Blackface Historia

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Black Identity: The Perception of Race Through

History

concepts of race and indentity analysed through three different contexts

BLACKFACE: The Representation of Race Through Stereotypes

by zamdeneme

Denis Bettio (U1135153)

University of East London

In this post Im going to analyse the historical and cultural phenomenon of blackface as an exemplamean used by the cultural oligarchs of white society in order to define through stereotypes a seconethnic group, the black society the former positioning itself in a condition of superiority, whidenigrating and lowering the latter. Focusing in particular on the post-colonial United States, Im gointo illustrate the process through which the main signifiers of black peoples physical and culturfeatures were distorted and exploited, and how they affected the white-driven society until the moderdays.

THE ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION OF BLACKFACE

What is intended with the term blackfaceis the practice of representing the features of Afro-America

people in a caricaturist and exaggerated way, practice which has been taking place during the centuriein different forms with the main purpose of entertaining the white audience.

The first episodes of black people being physically exploited to entertain a white audience can breferred to the XIV century, when the Portugal slave market traders began to take African natives to th

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mother country. Being seen as something exotic, the interest for black characters influenced sever

theatrical plays such as Shakespeares Othello, though these kind of early representations were lackinthe stereotypical aspects that later on will be the key themes of blackface.

Things came to a turning point during the 1780s, when the British comedian actor Lewis Hallam starte

to perform on stage the character of a drunken black man called Mungo. He used to apply a black tinto his skin and whitened the area around his lips, in order to imitate and exaggerate black peoplephysiognomy. The popular interest generated on the subject inspired other actors to perform simil

roles. In the early years of 1800, blackfacecharacters became very popular in the States, and this trenculminated with the success obtained by white comedian Thomas D. Rice while performing a dance othe song Jump Jim Crow (jimcrowmuseum, 2012).

The increasing attention given by the white public to blackfaceperformances brought many actors torganize in travelling groups, performing the so called minstrel shows, adding to the repertoire oblack songs parodies some short sketches representing different types of characters, according to thstereotypical behaviours associated with black people as being lazy, liar, superstitious, lascivious anincapable of speaking proper English. The characters bad behavioural attitudes and slang were baseon white peoples perceptions of black slaves. In fact, those were the years of the American Civil Wawhen discrimination and segregation laws were having great impact on popular culture, particularlinfluencing the Southern States.


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Wm. H. Wests Big Minstrel Jubilee (circa 1900)

(http://vt2013group9.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/blackfaceminstrelspostcard.jpg)

Blackface Minstrels (1908)

Blackfacerepresentations, originally exclusively performed by white actors, begun to be interpreted bblack people themselves. This represented the beginning of a slow but ascending control of the wathey were represented as. As Mel Watkins (2000) writes:

By the 1860s black performers [were] going on the stage themselves and performing in a simila

manner. Because basically when the black performers did minstrel shows, they were doing the samacts that whites had done before, it was necessary for themit was necessary for them to do that to bon stage. Otherwise, they would not have been allowed there. Gradually, they would change it, thewould make modifications. (Watkins, 2000)

In spite of the fact that those black actors were just re-interpreting the parodist dynamics coined from

the white counterpart, they encountered a greater success from the public which recognized them a

more realistic. This gain of power over the blackfaceplays, even if limited, allowed black actors to subtmake fun of the racist way they were depicted and to get some handle on the way their culture wamisrepresented.

At the end of the century, the popularity of blackfaceas a show was dying out, but its parodist style waconveyed in new forms of expression, with special success in the cinema industry. Bert Williams foun

his fame thanks to his interpretation of blackfacecharacters in comic silent movies, playing with the mytof the black person as a scoundrel and vicious character, always ending up in troubles. A Natural BorGambler (riverbends1, 2012) illustrates well the features of his characters. Even later on, major roles fo

black characters in movies were all interpreted by white actors in disguise, as in the first version of Unc

Toms Cabin (1910).


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A Natural Born Gambler (1916) Bert Williams Silent Film

Photo portrait of Vaudeville star Bert Williams in blackface with cigarette (Samuel Lumiere, 1921)

This practice fell in dismay approximately around the 30s when sensitivity against racism slowly beguto hatch in the popular culture. Summarizing what Octavia Graham (2011, p.9) states, with the growinpopular consensus of the Civil Rights Movement in America, blackface practice fall in dismay for iracial and denigrative aspects and becoming a taboo in a growing number of countries. Nonetheless, ideep eradication in the popular culture influenced the production of a huge amount of blackfac

imagery and products in the everyday commodities, industrial branding, famous radio programs ananimated series until the late 60s and in some extent to the present days.


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ANALYSIS OF BLACKFACETHROUGH

POST-COLONIALISM AND RACE THEORIES

The social environment we live in is the result of centuries of struggles and fights for human rights anequality, therefore it may not be so easy to fully understand the factors that formed the the concept orace and the dynamics through which discrimination was generated. Popular perception on racidiversity has varied through cultures and times, and was inspired and supported by a prolific academdiscourse based on different studies by scholars and scientists.

With the purpose of analyzing the popularity of the blackfacephenomenon I am going to circumscrib

my discourse around the colonialism era in America to the present days, as it is the span of time whe

the practice of blackfacehas encountered its greatest influence and developments.

Summarizing what Michel Weviorka (1995, p.12) writes, at the beginning of the 19thCentury is possibto observe the seeds of an evolutionary process in the American society. The starting point was condition of neat separation between the white dominant class and the black one, subjugated by slaverThe latter started to organize itself into a cast system, but yet devoid of any independence from thpower of white people impending among all of them. This change brought the formation of new sociaclasses inside the black communities and therefore a new self-awareness, which led to a social fight fobetter conditions and recognition. This take of position was feared by the white class, because threatened the power of control over its most important force of labor. It also carried the threat of givinequal opportunities to black people among the white hierarchical society, threatening their previousundisputed superiority. Racial prejudice became then a weapon for preventing and restraining an

attempt of social revolution, by denigrating black people as unfitted for being equal to white.

This is an important factor that contributed to the growing affirmation and popularity of blackfa

representations, as they were degrading black culture, along with classifying blackness as an inferiocondition due to its stereotyped negative intrinsic values. As Octavia Graham (2011, p.8) writes referrinto blackface:

the genre played an important role in shaping perceptions of and prejudices about blacks general

and African Americans in particular. Some social commentators have stated that blackface provided aoutlet for whites fear of the unknown and the unfamiliar, and a socially acceptable way of expressin

their feelings and fears about race and control.

The nature of the plays was based on depicting stereotyped characters to mimic black peop

performing socially despised behaviors. The hilarious effect that those kind of representations generatein the white audience was also thanks to the highlighting of the supposed innate despicable anbeast-like qualities of the black nature, as opposition to the superior and refined behaviour of the whione.

Summarizing what Robert Hornback (2007) writes about blackface iconography, this type

representation bases its features on associating the features of black people to the animal figure of th


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ape. Their enslaved condition was rationalized by white society as a position comparable to that odomesticated animals. The concept of bestialization of those human beings was subtly proposed bculture, and generated in the association of black peoples supposed reasoning capabilities with thbasic instinct and animal irrationality of the primates. As the last ones were considered by tradition a

natural fools, the same characteristic was applied to the blackfaceplay when representing the blacstereotype. Using Hornbacks words (2007):

Such a rationalized assumption of reason as the exclusive, natural inheritance of whites, as again

purportedly innately, permanently irrational and beast-like blacks, who were deemed natural oborn fools, prefigured and prepared the way for nineteenth-century scientific racist discourse on thnature of different races that may be traced in part to the natural fool traditions. (Hornback, 200p.64)

The concept of fool or buffoon brings out an interesting analytic point of view, as its purpose is

entertain through been ridiculed. The unconscious terror for what is unknown or not understandable intrinsic part of the human nature, manifested in white society by the creation of a symbolism, th

blackface, which has been used specifically with the aim of being ridiculed, and therefore soothing thfear. Being black characters interpreted by white actors it allowed the crowd to convey, through th

symbolism, its uneasiness into a sense of control and authority over the black population. As Eric Lo(1995, p.25) claims: the black mask offered a way to play with the collective fears of a degraded anthreateningand maleother while at the same time maintaining some symbolic control over them.

INFLUENCES OF BLACKFACEIN MODERN SOCIETY

The white supremacy in the form of control over the black stereotype has varied according to thmainstream type of media of the times. From the minstrelsy practice performed by actors, blackfacethebrought its racial discrimination in the representation of characters from the movie industry, radprograms, literature, product branding and a massive production of memorabilia and black imagery.

A reproduction of a tin advertising sign for Picaninny Freeze(1922)


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There is a significant transition that undergoes the phenomena in the period between 1940 to 1960 tha

sees the the decline of blackfacerepresentations in the States, due to the affirmation of The Civil RighMovements and the following sensitization of the popular culture. It will be only during the 80s th

blackfacewill surface again, but under a totally different perspective.

Summarizing what Horace Brockington (1997) writes on the artistic scene of the time, blackfaceand all thracist imagery produced in the previous century was now serving the purpose of questioning the issuof race through its remarkably caricaturist features, which were more effectively perceived in a socie

were racism had became a taboo.

The interest in racist artifacts still generates a vast interest. As David Pilgrim (2012), curator of the JiCrow Museum of Racist Memorabilia refers in the dedicated website:

There are about fifty thousand collectors of Black Memorabilia an umbrella term which include

any object related to the African American experience. Black memorabilia, especially the older artifactinclude a disproportionately large number of racist anti-black collectibles. Since the 1970s there has beean upsurge in interest in black collectibles, especially blatantly racist objects.

Summarizing what Manthia Diawara (2008) analyzes about the renewed interest on the blackfaciconography, a significant majority of the collectors now are black people. The reasons why blackfacebeing re-appropriated by the same ethnic group it denigrates is symptomatic of the social and politicchanges that affected society. Its use for self-expression among the black art movement as well has i

connections with the new stereotypes generated in modern society. The use of the blackfaceby blacpeople is driven by the necessity to re-appropriate their historical meaning, while erasing the whit

ideology behind them. By resisting the stereotype and deconstructing it, blackface serves now thpurpose of establishing racial equality in society. In David Levinthals (1998) book Blackface, the artiquestions the perception of what is race by appropriating and photographing racist memorabilichallenging the viewer to identify the unconscious connoted meanings of these representations.


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from Blackface (1998)

Using Diawara (2008) words,

True to the function of every stereotype, stereotyping a blackface stereotype corrupts it by giving itnew reified content. The new blackface is therefore the criterion of transtextuality: an artifice whicenables the performer to fill all the spaces that the old stereotype occupied and to be the star of the newshow. If the old stereotype is the projection of white supremacist thinking onto black people, the nestereotype compounds matters by desiring that image, and deforming its content for a differeappropriation.

In conclusion, I think that blackfaceis still an important subject in order to understand the dynamics th

rule our contemporary multicultural society, involving themes that are strictly related to our perceptioof other cultures. Understanding the mechanism behind a representation which is implicitstereotypical in its nature is fundamental in a world now more than ever ruled by media and visuculture.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Blackface Minstrels (1908) Blackface Minstrels [Postcard] Available at http://en.wikipedia.or/wiki/File:BlackfaceMinstrelsPostcard.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.or/wiki/File:BlackfaceMinstrelsPostcard.jpg) (Accessed: 2 May 2013).

Brockington, H. (1997) David Levinthal: Black Face, Review, February [Online]. Availabat: http://www.plexus.org/review/brockington/levinthal.html# BROCKINGTO(http://www.plexus.org/review/brockington/levinthal.html#%20BROCKINGTON) (Accesse19/04/2013).

Diawara, M. (2008) Black Cultural Studies. Available at: http://www.blackculturalstudies.or/m_diawara/blackface.html (http://www.blackculturalstudies.org/m_diawa/blackface.html) (Accessed: 19/04/2013).

Graham, O. C. (2011) Black Enough: Blackface and Identity in Japanese Culture, Interdisciplinar

Humanities, 28, 2, pp. 5-19, Academic Search Complete,EBSCOhost[Online], (Accessed: 15 April 2013).

Hornback, R. (2007) The Folly of Racism: Enslaving Blackface and the Natural Fo

Tradition, Medieval & Renaissance Drama In England, 20, pp. 46-84, Academic Searc

Complete, EBSCOhost [Online], (Accessed: 15 April 2013).

imcrowmuseum (2012) Jump Jim Crow. Available at https://www.youtube.co/watch?v=T5FpKAxQNKU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5FpKAxQNKU) (Accessed: 2 Ma2013).

Levinthal, D. (1998) Untitled [Online]. Available at: http://www.davidlevinthal.com/works.htm

(http://www.davidlevinthal.com/works.html) (Accessed: 2 May 2013).

Lott, E. (1995) Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class. New York: OpeUniversity Press.

Lumiere, S. (1921) Photo portrait of Vaudeville star Bert Williams in blackface with cigarette [Online] Availabat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bert_Williams_blackface_2.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.or/wiki/File:Bert_Williams_blackface_2.jpg) (Accessed: 2 May 2013).

Pilgrim, D. (2012) Ferris State University. Available at: http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcro


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/newforms/ (http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/news/jimcrow/newforms/) (Accessed 19/04/2013).

riverbends1 (2012) A Natural Born Gambler (1916) Bert Williams Silent Film. Availabat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIghOyFvAaw (https://www.youtube.co/watch?v=eIghOyFvAaw) (Accessed: 2 May 2013).

Wieviorka, M. (1995) The Arena of Racism, London: Sage Publications.

Watkins, M. (2000) PBS. Available at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/foster/sfeatu/sf_minstrelsy_9.html (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/foster/sfeature/sf_minstrelsy_9.htm(Accessed: 14/04/2013).

Wm. H. Wests Big Minstrel Jubilee. (circa 1900)Wm. H. Wests Big Minstrel Jubilee [Lythography] NeYork : Strobridge Litho. Co..

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PUBLISHED: May 2, 2013 (2013-05-02T17:24:36+0000)

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