History of Blackface in the Media

Shows were advertised and people enjoyed the way they made fun of and exaggerated the behavior of Africans. 

Advertisements have been arround for along time, same goes for blackface. Many minstrel shows had advertisements that were shown around town to draw in crowds. They often depicted African Americans doing something that made them look a bit crazy. In this poster for the Virginia minstrels, we can see that the individuals are made to look like their bodies are moving in an abnormal way. They are also in poor conditions and playing folk music, which was something minstrel shows used to embody people of color. 

White people were making all the money off of these shows, which is not surprising when we see how much they have stolen in other areas. They used people of color on plantations to gain wealth, now here we see them mocking them. Another thing whites have stolen is land from indigionous tribes, they then made fun of the tribes and their traditions as well. It has been a common theme for Americans to create their culture by insulting others. 

Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, a Republican, and then-New York Gov. Al Smith, a Democrat, with three state judges dressed in blackface(1935)

Blackface has been around for a long time, it was done in plays of Shakespear, in minstrel shows and even movies more recently. People of color did not have the power, nor the status to protest it. It was widely accepted by others and as we can see from this photo, even politicians enjoyed it. There are a few New York politicians in this image who are indulging in blackface. "“Blacking up” was seen as an expression of cultural heritage and patriotism throughout Jim Crow America"(Barnes, 2019). This became a horrible part of American culture, it mocked people of color and gave white people the upperhand in many ways. 

Politicians have supported many forms of racism in the past. As we can see here, they supported blackface. We also know that George Washington owned slaves, many older presidents supported slavery or segregation and treated people of color as objects, rather than humans. Though people of color were used in wars and as forms of entertainment, they were still looked at as objects and inferior. The culture Americans had was a mockery of African culture.

The Lyrics above were a song that was performed at minstrel shows. 

In minstrel shows, there was a lot of mockery of African Americans in the ways they dressed, talked, looked, and more. One way this was often displayed was in dance and song. The song "Oh Susanna" was very popular in these shows and was insulting to people of color. It was made purposefully to include poor grammer and made the poor lives of African Americans normalized. Some lyrics were "I jumped aboard de telegraph, and trabbled down de riber"(Ditson, 1863). The theme of being uneducated was reoccuring.

People would make fun of the way people of color talked in these times, and sometimes still do. They were not able to obtain much education, and if they did it was nothing close to what white people experienced. They were made to look foolish for not having the same resources or opportunities, yet still expected to have the same results. We see a lot of situations where people of color are blamed for their life trajectory, when they have no control and statutes are put in place to make sure they do not get ahead. People today speak about 'talking black' and we can see that this trend has not disappeared.