>>> BLACKFACE IS IN THE NEWS LATELY, WITH FORMER TODAY SHOW
HOST MEGYN KELLY JUSTIFYING ITS USE.
THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE
POINTS OUT THAT MINSTREL ENTERTAINMENT WAS CREATED BY
SOME FRUSTRATED WHITE AMERICANS TO EXPRESS THE OPPRESSION THEY
FELT BEING MEMBERS OF THE MAJORITY, BUT OUTSIDE OF THE
WHITE NORM IN SOCIETY AT THE TIME.
IN DONNING BLACKFACE, THESE WHITE ACTORS WOULD STEREOTYPE
AND DEHUMANIZE AFRICAN AMERICANS AND DOING SO, SMITH COLLEGE
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HISTORY ELIZABETH STORDEUR PRYOR SAYS,
SET A DANGEROUS PRECEDENT THAT PERSISTS THROUGH TO TODAY.
>> I KNOW THERE IS BLACKFACE IN SHAKESPEARE BUT
THAT IS NOT REALLY WHAT I CONCENTRATE ON, I LOOK AT UNITED
STATES HISTORY AND THERE IS A STAGE PERFORMANCE OF BLACKFACE
THAT IS HISTORIC BUT IT STARTED BEFORE THAT, IT STARTED IN
NEWSPAPERS.
AND THERE WOULD BE THESE FAKE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, LIKE A
LITERARY BLACKFACE SO IN THE NEWSPAPERS IN THE 1780s AND
1790s, THERE WOULD BE FAKE LETTERS WRITTEN TO THE EDITOR
WRITTEN BY A SUPPOSED BLACK PERSON INDICATING A DIALECT TO
REPRESENT AFRICAN-AMERICANS WHO WERE KIND OF DRAWN AS PEOPLE WHO
WERE IGNORANT AND DANGEROUS AND KIND OF FOOLISH AND THEY WOULD
WRITE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, YOU KNOW, IN THIS BLACK DIALECT AS
IF SOMEBODY WOULD WRITE A LETTER LIKE THAT.
BUT IT REALLY EMERGED AS A STAGE PERFORMANCE, MINSTREL
PERFORMANCE IN THE U.S. IN THE 1820s AND 30s.
>> IN TERMS OF THOSE PERFORMANCES, IT WAS MORE THAN
PAINTING THE FACE, THERE WAS MUSIC INVOLVED, SOMETHING THAT
PEOPLE WOULD COME OUT TO ENJOY AS A FORM OF ENTERTAINMENT,
RIGHT?
>> RIGHT.
THE WAY I UNDERSTAND IT, THERE WERE USUALLY INTERSTITIAL
PERFORMANCES.
LIKE TO GO SEE A PLAY AND WHEN THE STAGE WAS CHANGING BEHIND
THE SCENES, THEY WOULD DO THESE INTERSTITIAL PERFORMANCES THAT
WERE BLACKFACE PERFORMANCES AND FROM THAT, IT MOVED TO ITS OWN
GENRE.
ULTIMATELY JIM CROW, WHEN I CAN TALK ABOUT IN A MINUTE BUT
ULTIMATELY THOSE BECAME THE MOST POPULAR, REALLY THE FIRST
AMERICAN POP CULTURE.
WHEN I AM EXPLAINING IT TO MY STUDENTS, I AM LIKE THIS IS
BEYONCE.
WHAT YOU WOULD SEE IS A WHITE ACTOR IN TORN CLOTHES USING THE
N-WORD THEMSELVES TRYING TO DUPLICATE THE BLACK SPEECH IN
DIALECT, OVER CONCEPTUALIZE, TALK ABOUT WOMEN AND POLITICS IN
A PARTICULAR WAY AND KIND OF BE DRAWN AS THIS DANGEROUS AND
FUNNY CHARACTER ON STAGE.
>> SO WITH THESE WHITE ACTORS PUTTING ON THIS CARICATURE, WHAT
WAS THE MESSAGE THEY WERE SENDING TO, I WOULD IMAGINE,
THEIR LARGELY WHITE AUDIENCE AT THAT POINT?
>> I THINK MANY OF THE ANTI-BLOCKS MESSAGES THAT CAME
OUT OF THE 1820s AND 30s, THE MESSAGE WAS THAT BLACK
PEOPLE CAN NEVER MOVE OUT OF THIS SOCIAL CATEGORY.
LIKE, YOU KNOW, THERE WAS JIM CROW WHICH IS ONE CHARACTER --
>> ONE OF THE FIRST CHARACTERS, RIGHT?
>> RIGHT.
>> I THINK TODAY WHEN WE HEAR JIM CROW, WE THINK OF JIM CROW
LAWS BUT IT WAS A CHARACTER?
>> RIGHT, I WRITE ABOUT THIS IN MY BOOK BUT IT WAS ORIGINALLY A
STAGE CHARACTER BY ON ACTOR T.D. RICE AND IT WAS A WHITE
ACTOR, HE SUPPOSEDLY WENT DOWN TO THE SOUTH.
SAW A BLACK PERSON DANCING IN A PARTICULAR WAY AND BUILT A
CHARACTER AROUND IT THAT HE PERFORMED IN BOSTON AND NEW YORK
AND UP NORTH AND THEN WENT TO EUROPE AND BROUGHT IT THERE AS A
DISTINCTLY AMERICAN ART FORM.
BUT THERE WAS ANOTHER ACTOR AS WELL, HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE I
GUESS YOU WOULD CALL HIM A CITY SLICKER AND SHOWING WHAT
DANGEROUS BLACK CHARACTERS COULD BE.
IT CORRESPONDS WITH THE MOMENT OF BLACK FREEDOM IN THE NORTH SO
THAT IS WHEN, YOU KNOW, THERE WAS SLAVERY AND I THINK MOST
PEOPLE KNOW THIS THROUGHOUT THE NORTH AND BY 1827 IN NEW YORK,
THAT IS WHEN ALL BLACK PEOPLE WERE FREE.
IT IS A LONGER STORY THAN THAT BUT THAT IS WHERE OUT OF WHICH
THIS PERFORMANCE EMERGES AND IT IS AN ASSAULT ON BLACK FREEDOM.
>> AS YOU ARE SEEING THESE PERFORMANCES AND SOCIAL
COMMENTARY COMING FROM LARGELY WHITE PEOPLE AND PERFORMED FOR
WHITE PEOPLE, THEN HOW CAN WE -- DO WE DRAW A LINE BETWEEN THOSE
ACTIONS AND CIVIL RIGHTS?
>> WELL, I THINK IT IS A DIRECT ATTACK ON EQUAL RIGHTS.
IT IS MUCH LIKE THE USE OF THE N-WORD OR ANTI--BLACK KIND OF
SYMBOLS.
THEY EXIST PRECISELY TO, YOU KNOW, SIGNAL THAT BLACK PEOPLE
AREN'T WORTHY OF CITIZENSHIP, MAKING FUN OF, YOU KNOW, THE
BLACKNESS AS IF IT IS ONE SINGLE THING, RIGHT?
I MEAN WHAT IS BLACKNESS?
IT IS JIM CROW AS OPPOSED TO PEOPLE HAVING LOTS OF DIFFERENT
FEELINGS.
IT FLATTENS -- >> TAKES AWAY THE INDIVIDUAL --
>> YES, BEING HUMAN, FLAT TENS THE HUMANITY OF AFRICAN FOR
INSTANCE IMAGINE THEM IN THIS WAY AND THIS PERFORMANCE.
>> SO TALKING ABOUT HISTORY ROOTED 1830s, SEEMS LIKE THIS
VERY DISTANT THING WAS IN THE PAST BUT WHEN YOU LOOK AT FILM,
POPULAR CULTURE, JUDY GARLAND, MICKY ROONEY, THESE PEOPLE WHO
HOLD UP AS POPULAR SINGERS AND DANCERS IN FILM IN THE 30s AND
THE 40s AND SOMETHING I READ IN SMITHSONIAN JUST KNOCKED THE
BREATH OUT OF ME.
IT SAYS THE BLACKFACE CHARACTER PERSISTS TO TODAY, BLACKFACE
HALLOWEEN COSTUMES, CONTINUING TO BATTLE AS PROFESSOR-STUDENT
BLACKFACE PERFORMANCES.
SO THIS IS STILL HAPPENING TODAY.
>> YES, IT DOES HAPPEN AND HAPPENS IN LOCAL COLLEGES AND
UNIVERSITIES AS WELL.
IT HAPPENS ALL OVER.
IT IS NOT JUST SOMETHING PECULIAR TO THE SOUTH, IT REALLY
DOES HAPPEN ALL OVER IN WHICH PEOPLE IMITATE THESE -- AND
USUALLY, I THINK PART OF THE ESSENCE OF BLACK FACE IS TO
IMITATE THESE NEGATIVE STEREOTYPES ABOUT AFRICAN
AMERICANS, RIGHT?
BUT EVEN SO, SAY SOMEBODY WANTS TO GO AS BEYONCE IN A COSTUME
AND THE IDEA THAT WHAT SHE IS IS HER BLACKNESS AS OPPOSED TO ALL
THESE OTHER THINGS LIKE OUTRAGEOUS COSTUMES, OTHER
THINGS THAT MIKE -- MIGHT SIGNIFY WHAT WHAT WHAT BEYONCET
BE.
IT IS LOOK HALLOWEEN WHICH IS
ABOUT WITCHES AND DRACULA AND GHOSTS AND THESE FIGMENTS AND
AFRICAN-AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE NOT FIGMENTS, THEY ARE REAL HUMAN
BEINGS.
AND EVEN THOUGH OUR IDEA OF HALLOWEEN HAS STRETCHED SOME, IT
IS OKAY FOR A WHITE PERSON TO GO AS OBAMA FOR EXAMPLE, BUT THEY
DON'T HAVE TO GO AS OBAMA IN BLACKFACE.
WE WERE TALKING EARLIER, ONE OF THE THINGS I TEACH MY STUDENTS
IS ABOUT THESE COMPTON COOKOUTS, COMPTON BEING AN AFRICA AMERICAN
NEIGHBORHOOD IN LOS ANGELES AND PEOPLE ARE INVITED TO DRINK
KOOL-AID, EAT FRIED CHICKEN IT, EAT WATERMELON, TO DRESS LIKE
GANGSTERS -- >> THE WHOLE LIST OF
AFRICAN-AMERICAN STEREOTYPES.
>> EXACTLY AND THAT IS REALLY WHAT THE CORE AND ESSENCE OF IT
IS. AND PEOPLE HAVE A HARD TIME AND
WILL SAY I DIDN'T MEAN IT THAT WAY, I WAS JUST PUTTING ON A
COSTUME, IT DIDN'T DATE BACK TO THE 1830s IS AND JIM CROW.
BUT THERE IS NO WAY TO STEP OUT OF THAT HISTORY.
YOU MAY THINK OF YOURSELF STEPPING OUTSIDE OF A HISTORY
BUT YOU ARE PAINTING THIS PARADIGM THAT SAYS
AFRICAN-AMERICANS ARE LESS THAN, UNWORTHY AND THAT IS WHAT IS
FUNNY ABOUT THE COSTUME.