Blackface
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/* Modern-day manifestations */ Still haven't found anything we'd consider citable about Taco's "Puttin' On the Ritz" video (though it's all over the tube sites); but all sites agree it's from 1984
[[Image:Minstrel PosterBillyVanWare edit.jpg|right|thumbnail|280px|This reproduction of a 1900 [[William H. West (entertainer)|William H. West]] [[minstrel show]] poster, originally published by the Strobridge [[Lithography|Litho]] Co., shows the transformation from white to "black".]]
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'''Blackface''' in the narrow sense is a style of [[theatre|theatrical]] [[makeup]] that originated in the [[United States]], used to take on the appearance of certain [[archetype]]s of [[Racism in the United States|American]] [[racism]], especially those of the ''[[List of ethnic slurs#D|darky]]'' or ''[[List of ethnic slurs#C|coon]]''. ''Blackface'' in the broader sense includes similarly stereotyped performances even when they do not involve blackface makeup.
Blackface is American in origin, and blackface in the narrow sense was an important performance tradition in the [[Theater in the United States|American theater]] for roughly 100 years beginning around 1830. It was rapidly popular overseas, particularly so in [[United Kingdom|Britain]], where the tradition lasted even longer.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=62}}</ref> In both the United States and Britain, blackface was most commonly used in the [[Minstrel show|minstrel]] performance tradition, but it predates that tradition, and it survived long past the heyday of the minstrel show. [[White (people)|White]] blackface performers in the past used burnt [[cork (material)|cork]] and later greasepaint or shoe polish to blacken their skin and exaggerate their lips, often wearing woolly [[Wig (hair)|wigs]], gloves, [[tailcoat]]s, or ragged clothes to complete the transformation. Later, [[Black (people)|black]] artists also performed in blackface.
Stereotypes embodied in the stock characters of blackface [[Minstrel show|minstrelsy]] played a significant role in cementing and proliferating racist images, attitudes and perceptions worldwide. In some quarters, the [[caricature]]s that were the legacy of blackface persist to the present day and are a cause of ongoing controversy.
By the mid-20th century, changing attitudes about race and racism effectively ended the prominence of blackface makeup used in performance in the U.S. and elsewhere. It remains in relatively limited use as a theatrical device, mostly outside the U.S., and is more commonly used today as social commentary or [[satire]]. Perhaps the most enduring effect of blackface is the precedent it established in the introduction of [[African American culture]] to an international audience, albeit through a distorted lens.<ref name=Lott-17-18>{{Harvnb|Lott|1993|p=17–18}}</ref><ref name=Watkins-82>{{Harvnb|Watkins|1999|p=82}}</ref> Blackface's groundbreaking [[Cultural appropriation|appropriation]],<ref name=Lott-17-18 /><ref name=Watkins-82 /><ref>''Inside the minstrel mask: Readings in nineteenth-century blackface minstrelsy'' by Bean, Annemarie, James V. Hatch, and Brooks McNamara. 1996. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.</ref> [[exploitation]], and [[Cultural assimilation|assimilation]]<ref name=Lott-17-18 /> of African-American culture—as well as the inter-ethnic artistic collaborations that stemmed from it—were but a prologue to the lucrative packaging, marketing, and dissemination of African-American cultural expression and its myriad derivative forms in today's world popular culture.<ref name=Watkins-82 /><ref>''Color-Blind Ideology and the Cultural Appropriation of Hip-Hop'' Jason Rodriquez, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 35, No. 6, 645-668 (2006)</ref><ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2838/is_n1_v31/ai_19569682 Darktown Strutters. - book reviews] ''African American Review'', Spring, 1997 by Eric Lott</ref>
==History==
==="Displaying Blackness" and the shaping of racist archetypes===
There is no consensus about a single moment that constitutes the origin of blackface. John Strausbaugh places it as part of a tradition of "displaying Blackness for the enjoyment and edification of white viewers" that dates back at least to 1441, when captive West Africans were displayed in [[Portugal]].<ref name=Strausbaugh-edification>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=35-36}}</ref> Whites routinely portrayed black characters in the [[Elizabethan era|Elizabethan]] and [[Jacobean era|Jacobean]] theater (see [[English Renaissance theatre]]), most famously in ''[[Othello]]'' (1604).<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=62}}</ref> However, ''Othello'' and other plays of this era did not involve the emulation and caricature of "such supposed innate qualities of Blackness as inherent musicality, natural athleticism," etc. that Strausbaugh sees as crucial to blackface.<ref name=Strausbaugh-innate>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=35-36}}</ref>
[[Lewis Hallam, Jr.]], a white actor using blackface makeup of [[American Company]] fame, brought blackface in this more specific sense to prominence as a theatrical device in the United States when playing the role of "Mungo", an inebriated black man in ''[[The Padlock]]'', a British play that premiered in [[New York City]] at the John Street Theatre on [[May 29]] [[1769]].<ref>{{cite book |last= Tosches |first= Nick |title= Where Dead Voices Gather |publisher= Back Bay |year= 2002 |isbn= 0316895377 |pages = p. 10}}</ref> The play attracted notice, and other performers adopted the style. From at least the 1810s, blackface [[clown]]s were popular in the United States.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=68}}</ref> [[George Washington Dixon]] was already building his stage career around blackface in 1828,<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=74 ''et. seq.''}}</ref> but it was another white comic actor, [[Thomas D. Rice]], who truly popularized blackface. Rice introduced the song "[[Jump Jim Crow]]" accompanied by a dance in his stage act in 1828<ref>{{Harvnb|Lott|1993|p=211}}</ref> and scored stardom with it by 1832.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=67}}</ref>
{{quotation|First on de heel tap, den on the toe<br />Every time I wheel about I jump Jim Crow.<br />Wheel about and turn about an do jis so.<br />And ebery time I wheel about I jump Jim Crow.|Thomas D. Rice, 1828<ref>{{cite book |title=The Devil's Music: A History of the Blues |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=sgai95hSbYEC&pg=PA22&lpg=PA22&dq=%22First+on+de+heel+tap,+Den+on+the+toe+Every+time+I+wheel+about+I+jump+Jim+Crow%22&source=web&ots=vbkVOqsKGz&sig=QYyew1L5zNnyv_ZTXYmVIapYHvM&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result |first=Giles |last=Oakley |publisher=Da Capo Press |pages=22 |isbn=0306807432}}</ref>}}
[[Image:BlackfaceMinstrelsPostcard.jpg|thumb|left|This postcard, published circa 1908, shows a white minstrel team. While both are wearing wigs, the man on the left is in blackface and [[drag (clothing)|drag]].]]
Rice traveled the U.S., performing under the [[stage name]] "Daddy Jim Crow". The name ''Jim Crow'' later became attached to [[Jim Crow law|statutes]] that codified the reinstitution of [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregation]] and [[racial discrimination|discrimination]] after [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]].<ref>Ronald L. F. Davis, [http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/creating2.htm Creating Jim Crow], ''The History of Jim Crow'' online, New York Life. Accessed 31 January 2008.</ref>
1830s and early 1840s blackface mixed skits were with comic songs and vigorous dances. Initially, Rice and his peers performed only in relatively disreputable venues, but as blackface gained popularity they gained opportunities to perform as ''[[entr'acte]]s'' in theatrical venues of a higher class. Stereotyped blackface characters developed: buffoonish, lazy, superstitious, cowardly, and lascivious characters, who stole, lied pathologically, and mangled the English language. Early blackface minstrels were all male, so cross-dressing white men also played black women who were often portrayed either as unappealingly and grotesquely mannish; in the matronly, [[mammy archetype|mammy]] mold; or highly sexually provocative. The 1830s American stage, where blackface first rose to prominence featured similarly comic [[stereotype]]s of the clever Yankee and the larger-than-life Frontiersman;<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=27}}</ref> the late 19th- and early 20th-century American and British stage where it last prospered<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=130–131}}</ref> featured many other, mostly [[ethnicity|ethnically]]-based, comic stereotypes: conniving, venal [[Jew]]s;<ref>Jody Rosen (2006), album notes to ''Jewface'', Reboot Stereophonic CD RSR006</ref><ref name=Strausbaugh-131>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=131}}</ref> drunken brawling [[Ireland|Irishmen]] with [[wikt:blarney|blarney]] at the ready;<ref>Michael C. O'Neill, [http://www.eoneill.com/library/laconics/1/1o.htm O'Neill's Ireland: Old Sod or Blarney Bog?], ''Laconics'' (eOneill.com), 2006. Accessed online 2 February 2008.</ref><ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19960102/ai_n9632177 Pat, Paddy and Teague], ''The Independent'' (London), January 2, 1996. Accessed online (at findarticles.com) 2 February 2008.</ref><ref name=Strausbaugh-131 /> oily Italians;<ref name=Strausbaugh-131 /> stodgy Germans;<ref name=Strausbaugh-131 /> and gullible rural rubes.<ref name=Strausbaugh-131 />
1830s and early 1840s blackface performers performed solo or as duos, with the occasional trio; the traveling troupes that would later characterize blackface minstrelsy arise only with the minstrel show.<ref >{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=30}}</ref> In New York City in 1843, [[Dan Emmett]] and his [[Virginia Minstrels]] broke blackface minstrelsy loose from its novelty act and ''entr'acte'' status and performed the first full-blown [[minstrel show]]: an evening's entertainment composed entirely of blackface performance. ([[George Christy]] did more or less the same, apparently independently, earlier the same year in [[Buffalo, New York]].)<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=102–103}}</ref> Their loosely structured show with the musicians sitting in a semicircle, a [[tambourine]] player on one end and a [[bones (instrument)|bones]] player on the other, set the precedent for what would soon become the first act of a standard three-act minstrel show.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=51–52}}</ref> By 1852, the skits that had been part of blackface performance for decades expanded to one-act farces, often used as the show's third act.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=56–57}}</ref>
The songs of [[Northern United States|northern]] composer [[Stephen Foster]] figured prominently in blackface minstrel shows of the period. Though written in dialect and certainly politically incorrect by today's standards, his later songs were free of the ridicule and blatantly racist caricatures that typified other songs of the genre. Foster's works treated [[Slavery in the United States|slaves]] and the [[Southern United States|South]] in general with an often cloying sentimentality that appealed to audiences of the day.<ref>Key, Susan. "Sound and Sentimentality: Nostalgia in the Songs of Stephen Foster." ''American Music'', Vol. 13, No. 2 (Summer, 1995), pp. 145-166.</ref>
White minstrel shows featured white performers pretending to be blacks, playing their versions of black music and speaking [[:wikt:ersatz|ersatz]] [[African American Vernacular English|black dialects]]. Minstrel shows dominated popular show business in the U.S. from that time through into the 1890s, also enjoying massive popularity in the [[United Kingdom|UK]] and in other parts of [[Europe]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=126}}</ref> As the minstrel show went into decline, blackface returned to its novelty act roots and became part of [[vaudeville]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=130–131}}</ref> Blackface featured prominently in [[film]] at least into the 1930s, and the "aural blackface"<ref name=Strausbaugh-225>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=225}}</ref> of the ''[[Amos 'n' Andy]]'' radio show lasted into the 1950s.<ref name=Strausbaugh-225/> Meanwhile, amateur blackface minstrel shows continued to be common at least into the 1950s.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=145–149}}</ref>
As a result, the genre played an important role in shaping perceptions of and prejudices about blacks generally and [[African American]]s in particular. Some social commentators have stated that blackface provided an outlet for whites' fear of the unknown and the unfamiliar, and a socially acceptable way of expressing their feelings and fears about race and control. Writes Eric Lott in ''Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class'', "The black mask offered a way to play with the collective fears of a degraded and threatening—and male—Other while at the same time maintaining some symbolic control over them."<ref>{{Harvnb|Lott|1993|p=25}}</ref>
American humorist and author [[Mark Twain]] reminisced near the end of his life about the shows he had seen in his youth:
{{quotation|the real [[nigger]]-show—the genuine nigger-show, the extravagant nigger-show—the show which to me had no peer and whose peer has not yet arrived, in my experience.... if I could have the nigger-show back again, in its pristine purity and perfection, I should have but little further use for opera. It seems to me that to the elevated mind and the sensitive spirit the hand-organ and the nigger-show are a standard and a summit to whose rarefied altitude the other forms of musical art may not hope to reach.|<ref>{{cite book|first=Mark|last=Twain|title=Chapters from my Autobiography|year=1906|publisher=Harper & Brothers}}</ref>}}
====Film====
Through the 1930s, many well-known entertainers of stage and screen [[List of entertainers known to have performed in blackface|also performed in blackface]].<ref>One extensive list can be found at {{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=222-225}}.</ref> Whites who performed in blackface in film included [[Al Jolson]],<ref name="RJ-Smith">Smith, Rj, "[http://web.archive.org/web/20041124222423/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1346/is_8_46/ai_76929846 Pardon the Expression]" (book review), ''Los Angeles Magazine'', August 2001. Accessed online 2 February 2008.</ref> [[Eddie Cantor]],<ref name=Kenrick>John Kenrick, [http://www.musicals101.com/blackface.htm Blackface and Old Wounds]. Musicals101.com. Accessed online 2 February 2008.</ref> [[Bing Crosby]]<ref name="RJ-Smith" /> and [[Judy Garland]].<ref name=Kenrick />
In the early years of film, black characters were routinely played by whites in blackface. In the first known film of ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' (1903) all of the major black roles were whites in blackface.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=203–204}}</ref> Even the 1914 ''Uncle Tom'' starring African American actor [[Sam Lucas]] in the title role had a white male in blackface as Topsy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=204–206}}</ref> [[D. W. Griffith]]'s ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]'' (1915) used whites in blackface to represent all of its major black characters,<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=211–212}}</ref> but reaction against the film's racism largely put an end to this practice in dramatic film roles. Thereafter, whites in blackface would appear almost exclusively in broad comedies or "ventriloquizing" blackness <ref>Michael Rogin, ''Blackface, White Noise:Jewish Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot'' (1998), University of California Press, ISBN 0520213807, p. 79.</ref> in the context of a vaudeville or minstrel performance within a film.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=214}}</ref> This stands in contrast to made-up whites routinely playing Native Americans, Asians, Arabs, and so forth, for several more decades.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=214–215}}</ref>
Blackface makeup was largely eliminated even from live film comedy in the U.S. after the end of the 1930s, when public sensibilities regarding [[Race (classification of human beings)|race]] began to change and blackface became increasingly associated with racism and [[bigotry]].<ref name=Kenrick /> Still, the tradition did not end all at once. The radio program ''[[Amos 'n' Andy]]'' (1928–1960) constituted a type of "aural blackface", in that the black characters were portrayed by whites and conformed to stage blackface stereotypes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=225}}; the televised version (1951–1953) used African American actors.</ref> The conventions of blackface also lived on unmodified at least into the 1950s in animated theatrical cartoons. Strausbaugh estimates that roughly one-third of late 1940s [[MGM]] cartoons "included a blackface, coon, or mammy figure."<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=240}}</ref> [[Bugs Bunny]] appeared in blackface at least as late as ''Southern Fried Rabbit'' in 1953.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=241}}</ref>
===Blacks===
[[Image:Bert Williams blackface 2.jpg|thumb|right|[[Bert Williams]] was the only black member of the [[Ziegfeld Follies]] when he joined them in 1910. Shown here in blackface, he was the highest-paid [[African American]] entertainer of his day.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=136}}</ref>]]
By 1840, African-American performers also were performing in blackface makeup. [[Frederick Douglass]] wrote in 1849 about one such troupe, [[Gavitt's Original Ethiopian Serenaders]]: "It is something to be gained when the colored man in any form can appear before a white audience."<ref>Frederick Douglass, [http://www.iath.virginia.edu/utc/minstrel/miar03at.html Gavitt's Original Ethiopian Serenaders], originally published in ''The North Star'' (Rochester), 29 June 1849. Online in Stephen Railton, ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' and American Culture, University of Virginia. Accessed online 31 January 2008.</ref> Douglass generally abhorred blackface and was one of the first people to write against the institution of blackface minstrelsy, condemning it as racist in nature, with inauthentic, northern, white origins.<ref>Granville Ganter, [http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-113646013.html "He made us laugh some": Frederick Douglass's humor], originally published in ''African American Review'', December 22, 2003. Online at HighBeam Encyclopedia. Accessed online 2 February 2008.</ref>
When all-black minstrel shows began to proliferate in the 1860s, they often were billed as "authentic" and "the real thing". These "colored minstrels"<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=199}}</ref> always claimed to be recently-freed slaves (doubtless many were, but most were not)<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=198, 236–237}}</ref> and were widely seen as authentic. This presumption of authenticity could be a bit of a trap, with white audiences seeing them more like "animals in a zoo"<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=206}}</ref> than skilled performers. Despite often smaller budgets and smaller venues, their public appeal sometimes rivalled that of white minstrel troupes. In the March 1866 [[Booker and Clayton's Georgia Minstrels]] may have been the country's most popular troupe, and were certainly among the most critically acclaimed.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=205}}</ref>
These "colored" troupes—many using the name "Georgia Minstrels"<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=203}}</ref>—focused on "plantation" material, rather than the more explicit social commentary (and more nastily racist stereotyping) found in portrayals of northern blacks.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=179, 198}}</ref> In the execution of authentic black music and the [[percussion instrument|percussive]], [[polyrhythm]]ic tradition of ''[[Juba dance|pattin' Juba]]'', when the only [[musical instrument|instruments]] performers used were their hands and feet, clapping and slapping their bodies and shuffling and stomping their feet, black troupes particularly excelled. One of the most successful black minstrel companies was [[Sam Hague|Sam Hague's]] [[Sam Hague's Slave Troupe of Georgia Minstrels|Slave Troupe of Georgia Minstrels]], managed by [[Charles Hicks]]. This company eventually was taken over by [[Charles Callendar]]. The Georgia Minstrels toured the United States and abroad and later became [[J. H. Haverly|Haverly's]] [[Haverly's Colored Minstrels|Colored Minstrels]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=205}}</ref>
From the mid-1870s, as white blackface minstrelsy became increasingly lavish and moved away from "Negro subjects", black troupes took the opposite tack.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=234}}</ref> The popularity of the [[Fisk Jubilee Singers]] and other ''[[jubilee singers]]'' had demonstrated northern white interest in white religious music as sung by blacks, especially [[spiritual (music)|spirituals]]. Some jubilee troupes pitched themselves as quasi-minstrels and even incorporated minstrel songs; meanwhile, blackface troupes began to adopt first jubilee material and then a broader range of southern black religious material. Within a few years, the word "jubilee", originally used by the Fisk Jubilee Singers to set themselves apart from blackface minstrels and to emphasize the religious character of their music, became little more than a synonym for "plantation" material.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=236–237, 244}}</ref> Where the jubilee singers tried to "clean up" Southern black religion for white consumption, blackface performers exaggerated its more exotic aspects.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=243}}</ref>
African-American blackface productions also contained buffoonery and comedy, by way of self-parody. In the early days of African-American involvement in theatrical performance, blacks could not perform without blackface makeup, regardless of how dark-skinned they were. The 1860s "colored" troupes violated this convention for a time: the comedy-oriented endmen "corked up", but the other performers "astonished" commentators by the diversity of their hues.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=200}}</ref> Still, their performances were largely in accord with established blackface stereotypes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=180}}</ref>
These black performers became stars within the broad African-American community, but were largely ignored or condemned by the black bourgeoisie. [[James Monroe Trotter]]—a middle class African American who had contempt for their "disgusting caricaturing" but admired their "highly musical culture"—wrote in 1882 that "few… who condemned black minstrels for giving 'aid and comfort to the enemy'" had ever seen them perform.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=226–228}}, including the quotation from Trotter.</ref> Unlike white audiences, black audiences presumably always recognized blackface performance as caricature, and took pleasure in seeing their own culture observed and reflected, much as they would half a century later in the performances of [[Moms Mabley]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=258–259}}</ref>
Despite reinforcing racist stereotypes, blackface minstrelsy was a practical and often relatively lucrative livelihood when compared to the menial labor to which most blacks were relegated. Owing to the discrimination of the day, "corking (or "blacking") up" provided an often singular opportunity for African-American musicians, actors, and dancers to practice their crafts.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=195}}</ref> Some minstrel shows, particularly when performing outside the South, also managed subtly to poke fun at the racist attitudes and double standards of white society or champion the [[abolitionism|abolitionist]] cause. It was through blackface performers, white and black, that the richness and exuberance of [[African-American music]], humor, and dance first reached mainstream, white audiences in the U.S. and abroad.<ref name="Watkins 82">{{Harvnb|Watkins|1999|p=82}}</ref> It was through blackface minstrelsy that African American performers first entered the mainstream of American show business.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=228}}</ref> Black performers used blackface performance to satirize white behavior. It was also a forum for the sexual double-entendre gags that were frowned upon by white moralists. There was often a subtle message behind the outrageous [[vaudeville]] routines:
{{quotation|The laughter that cascaded out of the seats was directed parenthetically toward those in America who allowed themselves to imagine that such 'nigger' showtime was in any way respective of the way we live or thought about ourselves in the real world.<ref name=fox>{{cite book |last= Fox |first= Ted |title= Showtime at the Apollo |publisher= Da Capo |year= 1983 |isbn= 0-647-01612-2 |page =pp. 5, 92–92}}</ref>}}
With the rise of vaudeville, [[Antigua]]n-born actor and comedian [[Bert Williams]] became [[Florenz Ziegfeld]]'s highest-paid star and only African American star.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=136}}</ref><ref>Margo Jefferson, [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/13/arts/music/13vaud.html Blackface Master Echoes in Hip-Hop], ''New York Times'', October 13, 2004. Accessed online 2 February 2008.</ref>
[[Image:Hotmikado.jpg|left|thumb|A poster for the 1939 [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] show ''[[The Hot Mikado (1939 production)|The Hot Mikado]]'' using blackface imagery]]In the [[Theater Owners Booking Association]] (TOBA), an all-black vaudeville circuit organized in 1909, blackface acts were a popular staple. Called "Toby" for short, performers also nicknamed it "Tough on Black Actors" (or, variously, "Artists" or "Asses"), because earnings were so meager. Still, TOBA headliners like Tim Moore and Johnny Hudgins could make a very good living, and even for lesser players, TOBA provided fairly steady, more desirable work than generally was available elsewhere. Blackface served as a springboard for hundreds of artists and entertainers—black and white—many of whom later would go on to find work in other performance traditions. For example, one of the most famous stars of Haverly's European Minstrels was [[Sam Lucas]], who became known as the "Grand Old Man of the [[Negro]] Stage".<ref>Johnson (1968). ''Black Manhattan'', p. 90. Quoted in {{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=218}}</ref> Lucas later played the title role in the 1914 cinematic production of [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]]'s ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]''.<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004743/ Uncle Tom's Cabin (1914)], IMDB. Accessed 31 January 2008.</ref> From the early 1930s to the late 1940s, [[New York City]]'s famous [[Apollo Theater]] in [[Harlem]] featured skits in which almost all black male performers wore the blackface makeup and huge white painted lips, despite protests that it was degrading from the NAACP. The comics said they felt "naked" without it.<ref name=fox/>
The minstrel show was appropriated by the black performer from the original white shows, but only in its general form. Blacks took over the form and made it their own. The professionalism of performance came from black theater. The black minstrels gave the shows vitality and humor that the white shows never had. As the black social critic, [[Amiri Baraka|LeRoi Jones]] has written:
{{quotation|It is essential to realize that...the idea of white men imitating, or caricaturing, what they consider certain generic characteristics of the black man's life in American is important if only because of the Negro's reaction to it. (And it is the Negro's ''reaction'' to America, first white and then black and white America, that I consider to have made him such a unique member of this society.)<ref name=leroy/> }}
The black minstrel performer was not only poking fun at himself but in a more profound way, he was poking fun at the white man. The cakewalk is caricaturing white customs, while white theater companies attempted to satirize the cakewalk as a black dance. Again, as LeRoi Jones notes:
{{quotation|If the cakewalk is a Negro dance caricaturing certain white customs, what is that dance when, say, a white theater company attempts to satirize it as a Negro dance? I find the idea of white minstrels in blackface satirizing a dance satirizing themselves a remarkable king of irony—which, I suppose is the whole point of minstrel shows.<ref name=leroy>
{{cite book
|first=Leroy
|last=Jones
|authorlink=
|title= Blues People: The Negro Experience in White America and the Music that Developed from It
|publisher= TMorrow Quill Paperbacks
|date= 1963
|location= Ny
|pages=85–86
| isbn =0-688-18474-x }}
</ref> }}
==Authentic or counterfeit==
The degree to which blackface performance drew on authentic African American culture and traditions is controversial. Blacks, including slaves, were influenced by white culture, including white musical culture. Certainly this was the case with church music from very early times. Complicating matters further, once the blackface era began, some blackface minstrel songs unquestionably written by New-York-based professionals (Stephen Foster, for example) made their way to the plantations in the South and merged into the body of African American folk music.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=70–72}}</ref>
However, it seems clear that American music by the early 19th century was an interwoven mixture of many influences, and that blacks were quite aware of white musical traditions and incorporated these into their music.
{{quotation|In the early years of the nineteenth century, white-to-black and black-to-white musical influences were widespread, a fact documented in numerous contemporary accounts.[...] [I]t becomes clear that the prevailing musical interaction and influences in the nineteenth century American produced a black populace conversant with the music of both traditions.<ref name=powerblack>
{{cite book
|first=Samuel A.
|last=Floyd, Jr.
|authorlink=
|title= The Power of Black Music: Interpreting its History from Africa to the United States
|publisher= Oxford University Press
|date= 1995
|location= NY
|pages=p. 58
| isbn =0-19-590975-9 }}
</ref>}}
Early blackface minstrels often claimed that their material was largely or entirely authentic, but there is little reason to believe that this was anything other than hype. Still, well into the 20th century, even scholars took this at face value.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=69}}</ref> [[Constance Rourke]], one of the founders of what is now known as [[cultural studies]], largely assumed this as late as 1931.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=27–28}}</ref> In the [[African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968)|Civil Rights era]] there was a strong reaction against this view, to the point of denying that blackface was anything other than a white racist counterfeit.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=70}}</ref> Starting no later than Robert Toll's ''Blacking Up'' (1974), a "third wave" has systematically studied the origins of blackface, and has put forward a nuanced picture: that blackface did, indeed, draw on African American culture, but that it transformed, stereotyped, and even caricatured that culture, resulting in often racist representations of black characters.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=70}}; {{Harvnb|Toll|1974}} ''passim.''</ref>
As discussed above, this picture becomes even more complicated after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], when many African Americans became blackface performers. They drew on much material of undoubted slave origins, but they also drew on a professional performer's instincts, while working within an established genre, and with the same motivation as white performers to make exaggerated claims of the authenticity of their own material.
Author Strausbaugh summed up as follows: "Some minstrel songs started as Negro folk songs, were adapted by White minstrels, became widely popular, and were readopted by Blacks," writes Strausbaugh. "The question of whether minstrelsy was white or black music was moot. It was a mix, a mutt -- that is, it was American music."<ref>
{{cite web
|url=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1585424986/ref=s9_asin_image_3_sips_c2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1M7C5DKDJ2A6RW8249N5&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=279530701&pf_rd_i=507846
|title=Amazon.com: Black Like You: Blackface, Whiteface, Insult & Imitation in American Popular Culture: John Strausbaugh,Darius James: Books|publisher=www.amazon.com|accessdate=2008-03-04|last=John |first=Strausbaugh}}
</ref>
=="Darky" iconography==
[[Image:Golliwogg1.jpg|right|thumb|Florence Kate Upton's "[[Golliwogg]]" in 1895, described as "a horrid sight, the blackest gnome." Note the formal minstrel attire of the person sitting in the chair.]]
The darky icon itself—[[Googly eyes|googly-eyed]], with inky skin; exaggerated white, pink or red lips; and bright, white teeth—became a common motif in entertainment, children's literature, mechanical banks and other toys and games of all sorts, [[cartoons]] and [[comic strips]], advertisements, jewelry, textiles, postcards, sheet music, food [[brand]]ing and packaging, and other consumer goods.
In 1895, the [[Golliwogg]] surfaced in [[Great Britain]], the product of American-born children's book illustrator [[Florence Kate Upton]], who modeled her rag doll character [[Golliwogg]] after a minstrel doll she had in the U.S. as a child. "Golly", as he later affectionately came to be called, had a jet-black face; wild, woolly hair; bright, red lips; and sported formal minstrel attire. The generic British golliwog later made its way back across the [[Atlantic ocean|Atlantic]] as dolls, toy tea sets, ladies' perfume, and in myriad other forms. This word ''golliwog'' may have given rise to the [[ethnic slur]] ''[[wog]]''.<ref>[http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/golliwog/ The Golliwog Caricature], Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, Ferris State University. Accessed online 31 January 2008.</ref>
[[Image:1900s SM Coon Coon Coon.jpg|thumb|left|"Darky" iconography frequently adorned the covers of sheet music from the 1870s through the 1940s, but virtually disappeared by the 1950s.]]U.S. cartoons from the 1930s and 1940s often featured characters in blackface gags as well as other racial and [[ethnic group|ethnic]] [[caricatures]]. Blackface was one of the influences in the development of characters such as [[Mickey Mouse#First gloved appearance|Mickey Mouse]].<ref>Sacks and Sacks 158.</ref> The [[United Artists]] 1933 release "[[Mickey's Mellerdrammer]]"—the name a corruption of "[[melodrama]]" thought to harken back to the earliest minstrel shows—was a film short based on a production of ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' by the Disney characters. Mickey, of course, was already black, but the advertising poster for the film shows Mickey with exaggerated, orange lips; bushy, white sidewhiskers; and his now trademark white gloves.<ref>[http://www.hakes.com/images.asp?ItemNo=63253&ImageNo=001 "Mickey's Mellerdrammer.]" Linen-mounted movie poster. Hake's Americana & Collectibles, sales site. Retrieved 01-14-2008.</ref>
[[Image:Picaninny Freeze.jpg|thumb|right|Reproduction of an old, tin sign advertising Picaninny Freeze, a frozen treat]] In the U.S., by the 1950s, the [[NAACP]] had begun calling attention to such portrayals of African Americans and mounted a campaign to put an end to blackface performances and depictions. For decades, darky images had been seen in the branding of everyday products and commodities such as ''[[Pickaninny|Picaninny]] Freeze'', the [[Coon Chicken Inn]]<ref>[http://hollywood.pdx.edu/html/coon_chicken_inn.html Coon Chicken Inn] Photos and history of the restaurant chain.</ref> [[restaurant chain]] and Darky toothpaste(Renamed Darlie) and Blackman mops in Thailand. With the eventual successes of the modern day [[Civil Rights Movement]], such blatantly racist branding practices ended in the U.S., and blackface became an American [[taboo]].
==Modern-day manifestations==
{{Original research|date=March 2008}}
Over time, blackface and darky iconography became artistic and stylistic devices associated with [[art deco]] and the [[1920s|Jazz Age]]. By the 1950s and [[1960s|'60s]], particularly in Europe, where it was more widely tolerated, blackface became a kind of ''[[wiktionary:outré|outré]]'', [[camp (style)|camp]] convention in some artistic circles. ''[[The Black and White Minstrel Show]]'' was a popular [[United Kingdom|British]] musical [[variety show]] that featured blackface performers, and remained on British television until 1978.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/2223239.stm Minstrels founder Mitchell dies], BBC, 29 August 2002. Accessed 2 February 2008.</ref> Actors and dancers in blackface appeared in [[music videos]] such [[Grace Jones]]'s "Slave to the Rhythm" (1980, also part of her touring piece ''A One Man Show'')<ref>Miriam Kershaw, [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0425/is_n4_v56/ai_20544718/pg_1 Postcolonialism and androgyny: the performance art of Grace Jones], ''Art Journal'', Winter 1997, [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0425/is_n4_v56/ai_20544718/pg_5 p. 5]. Accessed online 17 July 2008 at FindArticles.com.</ref> and [[Taco Ockerse|Taco's]] "[[Puttin' on the Ritz]]" (1984).{{Fact|date=February 2008}}
Darky iconography, while generally considered taboo in the U.S., still persists around the world.{{Fact|date=March 2008}} When trade and tourism produce a confluence of cultures, bringing differing sensibilities regarding blackface into contact with one another, the results can be jarring. Darky iconography is still popular in Japan today, but when Japanese toymaker [[Sanrio|Sanrio Corporation]] exported a darky-icon character doll (the doll, [[Bibinba (Sanrio)|Bibinba]], had fat, pink lips and rings in its ears)<ref>Sherick A. Hughes, "The Convenient Scapegoating of Blacks in Postwar Japan: Shaping the Black Experience Abroad", ''Journal of Black Studies'' (Sage Publications, Inc.), Vol. 33, No. 3, (January 2003), pp. 335-353; p. 342. Accessed at http://www.jstor.org/stable/3180837 (subscription link), 14 May 2008.</ref> in the 1990s, the ensuing controversy prompted Sanrio to halt production.<ref>John Greenwald with reporting by Kumiko Makihara, [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,149882,00.html Japan Prejudice and Black Sambo], ''Time Magazine'', June 24, 2001. Accessed online 20 May 2008.</ref> Foreigners visiting the [[Netherlands]] in November and December are often shocked at the sight of whites in classic blackface as a character known as [[Zwarte Piet]], whom many Dutch nationals love as a holiday symbol. Travelers to [[Spain]] have expressed dismay at seeing "Conguito",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lacasa.es/web/conguitos/conguitos/conguitos.asp|title=Conguitos}}</ref> a tubby, little brown character with full, red lips, as the trademark for Conguitos, a confection manufactured by the LACASA Group. In Britain, "Golly",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.prmuseum.com/kendrix/abroad.html|title=The African-American Image Abroad: Golly, It's Good!}}</ref> a golliwog character, fell out of favor in 2001 after almost a century as the trademark of jam producer James Robertson & Sons; but the debate still continues whether the golliwog should be banished in all forms from further commercial production and display, or preserved as a treasured childhood icon. Today golliwog dolls are reappearing in toy shops throughout Britain. The influence of blackface on branding and advertising, as well as on perceptions and portrayals of blacks, generally, can be found worldwide. Black and brown products, particularly, such as [[licorice]] and [[chocolate]], remain commodities most frequently paired with darky iconography.{{Fact|date=January 2008}}
===Netherlands's and Flanders's Zwarte Piet===
{{main|Zwarte Piet}}
[[Image:Zwartepiet2.JPG|thumb|right|A white [[Netherlands|Dutch]] woman in blackface costume as [[Zwarte Piet]].]]
In [[Netherlands|Dutch]] and [[Flanders|Flemish]] [[folklore]], ''[[Zwarte Piet]]''—"Black Peter"—is a servant of ''[[Sinterklaas]]'' (Saint Nicholas). In the past, Zwarte Piet was more identified with the chastising of bad children than the rewarding of the good, but both characters have softened since the mid-19th century, and today the [[5 December]] feast of Saint Nicholas is mainly an occasion for giving gifts to children.<ref>{{cite web| last =Booij| first =Frits| title=Opzoek naar Zwarte Piet (in search of Zwarte Piet)| url=http://www.sint.nl/html/history/lezing.html| format = HTML| accessdate=2007-11-29}}</ref> Originally so named for his being covered with soot from the chimneys he climbed down while performing his duties, Zwarte Piet inherited many of the classic darky icons, contemporaneous with the spread of darky iconography.<ref>{{cite web| title =Sinterklaas:Illustraties| date= 1814-1948| url =http://www.kb.nl/uitgelicht/kinderboeken/sinterklaas/sinterklaas-ill.html| format = HTML, JPG| accessdate =2007-11-29}}</ref> To this day, holiday revellers in the [[Netherlands]] blacken their faces, wear [[afro]] wigs and bright red lipstick, and walk the streets throwing [[candy]] to passers-by. As at [[Carnival]], some of the actors behave dim-wittedly, or like buffoons, and/or speak mangled Dutch as embodiments of Zwarte Piet.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.humanityinaction.org/docs/Brown__Tavares.pdf|title=Black Pete: Analyzing a Racialized Dutch Tradition Through the History of Western Creations of Stereotypes of Black Peoples|accessdate=2007-07-03}}</ref> Blackfaced, googly-eyed, red-lipped Zwarte Piet dolls, die cuts and displays adorn store windows alongside brightly packaged and displayed, holiday merchandise.<ref>Images at {{cite web|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20070408195815/http://www.awfulgood.com/doa-archives/000212.php|title=Man, I Don't *Get* Zwarte Piet}}</ref>
Accepted without question in the past within a ethnically homogeneous nation, today Zwarte Piet is controversial. Many people continue to enjoy this as a cherished tradition and look forward to his annual appearance, whilst others, especially overseas visitors, see him as a racist caricature<ref name="Survivingzp">{{cite magazine|title=Surviving Zwarte Piet - a Black mother in the Netherlands copes with a racist institution in Dutch culture, Essence|date=December 1997}}</ref> that shapes Dutch children's perceptions of black people.<ref name="Survivingzp">{{cite magazine|title=Surviving Zwarte Piet - a Black mother in the Netherlands copes with a racist institution in Dutch culture, Essence|date=December 1997}}</ref> <ref>http://www.expatica.com/nl/life_in/feature/annual-zwarte-piet-debate-2394.html</ref> As a result of the allegations of racism, some of the Dutch have tried replacing Zwarte Piet's blackface makeup with face paint in alternative colors such as green or purple. This practice, however, has not caught on.<ref>{{nl icon}} [http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/2528554/Piet_weer_zwart.html Piet weer zwart] ("Pete black again"), ''De Telegraaf'', [[November 15]], [[2007]]. Accessed online [[February 17]], [[2008]].</ref>
==="Coons" of Cape Town===
Inspired by blackface minstrels who visited [[Cape Town]], [[South Africa]], in 1848, former [[Javanese people|Javanese]] and [[Malaysia]]n slaves took up the minstrel tradition, holding emancipation celebrations which consisted of music, dancing and parades. In the African-American [[cakewalk]] tradition, their songs often parodied their former masters and the privileged, white [[social class|class]]. Such celebrations eventually became consolidated into an annual, year-end event known as the ''Cape [[Coon Carnival]]''.{{Fact|date=January 2008}}
Today, carnival minstrels are mostly [[Coloured]] ("mixed race"), [[Afrikaans]]-speaking revellers. Often in a pared-down style of blackface which exaggerates only the lips, they parade down the streets of the city in colorful costumes, in a celebration of [[Creole peoples|Creole]] culture. Participants also pay homage to the carnival's African-American roots, playing [[Negro spirituals]] and [[jazz]] featuring traditional [[Dixieland]] jazz instruments, including [[Brass instrument|horns]], [[banjo]]s, and [[tambourine]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20051027061922/http://www.africapetours.com/Coon+Carnival.htm|title=web.archive.org/web/20051027061922/http://www.africapetours.com/Coon+Carnival.htm<!--INSERT TITLE-->}}</ref>
Over time, carnival participants have appropriated the term ''coon'' and do not regard it as a pejorative. However, city officials changed the name of the celebration to the [[Cape Town Minstrel Carnival]] in 2003, so as to avoid offending tourists. Former [[South African]] president [[Nelson Mandela]] endorsed the carnival in 1986, and is a member of the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival Association, which presides over the event. Now officially more than a hundred years old, the carnival has become a major tourist attraction, vigorously promoted by the nation's tourism authority, complete with [[corporation|corporate]] [[sponsor]]ship{{Fact|date=January 2008}}. In any case, the South African term ''Kaapse Klopse'', meaning "Cape Town Carnival Troupes Festival", is not controversial in any means whatsoever.
===U.S.===
[[Image:bface1.jpg|frame|left|Promotional poster for [[Spike Lee]]'s movie ''[[Bamboozled]]'' (2000)]]The darky, or coon, archetype that blackface played such a profound role in creating remains a persistent thread in American culture. [[Cartoon|Animation]] utilizing darky iconography aired on U.S. television routinely as late as the mid-1990s, and still can be seen in specialty time slots on such [[television network|networks]] as [[Turner Classic Movies|TCM]]. In 1993, white actor [[Ted Danson]] ignited a firestorm of controversy when he appeared at a [[Friars Club]] [[roast (comedy)|roast]] in blackface, delivering a risqué [[shtick]] written by his then love interest, African-American [[comedian|comedienne]] [[Whoopi Goldberg]]. Recently, [[gay]] white performer [[Chuck Knipp]] has used [[Drag (clothing)|drag]], blackface, and broad racial caricature while portraying a character named "[[Shirley Q. Liquor]]" in his [[cabaret]] act, generally performed for all-white audiences. Knipp's outrageously stereotypical character has drawn criticism and prompted [[Demonstration (people)|demonstrations]] from black, [[gay]] and [[transgender]] activists.<ref>[http://web.archive.org/web/20060214030028/http://www.gaycitynews.com/gcn_308/blackfacedragagain.html Blackface Drag Again Draws Fire] ''Gay City News. VOLUME 3, ISSUE 308 | February 19 - 25, 2004</ref>
An example of the fascination in American culture with racial boundaries and the color line is demonstrated in the popular duo [[Amos 'n' Andy]], characters played by two white men who performed the show in blackface. They gradually stripped off the blackface makeup during live 1929 performances while continuing to talk in dialect. This fascination with color boundaries had been well-established since the beginning of the century, as it also had been before the Civil War.<ref name=stowe>{{cite book |last= Stowe |first= David W. |title= Swing Changes: Big-Band Jazz in New Deal America |publisher= Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge|year= 1994 |isbn= 0-674-85825-5 |page =pp. 131–132}}</ref>
In [[New Orleans]] in the early 1900s, a group of African American laborers began a marching club in the annual [[Mardi Gras]] parade, dressed as hobos and calling themselves "The Tramps". Wanting a flashier look, they later renamed themselves "[[Zulus]]" and copied their costumes from a blackface vaudeville skit performed at a local black jazz club and cabaret.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20060227143627/http://www.mardigrasdigest.com/News/Feature_Zulu_Blackface.htm|title=Zulu Blackface: The Real Story!}}</ref> The result is one of the best known and most striking [[krewes]] of Mardi Gras, the [[Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club]]. Dressed in grass skirts, top hats and exaggerated blackface, the Zulus of New Orleans are controversial as well as popular.<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/neworleans/sfeature/zulu.html The Zulu Parade of Mardi Gras], American Experience web site, [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]]. Accessed 16 July 2008.</ref>
The wearing of blackface was once a traditional part of the annual [[Mummers Parade]] in [[Philadelphia]]. Growing dissent from civil rights groups and the offense of the black community led to a 1964 official city policy ruling out blackface.<ref name="Mummer's the word">John Francis Marion, ''Smithsonian Magazine'', January 1981. [http://web.archive.org/web/20070614205533/http://riverfrontmummers.com/mummers/articles/article1.html "On New Year's Day in Philadelphia, Mummer's the word"]. Archived version accessed 4 January 2008.</ref>
Former [[Illinois]] congressman and [[United States House of Representatives|House]] [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican party]] [[Minority Leader|minority leader]] [[Bob Michel]] caused a minor stir in the early 1990s, when he fondly recalled minstrel shows in which he had participated as a young man and expressed his regret that they had fallen out of fashion.{{Fact|date=January 2008}}
Blackface and minstrelsy also serve as the theme of [[Spike Lee]]'s [[film]] ''[[Bamboozled]]'' (2000). It tells of a disgruntled black television executive who reintroduces the old blackface style and is horrified by its success.<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0215545/ Bamboozled (2000)], IMDB. Accessed 31 January 2008.</ref>
In recent years, there have been several inflammatory blackface "incidents" where white [[college]] students donned blackface as part of possibly innocent, but insensitive, gags, or as part of an acknowledged climate of racism and intolerance on campus. Such incidents usually escalate around [[Halloween]], with students often acting out racist stereotypes.<ref>Bortin, Jon.[http://www.dailycardinal.com/article/802 "Colorado College learns lesson after blackface incident]." ''The Daily Cardinal'', November 27, 2007. Retrieved on 11-27-2007.</ref><ref>Johnson, Sophie.[http://whitmanpioneer.wordpress.com/2006/10/26/%E2%80%98blackface%E2%80%99-incident-ignites-campus/ "‘Blackface' incident ignites campus]." ''Whitman College Pioneer'', October 26, 2006. Retrieved on 11-27-2007.</ref><ref>Walter, Vic.[http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/11/gates_unfinishe.html "Gates' Unfinished Business: Racism at Texas A&M]." ABC News, The Blotter, November 10, 2006. Retrieved on 11-27-2007.</ref><ref>Editorial. [http://media.www.dailyillini.com/media/storage/paper736/news/2007/10/31/Editorials/Blackface.A.Black.Mark.For.Every.Student-3067335.shtml "Blackface a Black Mark for Every Student] ''The Daily Illini'', October 31, 2007. Retrieved on 12-2-07.</ref><ref>Connolly, Joe.[http://media.www.dailyorange.com/media/storage/paper522/news/2003/11/14/News/Blackface.Makes.Its.Way.To.College.Campuses-558345.shtml "Blackface Makes Its Way To College Campuses]." ''The Daily Orange'', November 11, 2003. Retrieved on 11-26-07.</ref>
[[Image:Ronson figural lighter.jpg|thumb|right|This elaborate, figural, [[Art deco]] [[Ronson's Lighters|Ronson]] tabletop cigarette lighter, manufactured in 1936, is an example of an everyday consumer item rendered in classic darky iconographical style. It sold on [[eBay]] in June 2006 for $2,225.{{Fact|date=January 2008}}]]
In November 2005, controversy erupted when African American journalist [[Steve Gilliard]] posted a photograph on his [[blog]]. The image was of black [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[Maryland]] [[lieutenant governor]] [[Michael S. Steele]], then a candidate for [[U.S. Senate]]. It had been doctored to include bushy, white eyebrows and big, red lips. The caption read, "I's simple [[Sambo (ethnic slur)|Sambo]] and I's running for the big house." Gilliard defended the image, commenting that the politically conservative Steele has "refused to stand up for his people."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=SAMBOBLOG-10-27-05&cat=WW|title=Virginia governor's candidate pulls ads after 'Sambo' attack|author=James W. Brosnan|publisher=Scripps Howard News Service|date=2005-10-27|accessdate=2008-01-31}}</ref>
Further, commodities bearing iconic darky images, from tableware, soap and toy marbles to home accessories and T-shirts, continue to be manufactured and marketed in the U.S. and elsewhere. Some are reproductions of historical [[Cultural artifact|artifacts]], while others are so-called "fantasy" items, newly designed and manufactured for the marketplace. There is a thriving [[niche market]] for such item in the U.S., particularly, as well as for original artifacts of darky iconography. The value of vintage "[[negrobilia]]" pieces has risen steadily since the 1970s.<ref>Leah Dilworth (2003), ''Acts of Possession: : Collecting in America'', Rutgers University Press, ISBN 0813532728. p. 255.</ref>
===Japan===
Blackface in the Japanese ''[[ganguro]]'' subculture has developed with different intentions to other blackface sub-cultures, as it reflects a conscious embrace of African and African-American culture as a means of sub-cultural identification.<ref name=Joe-Wood>Wood, Joe. The Yellow Negro. Stable URL:http://www.jstor.org/view/00411191/dm994485/99p0110e/0</ref> Japan prides itself on the supposed-homogeneity of its population and, in reaction to this, certain youth subcultures have taken to blackface as a re-identification and a means of emulating African American “cool”. <ref name=Joe-Wood /> According to Joe Wood, "they wear blackface in order to embrace black people."
Japanese encounters with blackface dates back to 1853 when [[Commodore Perry]] "re-opened" Japan and brought with him a troupe of minstrels. While historically whites have considered Japanese "colored" and much contact with American blacks took place in the early 1900s{{Fact|date=April 2008}}, after Japan's humiliating loss in [[WWII]], identification and sense of equality with white Americans became important. An inferiority complex developed in which negative representations of blackness were depicted. {{Fact|date=May 2008}} In reference to the experiences of African American servicemen in Japan, Ben Hamamoto writes, “Many felt a noticeable difference being in a country that did not have a history of slavery, segregation, and white supremacy and found genuine curiosity more than prejudice colored their experiences with Japanese people.”<ref name=Hamamoto>Hamamoto, Ben. [http://www.mixedmediawatch.com/2006/06/05/is-blackface-in-japan-racist/ Is blackface in Japan racist?].</ref>
For many years the Japanese have appreciated African American musical styles, notably jazz, funk, rock ‘n’ roll, and hip hop. Members of ''ganguro'' subcultures, male and female, darken their skin with the intention of appearing "cool", using tanning beds rather than make-up.<ref name=Joe-Wood /> Groups that have incorporated blackface into their act include [[Rats & Star]] and [[Gospellers|The Gosperats]]. Besides the "cool" aspect, adoption of blackface also serves a way for Japanese teens to "rebel against a conformist society."<ref name=Joe-Wood /> Blackface in Japan has sparked interest among many hip-hop artists and fans. For example, Iona Rezeal Brown has created numerous art pieces to reflect this ''ganguro'' culture. Her pieces often intertwine images of African-American experience with traditional Japanese images. <ref>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0DE7D61639F937A35757C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 ART; For Japanese Girls, Black Is Beautiful - New York Times<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
''Ganguro'' groups are considered an embarrassment throughout much of Japan because they are considered as 'fake' or 'unauthentic'. They have also been criticized by fellow hip hop followers who believe that hip hop is about the notions of graffiti, break-dancing, and style, but that skin tone should not be an issue. <ref> Wood, Joe. Transition, No. 73. (1997), pp. 40-66.</ref> Hamamoto places Japanese blackface in the context of Japan's history of racism, and finds it surprising that they have not made significant racial progress over time. In his view, Japanese blackface draws from an oppressive and racist past and is not sensitive to the cultural implications of its origins.
== Other contexts ==
There are black face performance traditions the origins of which stem not from representation of racial stereotype and are not in the stereotypical blackface mode. In [[Europe]] there are a number of folk dances or folk performances in which the black face appears to represent the night, or the coming of the longer nights associated with winter. Many fall or autumn North European folk black face customs are employed ritualistically to appease the forces of the oncoming winter, utilizing characters with blackened faces, or black masks.<ref>Masks: the Art of Expression edit. John Mack/pub. British Museum 1994 ISBN 0-7141-2507-5/'The Other Within: Masks and masquerades in Europe' Cesayo Dogre Poppi </ref>
In [[Bacup]], [[Lancashire]], [[England]], the Britannia Coco-nut Dancers wear black faces. Some believe the origin of this dance can be traced back to the influx of Cornish miners to northern England, and the black face relates to the dirty blackened faces associated with mining.<ref>National Trust Guide to Traditional Customs of Britain pp.45; Brian Shuel; Webb & Bower 1985; ISBN 0-86350-051-X </ref>
==Legacy==
Despite its racist portrayals, blackface minstrelsy was the conduit through which African-American and African-American-influenced music, comedy, and dance first reached the American mainstream.<ref name="Watkins 82"/> It played a seminal role in the introduction of African-American culture to world audiences. Wrote [[jazz]] historian Gary Giddings in ''[[Bing Crosby]]: A Pocketful of Dreams, The Early Years 1903-1940'':
{{quotation|Though antebellum (minstrel) troupes were white, the form developed in a form of racial collaboration, illustrating the axiom that defined - and continues to define - American music as it developed over the next century and a half: African-American innovations metamorphose into American popular culture when white performers learn to mimic black ones.|<ref>Gary Giddings, ''[[Bing Crosby]]: A Pocketful of Dreams, The Early Years 1903-1940'' (2001), Back Bay Books, ISBN 0316886459. p. 78.</ref>}}
In a specific example of this, from Ted Fox's ''Showtime at the Apollo''
{{quotation|Elvis Presley, a young, still raw hayseed, was making his first trip to the Big Apple to see his new record company, and the Apollo was where he wanted to be. Night after night in New York he sat int the Apollo transfixed by the pounding rhythms, the dancing and prancing, the sexual spectacle of rhythm-and-blues masters like Bo Diddley...In 1955, Elvis's stage presence was still rudimentary. But watching Bo Diddley charge up the Apollo crowd undoubtedly had a profound effect on him. When he returned to New York a few months later for his first national television appearance, on Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey's "Stage Show," he again spent hours at the Apollo after rehearsals. On the Dorsey show Elvis shocked the entire country with his outrageous hip-shaking performance, and the furor that followed made him an American sensation.|<ref name=fox>{{cite book |last= Fox |first= Ted |title= Showtime at the Apollo |publisher= Da Capo |year= 1983 |isbn= 0-647-01612-2 |page = 4}}</ref>}}
As with jazz, many of country's earliest stars, such as [[Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)|Jimmie Rodgers]]
and [[Bob Wills]], were veterans of blackface performance.<ref>Nolan Porterfield, ''Jimmie Rodgers: The Life and Times of America's Blue Yodeler'' (1979), University of Indiana Press, ISBN 0252007506. p. 261. </ref><ref>Charles Townsend, ''San Antonio Rose: The Life and Music of Bob Wills'' (1986), University of Illinois Press, ISBN 025201362X, p. 45.</ref><ref>Nick Tosches, ''Where Dead Voices Gather'' (2002), Back Bay, ISBN 0316895377, p. 66.</ref> More recently, the American country music television show ''[[Hee Haw]]'' (1969–1993) had the format and much of the content of a minstrel show.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lott|1993|p=5}}</ref>
The immense popularity and profitability of blackface were testaments to the power, appeal, and commercial viability of not only black music and dance, but also of black style. This led to cross-cultural collaborations, as Giddings writes; but, particularly in times past, to the often ruthless exploitation and outright theft of African-American artistic genius, as well—by other, white performers and composers; agents; promoters; publishers; and record company executives.<ref name=toll>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=51}}</ref><ref>Barlow, William. "Black Music on Radio During the Jazz Age," ''African American Review'', Summer 1995.</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Frank|last=Kofsky|authorlink=Frank Kofsky|year=1998|title=Black Music, White Business: Illuminating the History and Political Economy of Jazz|publisher=Pathfinder Press}}</ref><ref>Reich, Howard and Gaines, William.[http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-99jellyrollpart1,1,6257309.story?coll=chi-newsspecials-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true "Jelly Roll Blues: The Great Jazz Swindle]," Part 1 of 3. ''The Chicago Tribune'', November 28, 2007. Retrieved on 11-29-2007.</ref><ref>[http://www-tc.pbs.org/theblues/classroom/downloads/whites_blacks_the_blules.pdf "Whites, Blacks and the Blues]." "The Blues" Teacher's Guide. PBS. Retrieved on 11-29-2007</ref>
While blackface in the literal sense has played only a minor role in entertainment in recent decades, various writers see it as epitomizing an [[cultural appropriation|appropriation]] and imitation of black culture that continues today. As noted above, Strausbaugh sees blackface as central to a longer tradition of "displaying Blackness".<ref name=Strausbaugh-edification/> "To this day," he writes, "Whites admire, envy and seek to emulate such supposed innate qualities of Blackness as inherent musicality, natural athleticism, the composure known as 'cool' and superior sexual endowment," a phenomemon he views as part of the history of blackface.<ref name=Strausbaugh-innate/><ref name=Strausbaugh-innate>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=35-36}}</ref> For more than a century, when white performers have wanted to appear sexy, (like [[Elvis Presley|Elvis]]<ref>Kolawole, Helen.[http://arts.guardian.co.uk/elvis/story/0,,774842,00.html "He Wasn't My King.]" ''The Guardian Unlimited'', August 15, 2002. Retrieved on 11-29-2007.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=61}}: not about "sexiness", but makes an explicit analogy between T.D. Rice with "Jump Jim Crow" and Elvis Presley with "Hound Dog".</ref> or [[Mick Jagger]]<ref name=Strausbaugh-218>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=218}} explicitly analogizes [[Al Jolson]]'s style of blackface to Jagger and Eminem: "not mockery, but the sincere mimicry of a non-Black artist who loves Black culture (or what he thinks is Black culture) so dearly he can't resist imitating it, even to the ridiculous point of blacking up."</ref>); or streetwise, (like [[Eminem]]);<ref> Cunningham, Daniel Mudie. "[http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue8/larryclark.html Larry Clark: Trashing the White American Dream."] ''The Film Journal''. Retrieved on [[2006-08-25]]</ref><ref name=Strausbaugh-218 /> or hip, (like [[Mezz Mezzrow]]);<ref>Roediger, David (1997). "The First Word in Whiteness: Early Twentieth-Century European Immigration", ''Critical White Studies: Looking Behind the Mirror''. Temple University Press, p. 355.</ref> they often have turned to African-American performance styles, stage presence and personas.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=40}}: "To this day, Whites admire, envy and seek to emulate such supposed innate qualities of Blackness as inherent musicality, natural athleticism, the composure known at 'cool' and superior sexual endowment." Conversely, up to and including the Civil Rights era, "aspirational" black performers imitated white style: {{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2006|p=140}}</ref> Pop culture referencing and [[cultural appropriation]] of African-American performance and stylistic traditions-often resulting in tremendous profit-is a tradition with origins in blackface minstrelsy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=51}}</ref>
The international imprint of African-American culture is pronounced in its depth and breadth, in indigenous expressions, as well as in myriad, blatantly mimetic and subtler, more attenuated forms.<ref>Hoard, Joel.[http://media.www.michigandaily.com/media/storage/paper851/news/2004/04/19/Opinion/Joel-Hoard/Fa.Shizzle.Dizzle.Its.Cultural.AppropriationIzzle/1423990/shtml "Fa shizzle dizzle, it's cultural appropriation-izzle]." ''The Michigan Daily''. April 19, 2004. Retrieved on 11-29-2007.</ref> This "browning", à la [[Richard Rodriguez]], of American and world popular culture began with blackface minstrelsy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=51}}</ref> It is a continuum of pervasive African-American influence which has many prominent manifestations today, among them the ubiquity of the [[Cool (aesthetic)|cool aesthetic]]<ref>Southgate, Nick.[http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do?contentType=Article&hdAction=lnkhtml&contentId=854656 "Coolhunting, account planning and the ancient cool of Aristotle]." ''Marketing Intelligence and Planning'', Vol. 21, Issue 7, pp. 453-461, 2003. Citation for the ubiquity. Retrieved on 03-02-2007.</ref><ref>Robert Farris Thompson, "[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0001-9933(197323)7%3A1%3C40%3AAAOTC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5 An Aesthetic of the Cool]", African Arts, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Autumn, 1973), p. 40-43, 64-67, 89-91. Citation for African (more specifically, Yoruba) origin of "cool".</ref> and [[hip hop culture]].<ref>MacBroom, Patricia. "[http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2000/04/12/hiphop.html Rap Locally, Rhyme Globally: Hip-Hop Culture Becomes a World-Wide Language for Youth Resistance, According to Course]." News, ''Berkeleyan''. [[2000-05-02]]. Retrieved on [[2006-09-27]].</ref>
==Face paint and ethnic impersonation==
Other types of performances involving ethnic impersonation are ''[[yellowface]]'', in which performers adopt Asian identities; ''brownface'', for [[Indies|East Indian]] or non-white [[Latino]]; and ''redface'', for [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]]. ''Whiteface'', or ''paleface'', is sometimes used to describe non-white actors performing white parts (for example, in the film ''[[White Chicks]]''), although it more commonly describes the [[clown]] or [[mime artist|mime]] traditions of white makeup.{{Fact|date=January 2008}} [[Dooley Wilson]], famous for the role of Sam the piano player in ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]'', earned his stage name "Dooley" from performing in whiteface as an Irishman.<ref>Bill Takacs, [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0933330/bio Biography for Dooley Wilson], IMDB. Accessed 3 February 2008.</ref>
In West African folk theatre and puppetry, there is a tradition of satirical represention of white Europeans. Performers will wear white masks and white gloves. In the Yoruba Egungun festivals overly affectionate white couples are made fun of due to their unseemly and ridiculous behaviour.<ref> Icons; Ideals and Power in the Art of Africa; Herbert M. Cole; National Museum of African Art; Washington DC and London; ISBN 0-87474-320-6; pp25-27 </ref> The imagery is very similar to the representation of white colonists, sometimes with a humorous undercurrent, in wood carvings from the same regions.<ref> Art and Religion in Africa; Rosalind I.J. Hackett; Cassell 1996: ISBN 0-304-70424-5 p.193 quoting Babatunde Lawal, 1993, "Oyibo: Representation of the Colonialist Other in Yoruba Art. Discussion Paper, Boston University. </ref>
In [[Thailand]], actors darken their faces to portray [[Semang|the Negrito of Thailand]] in a popular play by King [[Chulalongkorn]] (1868–1910), ''Ngo Pa'' ({{lang-th|เงอะป่า}}), which has been turned into a musical and a movie.<ref>
{{cite book
|last= Keyes
|first= Charles F.
|title= The golden peninsula : culture and adaptation in mainland Southeast Asia. Includes bibliographical references and index.
|year= 1995
|publisher= (SHAPS library of Asian studies) University of Hawai'i Press
|location= Honolulu
|pages = p. 34
|isbn= 082481696x}}
</ref>
==See also==
*[[Minstrel show]]
*[[Blackface (Fender)]]
*[[Yellowface]]
*[[List of entertainers known to have performed in blackface]]
*[[List of blackface minstrel troupes]]
*[[List of blackface minstrel songs]]
*[[Butterbeans and Susie]]
*[[Pigmeat Markham]]
*[[Stepin Fetchit]]
*[[Dusty Fletcher]] and [[Open the Door, Richard]]
*[[Moms Mabley]]
*[[Amos 'n' Andy]]
*[[Censored Eleven]]
*[[Coon song]]
*[[Ira Aldridge]]
*[[Little Black Sambo]]
*[[Papa Lazarou]]
*[[Spiritual (music)|Spiritual]]
*[[Two Black Crows]]
*[[Louis Armstrong]]
*[[Lou Holtz (actor)|Lou Holtz]]
===Compare===
*[[Border Morris]], a traditional English male folk dance tradition from the borders of [[England]] and [[Wales]]
*[[Ganguro]], a [[fashion]] trend among [[Japan]]ese girls
==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}
==References==
* {{cite web|author=Armstron-De Vreeze, Pamela|year=1997|url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1264/is_n8_v28/ai_20039487|title="Surviving Zwarte Piet — a Black mother in the Netherlands copes with a racist institution in Dutch culture"|publisher=''[[Essence magazine|Essence]]'' magazine|accessdate=2005-11-15}}
* {{cite book|author=[[Langston Hughes|Hughes, Langston]] and Meltzer, Milton|year=1967|title=Black Magic: A Pictorial History of Black Entertainers in America| location=New York | publisher=Bonanza Books|id=ISBN 0-306-80406-9}}
* {{citation
|last=Lott |first=Eric |authorlink=Eric Lot
|year=1993
|title=Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class
|location=New York
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|isbn=0195078322}}
* {{cite web|author=Malik, Sarita|url=http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/B/htmlB/blackandwhim/blackandwhim.htm|title=The Black and White Minstrel Show|publisher=[[Museum of Broadcast Communications]]|accessdate=2007-01-08}}
* Sacks, Howard L, and Sacks, Judith (1993). ''Way up North in Dixie: A Black Family's Claim to the Confederate Anthem''. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.
* {{citation
|last=Strausbaugh |first=John
|year=2006
|title=Black Like You: Blackface, Whiteface, Insult and Imitation in American Popular Culture
|publisher=Jeremy P. Tarcher / Penguin
|isbn=1585424986}}
* {{citation
|last=Toll |first=Robert C.
|year=1974
|title=Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in Nineteenth-century America
|location=New York
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|isbn=0819563005}}
* {{cite book|first=Mark|last=Twain|authorlink=Mark Twain|year=1924|title=Mark Twain's Autobiography|chapter=XIX, dictated [[1906-11-30]]| location=New York|publisher=Albert Bigelow Paine|id=[[Library of Congress Control Number|LCCN]] 24025122}}
* {{cite book|first=Mel|last=Watkins|year=1999|title=On the Real Side: A History of African American Comedy from Slavery to Chris Rock| location=Chicago, Illinois | publisher=Lawrence Hill Books|id=ISBN 1-55652-351-3}}
==Further reading==
* {{cite book|author=Cockrell, Dale|year=1997|title=Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrels and their World|publisher=Cambridge Studies in American Theatre and Drama|id=ISBN 0-521-56828-5}}
* {{cite book|first=Anna|last=Fox|year=1999|title=Zwarte Piet|publisher=Black Dog|id=ISBN 1-901033-86-4}}
* {{cite book|first=Stephen|last=Henderson|year=1972|title=Understanding the New Black Poetry|publisher=William Morrow and Company}}
* {{cite book|first=David|last=Levinthal|year=1999|title=Blackface|publisher=Arena|id=ISBN 1-892041-06-5}}
* {{cite book|first=W.T.|last=Lhamon, Jr.|year=1998|title=Raising Cain: Blackface Performance from Jim Crow to Hip Hop|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|id=ISBN 0-674-74711-9}}
* {{cite book|author=Various authors|editor=Matthews, Gerald E. (editor)|year=1999|title=Journey Towards Nationalism: The Implications of Race and Racism| location=New York | publisher=Farber|id=ISBN 0-8281-1334-3}}
* {{cite book|first=Michael|last=Rogin|year=1998|title=Blackface, White Noise: Jewish Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot|publisher=University of California Press|id=ISBN 0-520-21380-7}}
==External links==
{{commonscat|Blackface minstrelsy}}
===General===
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20040622210610/http://www.sanztrust.org.nz/archives/coon.html "Auckland gets its own Cape Coon troupe" from the SANZ Charitable Trust]
* [http://www.authentichistory.com/diversity/ Blackface and other historic racial images from the Authentic History Center]
* [http://www.bambizzoozled.com/Film_Movies_TV_Including_Blackface/ "Bambizzoozled - Blackface in Movies and Television"]
* [http://www.rotten.com/library/culture/banned-cartoons/ "Banned Cartoons" from [[Rotten.com]]]
*[http://www.blackculturalstudies.org/m_diawara/blackface.html "The Blackface Stereotype", Manthia Diawara]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20051027061922/http://www.africapetours.com/Coon+Carnival.htm "Coon Carnival, Cape Town" from Africape Tours]
*[http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/caricature/ "Nigger and Caricatures", Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, from [[Ferris State University]]]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20061126045840/http://colorblind.typepad.com/the_colorblind_society/blackface/ Recent blackface stories in the news, from the Colorblind Society]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20060227143627/http://www.mardigrasdigest.com/News/Feature_Zulu_Blackface.htm "Zulu Blackface: The Real Story!"]
===Zwarte Piet===
*[http://web.archive.org/web/20060212153450/http://www.boomchicago.nl/Section/Videos/ZwartePiet?page=2 Zwarte Piet? - Boom Chicago rap video satire of [[Run DMC]]'s "Christmas in Hollis"]
*[http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?channel_id=1&story_id=2394 Expatica's Dutch News in English: Annual Zwarte Piet Debate]
*[http://www.ferris.edu/news/jimcrow/question/jan05/ "Who is Black Peter?" from [[Ferris State University]]]
* [http://www.baobabconnections.org/artikel.php?id=549 Zwarte Piet film by Adwa Foundation, Rotterdam, and the Global Afrikan Congress]
*[http://www.zwartepieten.com/ Zwarte Piet] {{nl icon}}
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