How the History of Blackface Is Rooted in Racism

[Nevilledog]

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Eddie Smith
@eddsmitty
Blackface is frowned upon by black people, and the reason is spelled out in this article. Even today, blackface is used to denigrate black people, although racists who are busted wearing it plead ignorant to its racist history.
Today's discussion, fam!

How the History of Blackface Is Rooted in Racism
Blackface became popular in the U.S. after the Civil War as white performers played characters that demeaned and dehumanized African Americans.
history.com
7:52 AM · Aug 8, 2021

https://www.history.com/news/blackface-history-racism-origins

The portrayal of blackface–when people darken their skin with shoe polish, greasepaint or burnt cork and paint on enlarged lips and other exaggerated features—is steeped in centuries of racism. It peaked in popularity during an era in the United States when demands for civil rights by recently emancipated slaves triggered racial hostility. And today, because of blackface’s historic use to denigrate people of African descent, its continued use is still considered racist.

“It’s an assertion of power and control,” says David Leonard , a professor of comparative ethnic studies and American studies at Washington State University. “It allows a society to routinely and historically imagine African Americans as not fully human. It serves to rationalize violence and Jim Crow segregation.”

Although the exact moment when blackface originated isn’t known, its roots date back to centuries-old European theatrical productions, most famously, Shakespeare’s Othello. The practice then began in the United States in the 18th century, when European immigrants brought the genre over and performed in seaports along the Northeast, says Daphne Brooks, a professor of African American studies and theater studies at Yale University.

“But the most famous sort of era to think of as being the birth of the form itself is the Antebellum era of the early 19th century,” Brooks says.

*snip*


Yes, this is from April, but it's the first time I saw this story.

[Blecht]

1. History never gets old

In response to your last line.

[Nevilledog]

2. My feeling also. It was just to preempt people saying it was from April.....lol

[jimfields33]

4. The worst was Ted Danson.

I’m still surprised he was forgiven. What he did was atrocious.

[Haggard Celine]

3. I had an Al Jolson record I used to listen to when I was a kid.

I know all those old songs by heart. Al Jolson's portrayal of black people was somewhat racist because of how he looked, but the songs he sang and the way he acted wasn't really that negative.

Jolson was very melodramatic, and he seemed to have an idealized notion of what the South was like in antebellum times. The slave owners treated their slaves well, and the slaves were like family members. The South was a land of plenty and the people were happy-go-lucky. It was the mythologized South that people made up after the war and Reconstruction.

The war and Reconstruction were such hard times that the period before the war became a golden age in the minds of a lot of people. Al Jolson told the stories with his music that people invented, both in the South and the North. It was rather silly when we look back on it today, but a lot of people were entertained by it back then.

I don't know if Jolson knew how ridiculous his act was or if he really believed the hype about what the South was like in antebellum times. He made a lot of money with his act, so I'm sure that he took it somewhat seriously. I didn't get the impression that he hated black people, though. I don't think his act was intended to demean people, but some people might have seen it that way. It's certainly offensive to people today.