Blackface Minstrelsy Essay

Blackface: Minstrelsy and the negative images of Black Americans

Blackface minstrelsy show were quit popular in the 19th century, when white, mostly male performers would blacked their skin with burnt cork, and later greasepaint or shoe polish, however, blacks themselves started to participate in the minstrel shows later on. By the middle of the 1930 these images were the most popular depiction of African Americans. With charters such as: Mammy, Uncle Tom, Pickaninny, Coon, and the more famous Jim Crow. Blackface, were some of the most popular depictions of black Americans, know not only for its lively song, dance, dialect, but also for its historical components, inspired by the black slaves in the South on plantations and free blacks.

Performer mocked black behavior and played on racial stereotypes, which served to amuse and made for laugher.
The caricatures of blackface mad such an impact and the American imagination that blacks were expected to conform to one or more of these stereotypical roles; Mammy, who was a fat black faithful slave and a source of wisdom (A favorite of advertisers), Uncle Tom, was religious and good mannered ( advertisers still use his image to sell rice), Zip Coon, mocked free blacks who were educated, dressed in high fashion but who miss pronounced he’s words, which undermined his attempt to appear dignified. Black children “Pickaninny” depictions were ones of unkempt hair, bulging eyes, wide mouth with red lips, with a reputation of being so stupid, that they would easily kill themselves and ill raised due to lack of parenting, for that they were considered disposable. A stereotypes that still exist today, recently a Ferguson police officer wrote racist jokes about black women who have abortions reducing crime, “A May 2011 email stated: “An African – American woman in New Orleans was admitted into the hospital for a pregnancy termination. Two weeks later she received a check for $5,000. She phoned the hospital to ask who it was from. The hospital said, ‘Crimestoppers,’” the report states.
One of the most famous White minstrel show performers was Thomas D.

Rice, who blackened his face and colored his lips blood red surrounded by white paint. Rice performed song and dance a jig called “Jump Jim Crow”, this act was his attempt to depict the realities of African American life. Jim Crow was used for comic relief, which play on the stereotypes that blacks were lazy, sometimes menacing, ignorant, and crass in behavior and disturb whites in their otherwise peaceful environment. The violence of slavery became a joke, in reality black Americans were not only seen and perceived that way, but even in terms of public policy. Jim Crow performance sent a message about the dangers of free blacks, so much so that in the 1850s, northern states segregated spaces were called “Jim Crow Cars”. Jim Crow laws has we know it day, symbolize the desires of whites to keep blacks out of white spaces.
There is no doubt that blackface minstrelsy show were racist, however, there was some benefit for black Americans, by 1860 black performers were on stage themselves playing the roles that were previously played by white performers, this was the only way blacks would be allowed to perform on stage. Two of the most famous black minstrelsy performers were James Bland, who became the first successful African American songwriter and William Henry Lane a talented dancer, who was praised by Charles Dickens for his dance routines. Overtime black minstrelsy performers would change and make modifications to these

acts.
The history of blackface minstrelsy is not talked about much in the media today, except around Halloween, evidently it’s the season for blackface. Contained in these cultural depictions of blacks, is the history of our national conscience struggling desperately to reconcile the paradox of racism in a nation founded on the principle “That all men are created equal”. Until we actively educate ourselves about slavery and the forces that shaped the reality, for a large portion of our population. There will be those that will continue to adorn blackface without fully acknowledging the horror hidden beneath the paint.