Blackface: Difference between revisions

[[File:blackface 3910.jpg|link=The Jazz Singer|frame|Not an actual black person.]]

 

'''Blackface''' is the tradition of a performer putting on stylized black makeup to appear as a stereotyped character of African descent. Blackface performances often took the form of [[Minstrel Shows]]. As much as some people would like to forget it, blackface performances were mainstream American entertainment for almost 100 years until racial backlash finally capsized them. Blackface imagery was also transported to other countries, where the lesser stigma against it allowed the tradition to prosper for longer. Blackface characters still pop up in Japanese culture from time to time.

 

{{tropelist|Tropes associated with Blackface}}

* [[Ash Face]]: Older animated works would often segue from an [[Ash Face]] incident to a Blackface gag.

 

{{examples|Works in which Blackface appears}}

* ''[[Dragon Ball]]'': Mister Popo, Staff Officer Black and other black characters have a blackface appearance, which has been a long-standing nightmare when it comes to trying to export the shows. This, combined with his status as a "servant" character, has long made Mister Popo a target of criticism, to the point that [[4Kids Entertainment]] changed his skin color to blue when ''[[Dragon Ball Z Kai]]'' aired on [[Toonzai]].

* The Galoot Sect assassins from ''[[Flag]]'' invoke this aesthetic with their creepy, golliwog-like masks, possibly meant to represent the black goddess Kali.

* [[Spike Lee]]'s ''[[Bamboozled]]'': A modern African-American filmmaker creates a television minstrel show in which black actors perform in classic blackface. He's trying to make a point, [[Springtime for Hitler|but to his horror, the show becomes successful]]. Real-life audiences didn't respond well to the use of blackface in making a [[Audience-Alienating Premise|heavy-handed point about modern portrayals of black people]].

* Al Jolson's ''[[The Jazz Singer]]'' features the main character performing in blackface in a minstrel show as part of his journey to self-expression. Ironically, Jolson's character can only express himself by putting on the mask of a black man. This was also [[Real Life Writes the Plot|semi-biographical]], as Al Jolson really did perform in blackface and felt a special kinship with African-Americans. He actually helped a lot of blacks break into the music business, demanded that they receive equal treatment, and was famously the only white man allowed in the all-black nightclubs in Harlem.

* [[Fred Astaire]] does a blackface number in ''Swing Time'' (1936). Many fans regard this as more of an "Othello" than a "minstrel show" situation, as it was an homage to a specific black performer (Bill "Bojangles" Robinson).

* In the 1936 film version of Jerome Kern's ''[[Show Boat]]'', Magnolia and the show boat troupe don blackface for the "Gallivantin' Around" number. Since one of the themes of this musical is the destructive nature of race prejudice, this may be deliberate irony—or it may just be a lamentable lapse of taste.

* [[The Three Stooges]] disguised themselves as slaves using blackface in the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]-themed short "Uncivil Warbirds".

* [[Laurel and Hardy]] disguised themselves in blackface after breaking out of prison in ''[[Pardon Us]]''.

* ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]'' used blackface not as a comedic device, but as a means to allow white actors to portray black and "mullato" characters in an overtly racist film.

* The [[The Eighties|Eighties]] comedy ''[[Soul Man]]'' features a Harvard Law student using blackface to get a scholarship for black students. The film caused some controversy during its release.

* In [[Bob Dylan]]'s film ''Masked and Anonymous'', Ed Harris appears as the ghost of a murdered minstrel named Oscar Vogel, very much in the Al Jolson mode. Dylan has invoked minstrelsy on other occasions, notably naming his 2001 album ''Love and Theft'' after Eric Lott's academic book ''Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class''.

* Pops up, of course, in ''[[CSA: Confederate States of America]]''.

* The [[Paper-Thin Disguise]] variant shows up in ''[[Silver Streak]]''. Con man [[Richard Pryor]] helps to disguise traveler [[Gene Wilder]], who's been framed for murder. (Presumably it helps that Wilder has naturally curly hair.) Hearing Wilder's clueless [[Soul Brother]] patter, Pryor says, "I sure hope we don't run into any brothers."

* In ''[[The Last Emperor]]'', the deposed Emperor Pu-yi performs a concert backed up by Chinese musicians in blackface.

* In 1942's ''[[Holiday Inn]]'', the "Lincoln's Birthday" show at the titular inn is a [[Minstrel Shows|Minstrel show]] done entirely in blackface, from the orchestra to the serving staff. It's particularly noteworthy because of the bizarre plot point where Jim decides only at the last minute that his fiancee Linda needs to perform in blackface (so as to hide her from his ex-partner during the show). Given that her prominent role in the show was as a very stereotyped pickaninny, it seems highly unlikely she was ever ''not'' going to be in blackface.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* ''[[Scrubs]]'' has a flashback to an incident where Turk convinced JD to wear blackface (where Turk himself would be wearing whiteface) while they met with some friends of Turk's. Turk ends up being distracted at an inopportune moment, meaning that JD seems to be alone when the guys see him. It does not end well.

* The former page image from ''[[Community]]'' actually does not represent a straight example. Being the one semi-member of the study group with [[Dungeons & Dragons]] experience, Chang dresses up as his Drow character. Both Shirley and Pierce think he's in Blackface, however.

* In the ''[[All in The Family]]'' episode "Birth of the Baby", Archie is forced by his lodge to appear in blackface in a minstrel show. Right before he's supposed to go onstage, he's informed that his daughter has gone into labor, so he ends up in the hospital in blackface.

* [[Played for Laughs]] in an episode of ''[[Soap]]'' when the Major, Chester, and Donahue are in blackface in preparation for a night raid on the [[Cult|Sunnies]] church/bunker along with [[Benson]] in order to rescue Billy. (The blackface in this case is an ordinary stealth technique so as not to be easily seen.) As they're planning, Jessica comes in and apologizes for interrupting Benson's reunion with his family. After they explain that they're them, Jessica asks why they're dressed as 'Negros.' During the raid they get caught, and Benson covers for them by saying they're [[wikipedia:The Four Step Brothers|the Step Brothers,]] and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u65R6ur5r0#t=2m06s leads the others in a dance "audition."]

* Inverted in ''[[Chappelle's Show]]'' in sketches where the black host Dave Chappelle lightens his skin and plays a stereotypical white man.

* ''[[The Goodies]]'' mocks [[The Apartheid Era]] racists by showing how horrified they are of blackface performers: white people imitating black people.

 

== Music ==

* Appears rather shockingly in the video for [[Culture Club]]'s "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?" as Boy George is convicted by a jury of jazz-handing minstrels.

* [[Florence + the Machine]]'s song "No Light, No Light", which is ''very'' recent, has two savage people in blackface [[Scary Black Man|menacing]] the white singer, who is saved by white choirboys and seen at the end with a white lover. Supposedly, the men in blackface are meant to be [[Unfortunate Implications|demons]].

 

== Stand-Up Comedy ==

* One [[Retraux]] sketch by ''[[The Two Ronnies]]'' has Ronnie Barker playing "[[No Celebrities Were Harmed|Al Vermont]]", a singer who performs in blackface.

 

== Theater ==

** [[Bill Robinson]] was among the first black performers to make it big without blackface.

* Many opera roles, such as Otello in Verdi's opera and Monostatos in ''[[The Magic Flute]]'', have been portrayed in blackface. There is still a shortage of black opera singers, but white singers playing these roles no longer black up.

* Referenced in the play ''[[No Sugar]]'', which revolves around a family of Australian aborigines in the 1930s. In one scene, they recall a recent trip to the cinema, where they saw an American film with a blackface performer, who they joke must have been having a really rough time as a whitefella if he saw becoming black as a step up.

 

== Toys ==

* "Golliwogg" dolls are dolls made in the style of a person in blackface. They can still be purchased in some areas.

 

== Video Games ==

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' characters such as Bugs Bunny would [[Ash Face|often get soot blown in their faces]], causing them to spontaneously parody ''[[The Jazz Singer]]''.

** Happened on Tex Avery's directorial debut cartoon Gold Diggers of '49, with two Chinese laundrymen having their faces covered in soot from Bean's jeep.

** From The Ducktators; "Sieg Heil, Boy! I’m from South Germany!"

** Happens to Colonel Shuffle in Mississippi Hare after Bugs gives him an exploding cigar, Bug then fools him into playing and dancing to the tune of Camptown Races on a banjo just so Bugs can dump him in the river.

*** "Uh Oh! Back to the kitchen! I smell somethin' burnin'!"

** One of the latest ''Looney Tunes'' cartoons to feature a blackface gag was in Southern Fried Rabbit where Bugs disguised himself as an African American slave to fool Yosemite Sam when trying to enter Dixieland, though Yosemite Sam sees through the disguise and corners the rabbit, Bugs then proceeds by giving Yosemite Sam a whip and begs Sam not to whip him and runs away.

* ''[[Coonskin]]'' featured this type of imagery intentionally to mock the many racist caricatures of African-Americans throughout the 30s and 40s.

* Parodied on ''[[Family Guy]]'' in season 9, when Chris wanted to dress up as Bill Cosby for Halloween, using blackface as well as his trademark sweater. His mother tried telling him it’s wrong, but Chris just said, ‘Why, don’t I look like him?’ His mother agreed that he did, but then said, ‘You can’t just go out on the street in blackface, it’s racist! [[Hypocritical Humor|Now go put on that Indian head gear I bought you!]]’

* Jim Crow and his gang from ''[[Dumbo]]'' are crows that talk in an African American lingo.

* ''[[Fantasia]]'' had a blackface centaur named Sunflower, this caused a lot of controversy that Disney removed Sunflower from later releases of the film.

* The book ''Kaboom! Explosive Animation from America and Japan'' mentions that "Even today, the question can be legitimately asked: How much of [[Mickey Mouse]] is mouse, and how much is blackface clown?"

* Happened to [[Donald Duck]] on Modern Inventions and Timber.

** Ling-Ling also did this while disguised as Foxy Love one time.

* The Smiths in ''[[American Dad]]'' show up to a black organization's banquet in blackface after misreading the invitation. It turns out the party's name was "Black People Changing the Face of America".

* Happened at least once on an episode of ''[[Teen Titans]]''.

 

* This happens in [[The Philippines]], particularly in the Visayas every January, when the native brown people smear their bodies with black coal to celebrate a feast with the indigenous black minority, with a help of a miracle from a memento from the Spaniards that helped develop a culture.

* A Japanese earthquake safety pamphlet passed out as late as 2004 featured a cartoon "sambo" character with a blackface appearance. After some complaints, the pamphlet was redrawn.