Member-only story
Black Face is Not Just About Race
It’s a complex mix of what is right and good, and a mob directed cancel culture in changing times
I’ve been reading many trending news stories about blackface and cancel culture.
Blackface is a term that is used to describe a form of theatrical make-up that is predominantly used by non-black performers in order to represent a caricature of a black person.
In the U.S.A. the practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereotypes such as the “happy-go-lucky darky on the plantation” and other racist depictions. By the middle of the century, blackface minstrel shows had become a distinctive American art form, translating formal works such as opera into popular terms for a general audience. Early in the 20th century, blackface branched off from the minstrel show and became a form in its own right. In the United States, blackface declined in popularity beginning in the 1940s and into the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. Interestingly the minstrel show became quite popular in the South African black communities, a trend that began in the 1890s when American shows visited those communities, and it became a sort of real-time, analog meme.
