Minstrelsy in the U.S - Essay Example

Minstrelsy White men had been blacking their faces for a long while with cork, to take on the appearance of the darky or coon. However in 1843, four white men calling themselves the “Virginia Minstrels” imitated black speech and performed comedy acts with blackened faces. This act was very well received and as a result, the minstrel show became “a national institution virtually overnight” (Toll 21). These shows often parodied blacks and presented them as gross caricatures, cementing negative stereotypes about blacks and resulting in a proliferation of racist images. In Blacking Up, Toll describes the minstrelsy theatrical form, which was developing within the context of the Civil War with its theme of slave liberation. The caricatures of black images that were presented in the minstrelsy programs deliberately exaggerated Negroid facial characteristics and traits, highlighting their differences from the white race. The Negro characters appeared on stage with large, gaping mouths, thick lips, protruding eyeballs and huge feet, thus generating a sub human image of a black person (Toll 67). The minstrel song titled “Oh! Wake up in de morning” describes these physical features in two stanzas of the song, describing the mouth as reaching from the north to the south poles so that when opened from ear to ear, it made one jump in fear. The song titled “Old King Crow” is yet another example of how black Americans were portrayed as gullible people. The song describes how an old African slave hears a crow calling him from a tree and threatens it, ordering it to fly away. Such songs which were a part of minstrelsy programs reiterated the stereotype of the black American as a simple minded idiot unable to function independently. Toll points out that there may also be underlying protest inherent in such portrayals as “Old King Crow”, showing the weak triumphing over the strong and indirectly implying the weak black man’s triumph over the strong white man through the civil war. (Toll 48). However, such parodying of the black race served an important function for white Americans in the civil war context, where the slaves were fighting for their rights. The black people were parodied as simple minded people, unable to think for themselves and functioning best when the “massa” took care of them. These exaggerated caricatures in minstrelsy reinforced the impression of black people as gullible and stupid, thus posing no threat to white Americans. The white man was able to laugh in relief as the parody of the black man on stage pushed the black American back into the role of slavery where he had been for many years, rather than being faced with the ongoing threat of liberation of the slaves. One of the most common stock comedy characters used in minstrelsy was that of Jim Crow. This was a black, crippled stable hand, first presented by Thomas “Daddy” rice as a dance titled “Jump Jim Crow”. This character later came to epitomize the racial system existing in the South that segregated the blacks, deprived them of their rights and subjected them to abuse and discrimination by the white community. Toll argues that the deliberate parodying of black Americans in minstrelsy was a way for the white Americans to reiterate their racial superiority. Whiteness of skin allowed for full citizenship and participation in politics. A person whose skin was black on the other hand, was inferior and therefore not entitled to citizenship or participation in American politics. This representation of the black person as the “other” was highlighted through the blacking of the skin, thus relegating him to the status of inferiority and exclusion from citizenship. The major thrust of minstrelsy as an art form was to reinforce the impression of the blacks as an inferior race. It was specially geared towards addressing underlying white insecurities with the growing emergence of the civil rights movement. “Minstrelsy was the first example of the way American popular culture would exploit and manipulate Afro-Americans and their culture to please and benefit white Americans” (Toll 51). In every way, the minstrels served to emphasize the point that blacks fell far short of white standards and that no matter how hard they tried, blacks would never be able to overcome their inferior status and move up into the ranks of the white people to gain full citizenship. The early nineteenth century shows also featured female impersonation, where white men not only darkened their faces as minstrels but also dressed as mulatto women or plantation girls. According to Toll, the comedic element inherent in such cross-dressing and parodying of the black experience only served to reassure the white man about his own superiority (Toll 63). During the later years of the Civil War, when the rights of the slaves was gaining greater prominence, many of the white minstrel groups branched out into performing vaudeville. During this period, all-black minstrel groups arose, such as the Callender Colored Minstrels and Havely’s Colored Minstrels. These groups focused on plantation scenes, which were once a mandatory part of the “afterpiece” - a comedy stretch that was an integral part of minstrelsy (Toll, 1974:56). In one poster for the Callender Colored Minstrels that was produced after 1875, a typical plantation scene is depicted. The poster shows an old man seated in the foreground of the poster, playing a banjo for a group of children who are dancing in two rows. The ubiquitous black female cook stands at the door, watching the children. These all-black minstrel groups projected themselves as true representatives of black culture, as opposed to a bunch of white men blackening their faces. Harvey’s colored minstrels called themselves the “natural children of bondage” who were able to create within the body of their shows, “de good ol plantation”, symbolizing the values of an era when slavery was deeply entrenched where “de darky will be hisself once more and forget that he eber had any trouble.” (Toll, 1974:209). This was a direct reflection of the ambivalence being experienced about the Civil War, where the established position of the black man as a slave on a southern plantation was being challenged by the reality of the civil war that was raging for the liberation of the black race from that very slavery. Despite the inherent racism in minstrelsy, Lott in his work Love and Theft argues that it actually depicts the internal conflicts being experienced by workers in the racial southern states. White performers who blackened their faces and sang Jim Crow songs were trying to depict the black experience without actually being a part of it, therefore undermining the authenticity of the black experience of slavery. Hence they were actually stealing from the black American ethic and using it to profit by entertaining other white Americans with it. Yet there was also an inherent fascination with black culture despite their partial knowledge of it, and the minstrelsy reflected their fascination with and love for what they imagined black culture to be. In attempting to explain why white men blackened their faces and engaged in minstrel performances, Lott suggests that white performers engaged in “theft” of what actually belonged to the black man. He states that the blacks themselves had already “invented and commodified black performance practices for their own gain” (Lott 43). However, the racial segregation prevailing in society did not allow them to gain and profit from their performance, because “the police stopped them from having their own institutional performance” (Lott 44). Ultimately, the ones who gained from the black experience was the white race. Lott views minstrelsy as performances “opening to view the culture of the dispossessed while simultaneously refusing the social legitimacy of its members, a truly American combination of acknowledgement and expropriation” (Lott 49). However, Lott also argues that the theft and parodying of the black American’s experience of slavery cannot be dismissed as purely racism. Lott’s view is that there is also an element of love and fascination inherent in these performances. The act of blackening the faces of white men is the indication of their desire to imitate the black man. The focus of the programs on the black man’s experience expresses the underlying fascination of the white man for the black man, even as he tries to distance himself from it through caricature and ridicule. Minstrelsy was an acceptable way for the white man to express his fears about race and control and according to Lott: “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” (Lott 25). Thus, minstrelsy represented the appropriation of black experience by whites (theft). Simultaneously, there was acculturation as well, since those practices accepted as black were sometimes interracial creations representing the white man’s take on the black experience and thus not fully based upon the reality. Read More