to watch

television

a host of old movies that probably had

no business watching such as bonnie and

clyde and

oklahoma that was a little okay but i

remember one evening come across a show

it was an old movie and it must have

been white christmas

or holiday inn of that type but it was a

musical

and i um started watching and then they

started to do this

musical scene and i noticed i saw bing

crosby in blackface

and i i i was confused i i couldn’t

quite understand

what the black face had to do with the

singing and dancing

that was my introduction to blackface

minstrelsy

blackface minstrelsy originated in new

york and not the south

as a lot of people would think in the

1830s

it was an incident where white actors

would blacken their faces with burnt

cork

paint on bright red lips

exaggerate the whites of their eyes and

put on a tightly coiled wig

to create characters of african

americans on the american stage

the typical minstrel show was a parody

of black culture

song and dance and speech interspersed

with

stump speeches jokes musical interludes

and theatrical skits

the cast included a roster of recurring

characters

the interlocutor acted as the emcee

you had mr tambo and mr bones

as the end men then you also had

characters like the clownish slave jim

crow

which was also the name of the jim crow

laws that we knew in the american south

or the maternal mammy a hyper-sexualized

winch

an arrogant dandy zip [ __ ] and the lazy

childish [ __ ]

the caricatures were often brutal but

not to the white audiences who laughed

at the antics of the illiterate slaves

as they sat secure in their own

superiority

the image of the dancing simple-minded

buffoons captured the public’s

imagination

and spread across the country like

wildfire

blackface minstrelsy grew to be the most

popular form of american entertainment

in the 19th century

abraham lincoln and mark twain spoke

highly of the american minstrel show

applauding the characterization and the

source of its humor

but just as it entertained it also

dehumanized the subjects of its ridicule

leaving the abolitionist frederick

douglass to describe blackface minstrels

as quote the filthy scum of white

society

who have stolen from us a complexion

denied them by nature

ironically after the civil war african

americans forged their own careers on

the professional stage

the route to success often meant

appropriating the mass that was used to

mock them

white audiences also embraced black

performance

in their local communities these amateur

minstrels used instructional guides

that provided them with jokes routines

songs and costumes they needed to put on

their own shows

such was the habit of politicians

fraternal orders

colleges high schools and community

performances

who carried on this tradition well into

the 20th century

the professional minstrel show left an

indelible

imprint on the american psyche the

images and racial stereotypes

that continue to circulate in american

society on sheet music

magazines books vaudeville

theater film television radio

records and all kinds of formats

these stereotypes were a powerful

reinforcement of the ideas of white

supremacy

and black inferiority the news headlines

of the last few months have shown us

that the legacy of blackface minstrelsy

continues to haunt us in a survey

conducted by the pew research center

they found that one in three americans

say that blackface is

always or sometimes okay

if it’s used in a halloween costume so

let me

ask this question what is the appeal of

darkening one’s skin

in order to impersonate someone of a

different race

blackface minstrelsy was born out of the

realities of slavery

and racial segregation and it’s a

continual

reappearance echoes the pain and

suffering felt by black people

whose bodies and cultures were presented

as strange

and grotesque it is a persistent

reminder of the racism and prejudices

that bred its very existence

the way it infiltrated society is a

clear example of how deeply ingrained

racism is in this country

and the racial subjugation embodied by

blackface minstrelsy

and perpetuated through a continuum of

his history

is a form of aggression a psychic wound

that refuses to heal

racial impersonation of any form cannot

escape this legacy

so it’s time to shift the power of

representation

to develop more expansive narratives

about the rich complexity of who we are

as human beings

acknowledging and recognizing blackface

for what it is

and what it symbolizes is a step in the

right direction

educating ourselves and how stereotypes

reinforce

racist ideologies is another

success in either case depends on an

honest self-assessment

of our social and cultural biases and

how they came to be

the legacy of blackface minstrelsy is

our shared history

and requires all of us to take

collective responsibility in dismantling

its power

to oppress and humiliate

the next time you’re confronted with

someone in blackface

or see a racist stereotype tell me

what will you do thank you