Find, share and discuss at least one contemporary example that can shed light on the lingering aspects of minstrelsy (what W.T. Lhamon calls the “cycles of minstrel transgression”).
Response (Due – Sunday, Oct. 10th by 11:59pm)
Review posts provided by one of your colleagues (no more than two responses allowed to a single student). Using their examples, speculate on how these contemporary artists use their work as a tool for advocacy or critique, and/or as an expression of their own cultural experiences.
RESOURCES
- Lhamon Jr., W.T. “Ebery Time I Wheel About I Jump Jim Crow: Cycles of Minstrel Transgression from Cool White to Vanilla Ice.” Inside the Minstrel Mask, edited by Annemarie Bean, James V. hatch, Brooks McNamara. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, 1996.
Reply:
One contemporary example of blackface minstrelsy is the 2005 album “The Minstrel Show” by hip-hop trio Little Brother. From the album cover, the three members of Little Brother show the face we have seen in the lecture from the photos of Louis Armstrong and Bert Williams: They have their eyes opened and big smiles showing their teeth, alluding to the stereotypical expectations of black entertainers back in early 20th century. The overall concept of the album is a satirical parody of a fictional TV Show named “The Minstrel Show,” and the songs, in order, follow the scheme of the show, including the humorous skits and commercials. This follows the traditional form of minstrel shows, which was a comedy show in a popular entertainment with music and exaggerated dance moves. The notable point in the album was that the artists have designed and produced the album in the way they wanted to be presented with their own perspectives. The intended message by the artists is drawing the life of black musicians and artists, as the subtitle suggests “The Biggest Colored Show on Earth.” Because the word ‘minstrelsy’ was explicitly mentioned by black musicians from Southern United States, in some way it is an expression of confronting the discriminative history that African American had to experience when it was a major popular culture. While the album was not successful because it has faced diverse controversies on their way of presentation, Little Brother has used the minstrelsy to raise awareness of the white’s blackface history using the genre they are part of.
https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/1043766
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