Blackface Creating a Lack of Representation

BBC's "The Black and White Minstrel Show"(1958-78), created by George Mitchell

"The Black and White Minstrel Show" aired on BBC from 1958 to 1978. It was televised weekly and included minstrel songs, country music, show tunes and more. It was terribly racist, including songs like "Mississipp, it's the state you've gotta choose / Where we hate all the darkies and the Catholics and Jews / Where we welcome any man / Who is strong and white and belongs to the Ku Klux Klan."(Hegarty, 2016) They were in blackface, singing these terrible things.

Aside from the horrible treatment to African Americans, we also may notice the entire cast is white. Interesting for a show that mentions both black and white. The show would just use their black caricatures to make fun and mock African Americans. We can see how this leads to a lack of representation as they have a different way of portraying African Americans in films. Whites not only got to represent themelves, but people of color as well. 

Al Jolson staring in "The Jazz Singer"(1927). This show had a lot of influence on minstrel shows.

"The Jazz Singer" was a movie that involved blackface and came out in 1927. The lead of this movie was Al Jolson, and the movie had two releases, one with sound, and one without. This associated the movie as helping with the birth of the talkies. This brought some big changes, as actors who couldn't deliver lines would be out of a job. It was a hit, but "no one seemingly bothered to ask the country's black population what they thought."(Shiff,2017) Aside from a lack of representation in the film industry, they were also not being represented for how they felt about these films. 

Lack of representation has been a problem for African Americans for a long time now. By casting white people to play blacks, we can see how an opportunity has been taken away from them and they are not able to represent themselves. This is similar to the world fair, when whites were given bigger tents in better sports, as well as more. They try to make minorities look and feel like outcasts in order to maintain superiority. This movie is a prime example, and with it being ground breaking for introducing talkies to film, that accomplishment is not marked by whites. Better yet, whites mocking blacks. 

Even in more recent films, white people were cast as blacks. This image has Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder(2008). There still seems to be a lack of representation for blacks even though they are available for these roles.

Even now, we still see a form of blackface in film, but in a different way. It is not in a way where actors try to mock or insult African Americans, though they still do. This image is of Robert Downey Jr. in blackface for the movie "Tropic Thunder". He tries to defend his use of blackface and says "'Tropic Thunder' is about how wrong blackface is, so I take exception."(Epting, 2020) I understand how he did not mean to offend anyone, but it is the principle of the thing. He also did receive multiple nominations for the role. 

Nowadays, we know there are many black actors that could have been available for this role, however a white man was cast instead. There is a lack of opportunity and representation in this instance, and this has happened many times before. As well as RDJ being nominated for awards, that could have been other people who were actually of African descent. It can be insulting to see someone act as if they understand your culture and race, when all it is for them is a paycheck. We need to be better at being inclusive, and casting people of a certain race to portray that race.