Blackface - An Offensive American Stereotype

What is the issue?

Recent controversies in the U.S. centred on blackface depictions have brought to light the continuing racial prejudices in the American society.

What is a black face?

• It is a form of theatrical make-up used predominantly by non-black people to represent a caricature of a black person.
• It is often used as a part of Halloween costumes, despite strong opposition from the black community.

What are the recent happenings?

• Gucci (an upscale brand) pulled from stores a clothing material after it was pointed out on social media it resembled blackface.
• The sweater covered most of a white model’s face, with a cut out mouth ringed with red to give the appearance of oversized lips.

• Ralph Northam, the Democrat Governor of Virginia, had apologised after a picture from his 1984 medical school yearbook surfaced.
• It showed two men, one in blackface, and the other white. There were demands for Northam’s resignation.
• These controversies have ironically come in February (2019) observed as Black History Month in the US.
• Besides, blackface has made frequent appearances in day-to-day American life too.

What is the historical significance?

• Blackface minstrelsy - Blackface is a form of theatrical depiction of black characters by white performers that was part of the American tradition of popular entertainment known as minstrelsy.
• Minstrel show/minstrelsy is an American theatrical form, popular from the early 19^th to the early 20^th century, that was founded on the comic enactment of racial stereotypes. 
• White men darkened their faces to create caricatures of black people, including exaggerated features like large mouths, lips and eyes, woolly hair and coal-black skin, and wore torn clothes.
• Minstrel shows depicted blacks as lazy, ignorant, superstitious, hypersexual, and prone to thievery and cowardice.

• Jim Crow laws - Thomas Dartmouth ‘Daddy’ Rice, one of the best known figures on the 19th century American stage, created the blackface character Jim Crow.
• The popularity of Rice’s caricature led to black men being referred to as “Jim Crow”.
• Eventually, laws enacted in the 19th and 20th centuries to enforce racial segregation in the Southern United States became known as “Jim Crow laws”.
• Brand - By the middle of the 19th century, an entire subindustry of minstrel songs and music, make-up, costumes, and stereotyped character templates had been created.
• Soon many books, movies, etc emerged, featuring white actors in blackface.
• The first depictions of Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse featured the character in blackface.
• Blackface spread to many countries beyond the US, and the tradition survived in the UK until the early 1980s.

Is it a racist phenomenon?

• Certainly, at the heart of blackface depictions lies racial stereotyping.
• It is a mocking, deeply offensive, racist portrayal of black people because the origins of blackface in minstrel shows are based on depictions that showed slavery was not that bad. 
• It projected slaves of that time were having a good time, singing, dancing and telling jokes.
• Minstrelsy served as a justification for state violence against black people and to deny them citizen’s rights.
• It was called “blackface”, and it made African-Americans sad and angry.
• So even though some people may say it was just in good fun, underlying racial history cannot be denied and so the practise of doing it occasion like Halloween, cannot be encouraged.

When it comes to blackface, intentions doesn't matter. Because the whole thing is rooted in white supremacy.

• In modern times, blackface continues to suggest that black people are appropriate targets for ridicule and mockery.

Source: The Indian Express