Blackface

an understanding on what kind of show was it and who made it up. It was an American form of entertainment developed in the 19th century. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in make-up or blackface for the purpose of playing the role of black people. I want to understand what was it that brought them humor is and why was it such a show out comedy. Was it inspiration or pure comedy that came to mind when this show was thought about. It…

A modest number of rags are slow drags. • Coon song – a pre-ragtime vocal form popular until about 1901. A song with crude, racist lyrics often sung by white performers in blackface. Gradually died out in favor of the ragtime song. Strongly associated with ragtime in its day, it is one of the things that gave ragtime a bad name. • Ragtime song – the vocal form of ragtime, more generic in theme than the coon song. Though this…

There is a line in the musical Spamalot where Sir Robin sings to King Arthur; “In any great adventure, if you don 't want to lose ... you won 't succeed on Broadway if you don 't have any Jews!" (PBS, Broadway Musicals). If you can look past the sweeping generalization, Sir Robin’s surprising lyric turns out to be very true about musicals. Historians have recognized that Jewish immigrant culture heavily influenced the content of musical theatre when it was popularized in America during the early…

some things that they may be going through now in the film industry. The role of African Americans is significant in the film industry, but also very important because it changed the industry altogether. During 1910, white people would dress up in blackface in order to depict an African American character in their films. African Americans were portrayed as very stereotypical characters in early 20th century films. They would get roles as butlers or other helpers around the house, those were…

Photographs and memories harness the unique ability to capture moments in time. Like memories, photographs tell stories that would be otherwise lost, but unlike memories, they preserve unbiased recollections. The details remain sharp and clear even when the memories change, and those details reveal truth about their subject. In Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Kathy H. searches photographs for a glimpse of her true identity. Natasha Trethewey explores her complex circumstances through…

The 1960s for the United States, a decade of controversy, drew this picture in the sense that the events that sequenced took place on the world stage of the political spectrum. Despite the validity to this, domesticity faced conflict as well, with the emergence of rebels known as the hippies. On the face of this movement were riots and protests to argue for the ideas that followed their mindset, but on the other hand, the scene of consuming drugs, and the facet of being relaxed and ignorant of…

In the wee hours of the night on February 26th 2012 a young African-American teen named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in the town of Sanford Florida by George Zimmerman (Hoffman, 2016: 596). Though Zimmerman was eventually arrested and put on trial he was declared not-guilty by means of Self defense, a verdict that shocked the nation and was treated as a national shame by the country’s black community. In response three racial equality activists, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal…

During the rather controversial period of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was looked upon as the Great Emancipator, but further evidence has been gathered that leaves historians questioning Lincoln’s true character and motives. One man in particular, Lerone Bennett Jr., an African American scholar and social historian, argues that Lincoln had no passion or intention of ultimately ending slavery in his article “Lincoln, a White Supremacist (1968).” The period in which Bennett was writing could…

relations between black women and white men. The mammy was used to counter anti-slavery sentiments by masking the relationship as a friendly and familial one (Turner 44-45). Aunt Jemima originated as a minstrel show character portrayed by a white man in blackface and drag. Christopher Rutt, co-founder of the ready-to-make pancake mix, used Aunt Jemima to market his product to appeal to his local, southern consumers (Behnken and Smithers 23). Using a mammy figure to sell their product was a…

Throughout time the world has been through many problems relating to race, gender or class. Women weren’t treated as people. They didn’t have freedom and they weren’t allowed to do work that wasn’t part of their role as women. As for class the world saw and heard of the tragic story of the mass genocide that Hitler created. A part of that was hate towards a certain religion, but it was also related to power. He abused his power and created chaos. Last but not least is race. White people and…