Blackface and Minstrel Shows

1
Blackface and Minstrel Shows

• An Inspiration for Jim?

2
What is a Minstrel Show?

• The Minstrel Show presents us with a strange and
  awful phenomenon. In the US they began in the
  1830s, with working class white men dressing up
  as plantation slaves. These men imitated black
  musical and dance forms, combining savage parody
  of black Americans with genuine fondness for
  African American cultural forms. By the Civil War
  the minstrel show had become world famous and
  respectable. Late in his life Mark Twain fondly
  remembered the "old time nigger show" with its
  colorful comic darkies and its rousing songs and
  dances.

3
Blackface

• White performers would blacken their faces with
  burnt cork or greasepaint, dress in outlandish
  costumes, and then perform songs and skits that
  mocked African Americans as lazy, buffoonish,
  dumb, superstitious and musical. Some of the most
  famous songs in American history--Dixie, Camptown
  Races, Oh Sussanah, My Old Kentucky Home--began
  as minstrel songs.

4
Caricatures

• These three stock characters were among several
  that reappeared in minstrel shows throughout the
  nineteenth century. "Jim Crow" was the
  stereotypical carefree slave, "Mr. Tambo" a
  joyous musician, and "Zip Coon" a free black
  attempting to "put on airs" or rise above his
  station. The parody in minstrel shows was often
  savage.

5

• Jim Crow

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A Blackface Routine

• Dog-gone it, seems like every time there's a
  train excursion, I'm always broke.
• You wouldn't be broke if you'd go to work.
• I would work, if I could find any pleasure in
  it.
• I don't know anything about pleasure, but
  always remember it's the early bird that catches
  the worm!
• Uh, the early bird catches what worm?
• Why, any worm!
• Well, what of it, what about it?
• He catches it, that's all!
• Well, what's the worm's idea in being there?
• (They go on and on with this as Moran gets
  ever more exasperated, and Mack finally sighs)
• Who wants a worm, anyhow?

7
The Legacy of Blackface

• old Looney Tunes cartoons
• Buckwheat (The Little Rascals)
• Amos n Andy
• Aunt Jemima and Mrs. Butterworth
• Uncle Bens Rice
• modern-day sketch comedy
• Spike Lees Bamboozled (This film accuses black
  entertainment of exploiting African-American
  culture for the benefit of white audiences.)