Blackface

from the public since it was an extremely offensive role. Similar to yellowface, blackface is a term referring to an act of a non-black performer representing a black person. Although this method was likely discarded decades ago, its remnants still remain in today’s media. One of the famous plays of Shakespeare, Othello, was adapted for screen in 1965 with Laurence Olivier – a white British actor – donning blackface. There are arguments which claim that the white actors cast in these leading…

A visceral reaction to blackface and minstrel characters has come to be expected in conventional American culture. The idea of minstrel shows being commonplace and consumed as entertainment has become such an uncomfortable thought that characters like Jim Crow are left relatively unexamined further than as an embarrassing racist facet of American history. However, when one sets aside the initial reaction to the seemingly overwhelming racism in T.D. Rice’s “The Original Jim Crow”, the intricate…

Jim Crow wasn’t an actual person, but understanding of who he was will help you make sense of the laws he created. During the antebellum period, minstrel shows were extremely popular. White actors in blackface would perform as black people for entertainment. Thomas Rice was a famous minstrel performer; among his most popular acts was titled “Jump Jim Crow”. In the mid-1830s, Jim Crow became synonymous with black people broadly, but still in that caricatured form. With this in mind, it may be…

African Americans under the Lenses of Racist Ideology In the history of humanity, African Americans have always been under the pressure and oppression of the common ideology that crates racism towards Africans Americans. For many years, many African American have been violently beaten, raped and tortured with no one to question or suppress these violent actions taken against Africans Americans whether in reality or in the entertainment industry. Louis Althusser is a French- Algerian Marxist…

The roles of African American actors and actresses in popular Hollywood films can be grouped into three categories: rags to riches, gangsta and hood life, and segregation. When African American actors are portrayed in different roles, they seem to receive many negative reviews. In recent years, actor Kenneth Branagh was cast as a Idris Elba, a Nordic god, in Thor. There was debate about whether or not a man of color should play the character, but Branagh defends himself by saying that Elizabeth…

An Indubitably Influential Individual “You tell a lie often enough and people will believe you,” (Abdul-jabbar 26). Coming up as a civil rights activist, Rachel Dolezal was and still continues to be an expert on all things African American. She attended Howard University, a historically black school, for a graduate degree and went on to lecture at Eastern University in the Africana Studies program on the history of black woman and hair. Following up her education, she became the leader of the…

Race has been portrayed numerous amount of times in American film. Just recently, a film called Get Out tackled the subjective of race in a creative thrilling and comedic way. The film revolved around a black man visiting his white girlfriend’s parents. This film is now up for many Academy Awards including Best Picture. Even more recently, a monumental black superhero film, Black Panther was released. Black Panther is the first black superhero movie, and is on its way to grossing 1 billion…

color. Jim Crow Laws were formed from 1876 to 1965, and existed on the premise of a “separate but equal” status for black people and white people, although they did not carry this idea out, and were violently racist. The name “Jim Crow” comes from a blackface minstrel show made in 1830, and became a derogatory term for African American people (http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/who.htm). The concepts of inequality held by Jim Crow Laws are in many ways still present through institutionalized racism.…

“Asian American” and “Asian American literature” are vague and undefined terms. Many people try to define them, but it seems that there is more than one definition for both. I think Asian Americans are people of Asian descent living in America, but there is a deeper meaning for those who are actually Asian American. I define Asian American literature as literature written by Asian Americans and about Asian Americans. I was born in America, but both my parents are Chinese. That makes me an Asian…

What do you understand by the concept “Systems of Privilege”? Why is there resistance by those who possess it to recognize it? Support your answer with examples from BOTH of the following articles (1) Peggy McIntosh “White Privilege and Male Privilege” and (2) Iris Marion Young, “Five Faces of Oppression.” Try to connect the two readings and be sure to provide specific examples from both, including all five types of oppression. When you grow up, you start to realize that there are some things…