(CNN) It’s been nearly 200 years since white performers first started painting their faces black to mock enslaved Africans in minstrel shows across the United States. It was racist and offensive then, and still is today.
The latest controversy to erupt over blackface is a photo in Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam‘s medical school yearbook. It depicts one person in blackface and another dressed as a member of the Ku Klux Klan. After initially apologizing for appearing in the photo, the Democratic governor now says he is neither the person in blackface nor the person dressed as a Klansman.
However Northam’s case plays out, it’s important for every American to understand what blackface is and why it’s so offensive.
Blackface isn’t just about painting one’s skin darker or putting on a costume. It invokes a racist and painful history.
The origins of blackface date back to the minstrel shows of mid-19th century. White performers darkened their skin with polish and cork, put on tattered clothing and exaggerated their features to look stereotypically “black.” The first minstrel shows mimicked enslaved Africans on Southern plantations, depicting black people as lazy, ignorant, cowardly or hypersexual, according to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).
The performances were intended to be funny to white audiences. But to the black community, they were demeaning and hurtful.
One of the most popular blackface characters was “Jim Crow,” developed by performer and playwright Thomas Dartmouth Rice. As part of a traveling solo act, Rice wore a burnt-cork blackface mask and raggedy clothing, spoke in stereotypical black vernacular and performed a caricatured song and dance routine that he said he learned from a slave, according to the University of South Florida Library.
Though early minstrel shows started in New York, they quickly spread to audiences in both the North and South. By 1845, minstrel shows spawned their own industry, NMAAHC says.
Its influence extended into the 20th century. Al Jolson performed in blackface in “The Jazz Singer,” a hit film in 1927, and American actors like Shirley Temple, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney put on blackface in movies too.
The characters were so pervasive that even some black performers put on blackface, historians say. It was the only way they could work — as white audiences weren’t interested in watching black actors do anything but act foolish on stage.
https://twitter.com/rebeccaballhaus/status/1092586334458392579
A gif
SG2, something for you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIjLBK_n-74
Thanks!
I guess Northam is learning to MOONWALK his lies about blackface and HOODED KKK ROBES
The replies are funny…
https://twitter.com/MatthewACherry/status/1092258254942425088
.@SenJeffMerkley For the love of God, put @SecNielsen on the docket at The Hague for crimes against humanity. Stephen Miller too. Trump and every last henchman of his need to be prosecuted. They can’t be allowed to get away with this. It’s so cruel and horrifying.
https://twitter.com/kelly2277/status/1092412637969829889
It’s like an ice skating rink outside today. side walks, roads, yards, everywhere
I.C.E. dangerous, second only to those I.C.E AGENTS
I was working a 4-H booth at the county fair & my youngest got lost from my mother. It was so many people there & my mother was in a state of panic. Luckily my nephew found him & brought him to me & I kept him in the booth with me until my time was up. It was frightening as hell. My mother was so scared. I didn’t know he was lost until my nephew found him and brought him to the booth. Thank God my nephew was there to help. Josh was crying his eyes out. He was so scared too.
https://twitter.com/kelly2277/status/1092444461160976384
All of these MOFO ice agents along with Nielsen need a one way ticket to the Hague.
Was just talking to a friend about Kristoff St. John. We both noted that he really didn’t begin to age until his son died. He had looked the same for 20 years.
Sigh..
Far too young…especially when you think that he was an actor in the first Roots!
He had been in the business pretty much forever.
RIP
May you have found some sense of peace.
https://twitter.com/ScreenGodTemple/status/1092427219731972098
Finally!!
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1092528241645182983
https://twitter.com/angela_rye/status/1092499011808956416
LOL
GTFOH
.@SpeakerPelosi Don’t let that lying scum to disrespect you in your house. I won’t be watching the fraud who has taken up residence in the Peoples House. I don’t want to see his face or hear his lying mouth. I’ll tune in when @staceyabrams gives her response. #BossYourHouse
These MOFOs RIGHT here
Rethugs want that Governors seat REAL BAD, don’t you think?
BITCHASS MOFOS!
Do you see who all is hovering over and around Fairfax?
https://twitter.com/CharlesMBlow/status/1092456895015731200
The CRACKERS are out of the BARREL
https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/1092508375286452228
That was good👏👏
I’m a big Linda Ronstadt fan, always have been.
White supremacy STOP! Just stop the madness. Reunite those children with their parents, you evil mofos!
https://twitter.com/APWestRegion/status/1091850927152214018
This was the intent all along. Don’t be surprised if 45 & Co. aren’t making $$$ off these children.
Human trafficking……
https://twitter.com/BreeNewsome/status/1092414682860789762
https://twitter.com/RawStory/status/1092416209235177472
And he don’t want them. I am glad he spoke up.
I ain’t mad with you, Duron. You do YOU, Brother.
NOTHING. I want to hear from a REAL president. He’s not a legitimate president. Let us hear from @SpeakerPelosi because she’s actually running the country right now. Trump and Pence need to be impeached so we can make the Pelosi presidency legal until the 2020 election. So there!
https://twitter.com/kathrynw5/status/1092462197463224332
TELL.IT.
https://twitter.com/McClatchyDC/status/1092452379650375685
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1092452784388091904
https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1092453478469906433
https://twitter.com/NativeAmPhotos/status/1092453524808581121
WTF America?
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1092399875138801664
Demons 😡
https://twitter.com/DemWrite/status/1092324868459130881
Damn this pi$$es me off.
https://twitter.com/E_Reid35/status/1092097114975420416
Word of the Day : February 4, 2019
Condone: verb kun-DOHN
Definition: to regard or treat (something bad or blameworthy) as acceptable, forgivable, or harmless
https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/condone-2019-02-04?pronunciation&lang=en_us&dir=c&file=condon02&utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=wotd&utm_content=pron
Oh no
Far too young 😰😰😪
https://twitter.com/theGrio/status/1092420710855860224
Mercy & Blessings to Kristoff’s family. So sad….
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1092414973253505024
Uh huh
Uh huh 😒
https://twitter.com/skepticalbrotha/status/1092339683500146689
😒😒😒
https://twitter.com/GeoffRBennett/status/1092252669966716928
I’m gonna need all the newly woke folks about ICE now that a rapper has been reported to sit all the way down. While Black folks been in these Twitter streets since Dolt45 and his merry band of racists came in and began these Gestapo tactics….but, since they were doing it to Brown folks and Africans from the contintent, they couldn’t be bothered to follow it. Black folks been out here like Paul Revere, shouting and telling you about ICE, DHS, what they been doing to people at airports, border crossings, and even on busses, but NOW it’s a topic for them cause of this rapper?
If they don’t get the ENTIRE Phuck Outta Here 😡😡😡
https://twitter.com/chrisdameanor19/status/1092137169320378369
Uh huh 😒
https://twitter.com/Qfuqua90/status/1092220070519078912
More receipts:
https://twitter.com/mamamaia_/status/1092280446694686720
https://twitter.com/_simbuh/status/1092227453442056195
Do you, Marshawn!!
WTF??😡😡😡
https://twitter.com/MiamiHerald/status/1092138148824416256
https://twitter.com/TeamPelosi/status/1092070144204042240
Good Morning, Everyone 😄 😄😄
Good Morning, Rikyrah, 3 Chics Family & Friends!