Blackface

Racist archetypes

American actor John McCullough as Othello, 1878

There is no consensus about a single moment that constitutes the origin of blackface. John Strausbaugh places it as part of a tradition of "displaying Blackness for the enjoyment and edification of white viewers" that dates back at least to 1441, when captive West Africans were displayed in Portugal.^[14] Whites routinely portrayed the black characters in the Elizabethan and Jacobean theater (see English Renaissance theatre), most famously in Othello (1604).^[4] However, Othello and other plays of this era did not involve the emulation and caricature of "such supposed innate qualities of Blackness as inherent musicality, natural athleticism", etc. that Strausbaugh sees as crucial to blackface.^[14] Lewis Hallam, Jr., a white blackface actor of American Company fame, brought blackface in this more specific sense to prominence as a theatrical device in the United States when playing the role of "Mungo", an inebriated black man in The Padlock, a British play that premiered in New York City at the John Street Theatre on May 29, 1769.^[15] The play attracted notice, and other performers adopted the style. From at least the 1810s, blackface clowns were popular in the United States.^[16] British actor Charles Mathews toured the U.S. in 1822–23, and as a result added a "black" characterization to his repertoire of British regional types for his next show, A Trip to America, which included Mathews singing "Possum up a Gum Tree", a popular slave freedom song.^[17] Edwin Forrest played a plantation black in 1823,^[17] and George Washington Dixon was already building his stage career around blackface in 1828,^[18] but it was another white comic actor, Thomas D. Rice, who truly popularized blackface. Rice introduced the song "Jump Jim Crow" accompanied by a dance in his stage act in 1828^[19] and scored stardom with it by 1832.^[20]

First on de heel tap, den on the toe
Every time I wheel about I jump Jim Crow.
I wheel about and turn about an do just so,
And every time I wheel about I jump Jim Crow.^[21]

This postcard, published c. 1908, shows a white minstrel team. While both are wearing wigs, the man on the left is in blackface and drag.

Rice traveled the U.S., performing under the stage name "Daddy Jim Crow". The name Jim Crow later became attached to statutes that codified the reinstitution of segregation and discrimination after Reconstruction.^[22]

In the 1830s and early 1840s, blackface performances mixed skits with comic songs and vigorous dances. Initially, Rice and his peers performed only in relatively disreputable venues, but as blackface gained popularity they gained opportunities to perform as entr'actes in theatrical venues of a higher class. Stereotyped blackface characters developed: buffoonish, lazy, superstitious, cowardly, and lascivious characters, who stole, lied pathologically, and mangled the English language. Early blackface minstrels were all male, so cross-dressing white men also played black women who were often portrayed as unappealingly and grotesquely mannish, in the matronly mammy mold, or as highly sexually provocative. The 1830s American stage, where blackface first rose to prominence, featured similarly comic stereotypes of the clever Yankee and the larger-than-life Frontiersman;^[23] the late 19th- and early 20th-century American and British stage where it last prospered^[24] featured many other, mostly ethnically-based, comic stereotypes: conniving, venal Jews;^[25][26] drunken brawling Irishmen with blarney at the ready;^[26][27][28] oily Italians;^[26] stodgy Germans;^[26] and gullible rural rubes.^[26]

1830s and early 1840s blackface performers performed solo or as duos, with the occasional trio; the traveling troupes that would later characterize blackface minstrelsy arose only with the minstrel show.^[29] In New York City in 1843, Dan Emmett and his Virginia Minstrels broke blackface minstrelsy loose from its novelty act and entr'acte status and performed the first full-blown minstrel show: an evening's entertainment composed entirely of blackface performance. (E. P. Christy did more or less the same, apparently independently, earlier the same year in Buffalo, New York.)^[30] Their loosely structured show with the musicians sitting in a semicircle, a tambourine player on one end and a bones player on the other, set the precedent for what would soon become the first act of a standard three-act minstrel show.^[31] By 1852, the skits that had been part of blackface performance for decades expanded to one-act farces, often used as the show's third act.^[32]

The songs of northern composer Stephen Foster figured prominently in blackface minstrel shows of the period. Though written in dialect and certainly politically incorrect by today's standards, his later songs were free of the ridicule and blatantly racist caricatures that typified other songs of the genre. Foster's works treated slaves and the South in general with an often cloying sentimentality that appealed to audiences of the day.^[33]

White minstrel shows featured white performers pretending to be blacks, playing their versions of black music and speaking ersatz black dialects. Minstrel shows dominated popular show business in the U.S. from that time through into the 1890s, also enjoying massive popularity in the UK and in other parts of Europe.^[34] As the minstrel show went into decline, blackface returned to its novelty act roots and became part of vaudeville.^[24] Blackface featured prominently in film at least into the 1930s, and the "aural blackface"^[35] of the Amos 'n' Andy radio show lasted into the 1950s.^[35] Meanwhile, amateur blackface minstrel shows continued to be common at least into the 1950s.^[36] In the UK, one such blackface popular in the 1950s was Ricardo Warley from Alston, Cumbria who toured around the North of England with a monkey called Bilbo.^[37]

As a result, the genre played an important role in shaping perceptions of and prejudices about blacks generally and African Americans in particular. Some social commentators have stated that blackface provided an outlet for whites' fear of the unknown and the unfamiliar, and a socially acceptable way of expressing their feelings and fears about race and control. Writes Eric Lott in Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class, "The black mask offered a way to play with the collective fears of a degraded and threatening—and male—Other while at the same time maintaining some symbolic control over them."^[38]

However, at least initially, blackface could also give voice to an oppositional dynamic that was prohibited by society. As early as 1832, a blacked-up Thomas D. Rice was singing, "An' I caution all white dandies not to come in my way, / For if dey insult me, dey'll in de gutter lay." It also on occasion equated lower-class white and lower-class black audiences; while parodying Shakespeare, Rice sang, "Aldough I'm a black man, de white is call'd my broder."^[39]

Film

Singer and actor Al Jolson wearing blackface in the musical film The Jazz Singer

Through the 1930s, many well-known entertainers of stage and screen also performed in blackface.^[40] Whites who performed in blackface in film included Al Jolson,^[41] Eddie Cantor,^[42] Bing Crosby,^[41] Fred Astaire, Buster Keaton, Joan Crawford, Irene Dunne, Doris Day, Milton Berle, William Holden, Marion Davies, Myrna Loy, Betty Grable, Dennis Morgan, Laurel and Hardy, Betty Hutton, The Three Stooges, Mickey Rooney, Shirley Temple, Judy Garland, Donald O'Connor and Chester Morris and George E. Stone in Boston Blackie's Rendezvous.^[42] As late as the 1940s, Warner Bros. used blackface in a minstrel show sketch in This is the Army (1943) and by casting Flora Robson as a Haitian maid in Saratoga Trunk (1945).^[43]

In the early years of film, black characters were routinely played by whites in blackface. In the first known film of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1903) all of the major black roles were whites in blackface.^[44] Even the 1914 Uncle Tom starring African-American actor Sam Lucas in the title role had a white male in blackface as Topsy.^[45] D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915) used whites in blackface to represent all of its major black characters,^[46] but reaction against the film's racism largely put an end to this practice in dramatic film roles. Thereafter, whites in blackface would appear almost exclusively in broad comedies or "ventriloquizing" blackness^[47] in the context of a vaudeville or minstrel performance within a film.^[48] This stands in contrast to made-up whites routinely playing Native Americans, Asians, Arabs, and so forth, for several more decades.^[49]

Blackface makeup was largely eliminated even from live film comedy in the U.S. after the end of the 1930s, when public sensibilities regarding race began to change and blackface became increasingly associated with racism and bigotry.^[42] Still, the tradition did not end all at once. The radio program Amos 'n' Andy (1928–60) constituted a type of "aural blackface", in that the black characters were portrayed by whites and conformed to stage blackface stereotypes.^[50] The conventions of blackface also lived on unmodified at least into the 1950s in animated theatrical cartoons. Strausbaugh estimates that roughly one-third of late 1940s MGM cartoons "included a blackface, coon, or mammy figure."^[51] Bugs Bunny appeared in blackface at least as late as Southern Fried Rabbit in 1953.^[52]

Ballet

In 1910, the ballet Sheherazade, choreographed by Michael Fokine, premiered in Russia. The story behind the ballet was inspired by a tone poem written by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov. In the ballet the leading female character, Zobeide, is seduced by a Golden Slave. The dancer who portrayed the Golden Slave, the first being Vaslav Nijinsky, would have his face and body painted brown for the performance. This was done to show the audience the slave was of a darker complexion. Later in 1912, Fokine choreographed the ballet Petrushka, which was performed on stage. The ballet centers around three puppets that come to life, Petrushka, the Ballerina, and the Moor. When the ballet premiered, the part of the Moor, first danced by Alexander Orlov, was performed in full blackface. The Moor puppet is first seen onstage playing with a coconut, which he attempts to open with his scimitar. His movements are apelike. The Moor seduces the Ballerina and later savagely cuts off the head of the puppet Petrushka. When Petrushka is performed today, the part of the Moor is still done in full blackface, or occasionally blueface. The blackface has not been publicly criticized in the ballet community. Black and brownface appear in other ballets today, such as La Bayadère and Othello, in the United States and Europe.^[53]

Black minstrel shows

Bert Williams was the only black member of the Ziegfeld Follies when he joined them in 1910. Shown here in blackface, he was the highest-paid African American entertainer of his day.^[54]

By 1840, black performers also were performing in blackface makeup. Frederick Douglass generally abhorred blackface and was one of the first people to write against the institution of blackface minstrelsy, condemning it as racist in nature, with inauthentic, northern, white origins.^[55] Douglass did, however, maintain: "It is something to be gained when the colored man in any form can appear before a white audience."^[56]

When all-black minstrel shows began to proliferate in the 1860s, they often were billed as "authentic" and "the real thing". These "colored minstrels"^[57] always claimed to be recently freed slaves (doubtlessly many were, but most were not)^[58] and were widely seen as authentic. This presumption of authenticity could be a bit of a trap, with white audiences seeing them more like "animals in a zoo"^[59] than skilled performers. Despite often smaller budgets and smaller venues, their public appeal sometimes rivalled that of white minstrel troupes. In March 1866, Booker and Clayton's Georgia Minstrels may have been the country's most popular troupe, and were certainly among the most critically acclaimed.^[60]

These "colored" troupes—many using the name "Georgia Minstrels"^[61]—focused on "plantation" material, rather than the more explicit social commentary (and more nastily racist stereotyping) found in portrayals of northern blacks.^[62] In the execution of authentic black music and the percussive, polyrhythmic tradition of pattin' Juba, when the only instruments performers used were their hands and feet, clapping and slapping their bodies and shuffling and stomping their feet, black troupes particularly excelled. One of the most successful black minstrel companies was Sam Hague's Slave Troupe of Georgia Minstrels, managed by Charles Hicks. This company eventually was taken over by Charles Callendar. The Georgia Minstrels toured the United States and abroad and later became Haverly's Colored Minstrels.^[60]

From the mid-1870s, as white blackface minstrelsy became increasingly lavish and moved away from "Negro subjects", black troupes took the opposite tack.^[63] The popularity of the Fisk Jubilee Singers and other jubilee singers had demonstrated northern white interest in white religious music as sung by blacks, especially spirituals. Some jubilee troupes pitched themselves as quasi-minstrels and even incorporated minstrel songs; meanwhile, blackface troupes began to adopt first jubilee material and then a broader range of southern black religious material. Within a few years, the word "jubilee", originally used by the Fisk Jubilee Singers to set themselves apart from blackface minstrels and to emphasize the religious character of their music, became little more than a synonym for "plantation" material.^[64] Where the jubilee singers tried to "clean up" Southern black religion for white consumption, blackface performers exaggerated its more exotic aspects.^[65]

African-American blackface productions also contained buffoonery and comedy, by way of self-parody. In the early days of African-American involvement in theatrical performance, blacks could not perform without blackface makeup, regardless of how dark-skinned they were. The 1860s "colored" troupes violated this convention for a time: the comedy-oriented endmen "corked up", but the other performers "astonished" commentators by the diversity of their hues.^[66] Still, their performances were largely in accord with established blackface stereotypes.^[67]

These black performers became stars within the broad African-American community, but were largely ignored or condemned by the black bourgeoisie. James Monroe Trotter — a middle-class African American who had contempt for their "disgusting caricaturing" but admired their "highly musical culture"—wrote in 1882 that "few ... who condemned black minstrels for giving 'aid and comfort to the enemy'" had ever seen them perform.^[68] Unlike white audiences, black audiences presumably always recognized blackface performance as caricature, and took pleasure in seeing their own culture observed and reflected, much as they would half a century later in the performances of Moms Mabley.^[69]

Despite reinforcing racist stereotypes, blackface minstrelsy was a practical and often relatively lucrative livelihood when compared to the menial labor to which most blacks were relegated. Owing to the discrimination of the day, "corking (or blacking) up" provided an often singular opportunity for African-American musicians, actors, and dancers to practice their crafts.^[70] Some minstrel shows, particularly when performing outside the South, also managed subtly to poke fun at the racist attitudes and double standards of white society or champion the abolitionist cause. It was through blackface performers, white and black, that the richness and exuberance of African-American music, humor, and dance first reached mainstream, white audiences in the U.S. and abroad.^[10] It was through blackface minstrelsy that African American performers first entered the mainstream of American show business.^[71] Black performers used blackface performance to satirize white behavior. It was also a forum for the sexual double entendre gags that were frowned upon by white moralists. There was often a subtle message behind the outrageous vaudeville routines:

The laughter that cascaded out of the seats was directed parenthetically toward those in America who allowed themselves to imagine that such 'nigger' showtime was in any way respective of the way we live or thought about ourselves in the real world.^{[72]:5, 92–92, 1983 ed.}

With the rise of vaudeville, Bahamian-born actor and comedian Bert Williams became Florenz Ziegfeld's highest-paid star and only African-American star.^[54][73]

A poster for the 1939 Broadway show The Hot Mikado using blackface imagery

In the Theater Owners Booking Association (TOBA), an all-black vaudeville circuit organized in 1909, blackface acts were a popular staple. Called "Toby" for short, performers also nicknamed it "Tough on Black Actors" (or, variously, "Artists" or "Asses"), because earnings were so meager. Still, TOBA headliners like Tim Moore and Johnny Hudgins could make a very good living, and even for lesser players, TOBA provided fairly steady, more desirable work than generally was available elsewhere. Blackface served as a springboard for hundreds of artists and entertainers—black and white—many of whom later would go on to find work in other performance traditions. For example, one of the most famous stars of Haverly's European Minstrels was Sam Lucas, who became known as the "Grand Old Man of the Negro Stage".^[74] Lucas later played the title role in the 1914 cinematic production of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. From the early 1930s to the late 1940s, New York City's famous Apollo Theater in Harlem featured skits in which almost all black male performers wore the blackface makeup and huge white painted lips, despite protests that it was degrading from the NAACP. The comics said they felt "naked" without it.^{[72]:4, 1983 ed.}

The minstrel show was appropriated by the black performer from the original white shows, but only in its general form. Blacks took over the form and made it their own. The professionalism of performance came from black theater. Some argue that the black minstrels gave the shows vitality and humor that the white shows never had. As the black social critic LeRoi Jones has written:

It is essential to realize that ... the idea of white men imitating, or caricaturing, what they consider certain generic characteristics of the black man's life in America is important if only because of the Negro's reaction to it. (And it is the Negro's reaction to America, first white and then black and white America, that I consider to have made him such a unique member of this society.)^[75]

The black minstrel performer was not only poking fun at himself but in a more profound way, he was poking fun at the white man. The cakewalk is caricaturing white customs, while white theater companies attempted to satirize the cakewalk as a black dance. Again, as LeRoi Jones notes:

If the cakewalk is a Negro dance caricaturing certain white customs, what is that dance when, say, a white theater company attempts to satirize it as a Negro dance? I find the idea of white minstrels in blackface satirizing a dance satirizing themselves a remarkable king of irony—which, I suppose is the whole point of minstrel shows.^[75]

Continued Use in Asia

However, blackface-inspired iconography continue in popular media in Asia. In Japan, in the early 1960s, a toy called Dakkochan became hugely popular. Dakkochan was a black child with large red lips and a grass skirt. There were boy and girl dolls, with the girls being distinguished by a bow. The black skin of the dolls was said to have been significant and in-line with the rising popularity of jazz. Novelist Tensei Kawano went as far as to state, "We of the younger generation are outcasts from politics and society. In a way we are like Negroes, who have a long record of oppression and misunderstanding, and we feel akin to them."^[87] Japanese cartoons continue to prominently feature characters inspired by "darky" iconography, including well-known Mr. Popo in popular series Dragonball Z.^[88]

To this present day, prominent brands continue to use the iconography, including Chinese toothpaste brand Darlie, which was re-named from "Darkie", and 'Black Man' in Thailand.^[89] Vaudeville-inspired blackface remains frequently utilized in commercials.^[90]

Darlie toothpaste package over the years

Background

Over time, blackface and "darky" iconography became artistic and stylistic devices associated with art deco and the Jazz Age. By the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in Europe, where it was more widely tolerated, blackface became a kind of outré, camp convention in some artistic circles. The Black and White Minstrel Show was a popular British musical variety show that featured blackface performers, and remained on British television until 1978 and in stage shows until 1989. Many of the songs were from the music hall, country and western and folk traditions.^[91] Actors and dancers in blackface appeared in music videos such as Grace Jones's "Slave to the Rhythm" (1980, also part of her touring piece A One Man Show),^[92] Culture Club's "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" (1982)^[93] and Taco's "Puttin' On the Ritz" (1983).^[94]

When trade and tourism produce a confluence of cultures, bringing differing sensibilities regarding blackface into contact with one another, the results can be jarring. When Japanese toymaker Sanrio Corporation exported a darky-icon character doll (the doll, Bibinba, had fat, pink lips and rings in its ears)^[95] in the 1990s, the ensuing controversy prompted Sanrio to halt production.^[96]

Trademark for Conguitos, a confection manufactured by the LACASA Group^[97] features a tubby, little brown character with full, red lips. In Britain, "Golly",^[98] a golliwog character, fell out of favor in 2001 after almost a century as the trademark of jam producer James Robertson & Sons, but the debate still continues whether the golliwog should be banished in all forms from further commercial production and display, or preserved as a treasured childhood icon. In France, the chocolate powder Banania^[99] still uses a little black boy with large red lips as its emblem. The licorice brand Tabu, owned by Perfetti Van Melle and distributed in Europe, introduced a cartoon minstrel mascot in the 1980s inspired by Al Jolson's blackface performance in The Jazz Singer, which is still in use today.^[100]

The influence of blackface on branding and advertising, as well as on perceptions and portrayals of blacks, generally, can be found worldwide.

High tech

Digital media provide opportunities to inhabit and perform black identity without actually painting one's face. In 1999, Adam Clayton Powell III coined the term "high-tech blackface" to refer to stereotypical portrayals of black characters in video games.^[101] David Leonard writes that "The desire to 'be black' because of the stereotypical visions of strength, athleticism, power and sexual potency all play out within the virtual reality of sports games." Leonard's argument suggests that players perform a type of Identity tourism by controlling black avatars in sports games.^[102] Phillips and Reed argue that this type of blackface "is not only about whites assuming black roles, nor about exaggerated performances of blackness for the benefit of a racist audience. Rather, it is about performing a version of blackness that constrains it within the boundaries legible to white supremacy."^[103]

Social media has also facilitated the spread of blackface in culture. In 2016, a controversy emerged over Snapchat's Bob Marley filter, which allowed users to superimpose dark skin, dreadlocks, and a knitted cap over their own faces.^[104][105] A number of controversies have also emerged about students at American universities sharing images of themselves appearing to wear blackface makeup.^{[106][107][108][109]} Additionally, writers such as Lauren Michele Jackson and Victoria Princewill have criticized non-black people sharing animated images of black people or black-skinned emojis, calling the practice "digital blackface".^[110][111]

An ancient Greek Gnathia vase depicting a comic actor, attributed to the workshop of the Konnakis Painter, dated 360–350 BC, from the Getty Villa, Apulia (Magna Graecia), Italy

Media

In 1980 the white members of UB40 appeared in blackface in their "Dream a Lie" video. The black members of the group wore white makeup on their faces to give the opposite appearance.^[112]

Papa Lazarou was a character in the comedy-horror TV show The League of Gentlemen in the 1990s, and a subsequent movie. His exaggerated form of gypsy-styled blackface embodied the 'local' characters' fear of outsiders. It was revealed at the end of the series that this was his actual skin colour.

A sketch in a 2003 episode of Little Britain features two characters who appear in blackface as minstrels, as regularly seen on British television until the 1980s. The same characters return for one 2005 sketch. In the sketches, the racist overtones are subverted with the characters presented as belonging to a race genuinely possessing the appearance of white men in blackface (referred to as "Minstrels") who are persecuted by the public and local government.

Comedians in many Asian countries continue to occasionally use minstrel-inspired blackface, with considerable frequency in South Korea.^{[113][114][115][116][117][118][119]}

Australia

In October 2009, a talent-search skit on Australian TV's Hey Hey It's Saturday reunion show featured a tribute group for Michael Jackson, the "Jackson Jive" in blackface, with the Michael Jackson character in whiteface. American performer Harry Connick, Jr. was one of the guest judges and objected to the act, stating that he believed it was offensive to black people, and gave the troupe a score of zero. The show and the group later apologised to Connick, with the troupe leader of Indian descent stating that the skit was not intended to be offensive or racist.^[120]

Belgium and Netherlands

In Tintin in the Congo, cartoonist Hergé uses a blackface type drawing style to depict the native Congolese. And in the Dutch comic Sjors & Sjimmie, started in 1902, Sjimmy was initially depicted in the same way, but was gradually turned into a normal, but black, Dutch boy and in 1969, when Jan Kruis took over the comic, his transformation to a normal black boy was complete.

In the Netherlands and Belgium, people annually celebrate St. Nicolas Eve with Sinterklaas accompanied by multiple Zwarte Pieten in the form of adolescent boys and girls, and men and women, with their face painted black, or different colors or styles in some large city parades nowadays, wearing Moorish page boy costumes. The Moorish Zwarte Piet character has been traced back to the middle of the 19th century when Jan Schenkman, a popular children's book author, added a black servant to the Sinterklaas story.^[121] However, the original and archetypal Zwarte Piet is believed to be a continuation of a much older custom in which people with black faces appeared in Winter Solstice rituals.^[122] In other parts of Western Europe and in Central Europe, black-faced and masked people also perform the role of companions of Saint Nicholas, who is known as Nikolo in Austria, Niklaus in Germany and Samichlaus in Switzerland. Also on Saint Martin's Eve, black-faced men go around in processions through Wörgl and the Lower Inn Valley, in Tyrol.^[123]

A Dutch woman in Zwarte Piet costume

Zwarte Piet as a depiction of a Moorish page resembles many of the classic "darky" icons,^[124] and visitors are often surprised at the sight of white people made up in what appears to be classic blackface.^[125] Internal opposition to the practice has been present since the 1960s.^[126] Some of the stereotypical elements have been toned down in recent decades.^[125] However, a 2013 survey indicated support among the Dutch population is strong: 89% of the 19,000 respondents were opposed to altering the character's appearance, 5% favoured change, and 6% had no firm opinion either way.^[127]

Canada

Up until the early 2000s, white comedians sometimes used makeup to represent a black person, most often as a parody of an actual person. For example, the Montreal-based satiric group Rock et Belles Oreilles did so when comedian Yves Pelletier disguised himself as comedian and show host Gregory Charles, making fun of his energetic personality (not of his racial background) on his television game show "Que le meilleur gagne".^[128] RBO also did a parody of a talk show where a strongly stereotypical fictitious Haitian man (Pelletier again) was easily offended,^[129] as well as a group parody of the Caribbean band La Compagnie Créole^[130] and a sketch about the mangled lines of African-American actors in movie translations.^[131] Pelletier did another parody of Gregory Charles for the New Year's Eve TV special "Le Bye Bye de RBO" in 2006 (as an homage to Charles who had had a particularly successful year^[132]), along with a parody of Governor General Michaëlle Jean in another sketch.^[133] And in RBO's 2007 "Bye Bye", Guy A. Lepage impersonated a black Quebecer testifying during the Bouchard-Taylor hearings,^[134] while in another sketch, Lepage, Pelletier and Bruno Landry impersonated injured Darfur residents.^[135]

In September 2011, HEC Montréal students caused a stir when using blackface to "pay tribute" to Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt during Frosh Week. The story went national, and was even covered on CNN.^[136] The university students were filmed in Jamaican flag colours, chanting "smoke weed" in a chorus.^[137] The University later apologized for the lack of consciousness of its student body.^[138][139]

In May 2013, comedian Mario Jean performed in blackface to imitate Boucar Diouf (fr)^[140][141] an African immigrant-comedian and story-teller.^[142] Many notable Quebec journalists^[143][144] and pundits defended the practice and deny the history of blackface is part of Quebec's history.^[140] Boucar Diouf praised his fellow comedian for a sign of great open-mindedness.^[145]

In December 2013, white actor Joel Legendre (fr) performed in blackface in the annual New Year's Eve TV special "Bye Bye 2013", in yet another parody^[146] of Gregory Charles, this time as host of the variety show "Le choc des générations".

In December 2014, the satirical end-of-year production by Théâtre du Rideau Vert, a mainstream theatre company, included a blackface representation of hockey player P.K. Subban by white actor Marc Saint-Martin.^[147] Despite some criticism the sketch was not withdrawn.^[148]

In June 2018, singer Betty Bonifassi and director Robert Lepage were accused of staging a black imitation that was reminiscent of blackface^[149] when they put together the show "SLĀV" at the Montreal Jazz Festival, notably because it included a scene where white performers were dressed as slaves as they picked cotton.^[150] After two initial performances, the rest of the run was canceled after singer Moses Sumney refused to perform his own show at the same Festival, arguing that, in "SLĀV", "The only thing missing is black paint".^[149]

Cape Verde

There are some occurrences of blacking up (completely covering the entire exposed body) with afro wigs and stereotypical grass skirts and costume at festivals in this African country.^[151]

China

On February 15, 2018, a comedy sketch titled "Same Joy, Same Happiness" intending to celebrate Chinese-African ties on the CCTV New Year's Gala, which draws an audience of up to 800 million, showed a Chinese actress in blackface makeup with a giant fake bottom playing an African mother, while a performer only exposing black arms playing a monkey accompanied her. At the end of the skit, the actress shouted, "I love Chinese people! I love China!" After being broadcast, the scene was widely criticized being "disgusting", "awkward" and "completely racist" on Twitter and Sina Weibo.^[152][153] But according to the street interviews by the Associated Press in Beijing on February 16, some Chinese people believed this kind of criticism was overblown.^[154] Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang, who also watched the skit, said that China had consistently opposed any form of racism, and added, "I want to say that if there are people who want to seize on an incident to exaggerate matters, and sow discord in China's relations with African countries, this is a doomed futile effort" at a daily news briefing on February 22.^[155]

Europe

In Europe, there are a number of folk dances or folk performances in which the black face appears to represent the night, or the coming of the longer nights associated with winter. Many fall or autumn North European folk black face customs are employed ritualistically to appease the forces of the oncoming winter, utilizing characters with blackened faces, or black masks.^[156]

Finland

In Finland, a version of the Star boys' singing procession originating in the city of Oulu, a musical play known as Tiernapojat, has become established as a cherished Christmas tradition nationwide. The Tiernapojat show is a staple of Christmas festivities in schools, kindergartens, and elsewhere, and it is broadcast every Christmas on radio and television. The Finnish version contains non-biblical elements such as king Herod vanquishing the "king of the Moors", whose face in the play has traditionally been painted black. The character's color of skin is also a theme in the procession's lyrics.^[157]

Germany

A group of showmen in the Cologne Carnival called Negerköpp, founded in 1929, act with their hands and faces painted black.^[158]

The Germany-based Dutch musician Taco Ockerse stirred up controversy in 1983 by using dancers in blackface for his hit synthpop version of "Puttin' on the Ritz".^[159]

In Germany, blackface was used in several theatrical productions.

Examples of theatrical productions include the many productions of the play "Unschuld" (Innocence) by the German writer Dea Loher, although in this play about two black African immigrants, the use of black-face is not part of the stage directions or instructions.^[160] The staging of the play "Unschuld" (Innocence) at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin was also subject of protest.^[161] The activist group "Bühnenwatch" (stage watch) performed a stunt in one of the stagings: 42 activists, posing as spectators, left the audience without a word and later distributed leaflets to the audience. Fundamental of the criticism was that the use of black-face solidifies stereotypes regardless of any good intentions and supports racist structures. The critics were invited to a discussion with the director, actors, theatre manager and other artists of the Deutsches Theater. As a result of the discussion, Deutsches Theater changed the design of actor make-up. Ulrich Khuon, the theatre manager, later admitted to being surprised by the protest and is now in a process of reflection.^[162]

German productions of Herb Gardner's I'm Not Rappaport almost always cast the role of Midge Carter, the black character, famously portrayed in the U.S. by Ossie Davis, with a white actor in black makeup. The 2012 production of the play at the Berlin Schlosspark-Theater was the subject of protest.^[163][164] The director, Thomas Schendel, in his response to critics, argued that the classical and common plays would not offer enough roles that would justify a repertoire position for a black actor in a German theatre company. The protest grew considerably and was followed by media reports. While advocates of the theatre indicated that in principle it should be possible for any actor to play any character and that the play itself has an anti-racist message, the critics noted that the letter unwillingly disclosed the general, unexpressed policy of German theatres, i.e., that white actors are accounted to be qualified for all roles, even black ones, while black actors are suitable only for black roles.^[165] Other authors said that this problem in Germany generally exists for citizens with an immigrant background.^[166][167] The debate also received foreign media attention. The Schlosspark-Theater announced plans to continue the performances, and the German publishing company of Rappaport stated it will continue to grant permits for such performances.

German dramatists commented on the debate:

Unfortunately, I do not believe that our society has come to accept a black Faust in the theatre.

— Christian Tombeil, theater manager of Schauspiel Essen, 2012^[168]

We too have a problem to deal with issues of racism. We try to work it out by promoting tolerance, but tolerance is not a solution to racism. Why not? Because it does not matter whether our best friends are immigrants if, at the same time, we cannot cast a Black man for the part of Hamlet because then nobody could truly understand the "real" essence of that part. Issues of racism are primarily issues of representation, especially in the theatre.

— René Pollesch, director, 2012^[169]

In 2012, the American dramatist Bruce Norris cancelled a German production of his play Clybourne Park when it was disclosed that a white actress would portray the African-American "Francine". A subsequent production using black German actors was successfully staged.^[170]

Guatemala

Guatemalan 2015 elected president, Jimmy Morales, was a comic actor. One of the characters he impersonated in his comic show "Moralejas" was called Black Pitaya which used blackface makeup. Jimmy Morales defended his blackface character saying he is adored by the country's black Garifuna and indigenous Mayan communities.^[171]

Iran

Hajji Firuz in Tehran

Hajji Firuz is a character in Iranian folklore who appears in the streets by the beginning of the New Year festival of Nowruz.^[172] His face is covered in black soot, which is to symbolize the dirt and dust from the previous year.

Japan

In Japanese hip hop, a subculture of hip-hoppers subscribe to the burapan style, and are referred to as blackfacers.^[173] The appearance of these blackfacers is evidence of the popularity of the hip-hop movement in Japan despite what is described as racist tendencies in the culture.^[174] Some Japanese fans of hip-hop find it embarrassing and ridiculous that blackface fans do this because they feel like they should not change their appearance to embrace the culture. In some instances it can be seen as a racist act, but for many of the young Japanese fans it is a way of immersing in the hip hop culture the way they see fit.^[175] The use of blackface is seen by some as a way to rebel against the culture of surface images in Japan.^[176]

Blackface also remains a contentious issue outside of hip hop.^[177] One Japanese R&B group, the Gosperats, has been known to wear blackface makeup during performances.^[178] In March 2015 a music television program produced by the Fuji TV network was scheduled to show a segment featuring two Japanese groups performing together in blackface, Rats & Star and Momoiro Clover Z. A picture was published online by one of the Rats & Star members after the segment was recorded, which led to a campaign against broadcasting of the segment. The program that aired on March 7 was edited by the network to remove the segment "after considering the overall circumstances",^[179] but the announcement did not acknowledge the campaign against the segment.^[180]

Mexico

In modern-day Mexico there are examples of images (usually caricatures) in blackface (e.g., Memín Pinguín). Though there is backlash from international communities, Mexican society has not protested to have these images changed to racially sensitive images. On the contrary, in the controversial Memín Pinguín cartoon there has been support publicly and politically^[181] (chancellor for Mexico, Luis Ernesto Derbez). Currently in Mexico, only 3–4% of the population are composed of Afro-Mexicans (this percentage includes Asian Mexicans).

A notorious example of blackface in Mexican media is a comedic episode based around the Civil War titled La guerra de secesión de los Estados Unidos (The U.S. Secession War) in which famous comedian Chespirito did a skit in blackface.^[182]

Panama

Portobelo's Carnival and Congo dance in Panama include a use of blackface as a form of celebration of African history, an emancipatory symbol. Black men paint their faces with charcoal representing three things. Firstly, the blackface is used as a tool to remember their African descendants. Secondly, the black face is representative of the disguise or concealment on the run slaves would have used to evade the Spanish colonizers. Lastly, the practice of blackface is used as a way to signify the code or "secret language" slaves would have used during the time of Spanish occupation. During the celebration, for example, good morning will mean good night, and wearing black, or in this case blackface, which normally denotes a time of mourning, is used as a way to represent a time of celebration instead.^[183]

Portugal and Brazil

In Portugal, there is not a long history of use of actors in blackface for "serious" performances meant for realistic black character, but the use of blackface for comedy keeps being used frequently well into the 21st century.^[184] The talk-show 5 Para a Meia-Noite, examples of which some episodes were hosted by Luís Filipe Borges^[185] and Pedro Fernandes,^[186] who have both done it, used it almost on a weekly basis.^[187] Recently, Eduardo Madeira dressed up as Serena Williams ^[188], adding an African accent the tennis player does not have in real life. Use of black performance in impersonations was quite frequently used in the (ongoing) song and impressions show A Tua Cara não Me É Estranha, with blackface impressions of Michael Jackson,^[189][190] Siedah Garrett,^[191] Tracy Chapman,^[192] Louie Armstrong,^[193] Nat King Cole,^[194] among others.

In Brazil, there has been at least some history of non-comedic use of blackface, using white actors for black characters like Uncle Tom (although the practice of "racelift", or making black/mulatto characters into mestiços/swarthy whites/caboclos, is more frequent than blackface).^{[195][196][197]} Use of blackface in humor has been used more rarely than in Portugal, although it also continues into this century (but it creates major uproar among the sizeable and more politically active Afro-Brazilian community).^[198]

South Africa

Inspired by blackface minstrels who visited Cape Town, South Africa, in 1848, former Javanese and Malay coolies took up the minstrel tradition, holding emancipation celebrations which consisted of music, dancing and parades. Such celebrations eventually became consolidated into an annual, year-end event called the "Coon Carnival" but now known as the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival or the Kaapse Klopse.

Today, carnival minstrels are mostly Coloured ("mixed race"), Afrikaans-speaking revelers. Often in a pared-down style of blackface which exaggerates only the lips. They parade down the streets of the city in colorful costumes, in a celebration of Creole culture. Participants also pay homage to the carnival's African-American roots, playing Negro spirituals and jazz featuring traditional Dixieland jazz instruments, including horns, banjos, and tambourines.^[199]

The South African actor and filmmaker Leon Schuster is well known for employing the blackface technique in his filming to little or no controversy. But in 2013, the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa halted the airing of an ad wherein Schuster portrayed a stereotypically dishonest African politician in blackface.^[200] The action was in response to the following submitted complaint:

... the commercial is offensive as it portrays a stereotype that black politicians are liars. This technique is known as blackface, and is an inherently racist form of acting. The black character is depicted with derogatory intention, speaks with a thick accent, and recalls a stereotypical black dictator. To achieve the desired result of showing a corrupt official, there was no need for the man to be made out to be black.

Vodacom South Africa has also been accused of using non-African actors in blackface in its advertising as opposed to simply using African actors. Some have denounced blackface as an artefact of apartheid, accusing broadcasters of lampooning Black people. Others continue to see it as "harmless fun".^[201] In 2014, photos of two white University of Pretoria female students donning blackface makeup in an attempt at caricaturing Black domestic workers surfaced on Facebook. The students were said to face disciplinary action for throwing the institution's name into disrepute, this despite having perpetrated the incident at a private party and later taking down the images.^[202] University of Stellenbosch students Poekie Briedenhann and a friend drew much controversy after posting a picture of themselves in what appeared be dark paint and were subsequently accused of donning "blackface" and wrongfully suspended from their residence and later reinstated. The pair claimed they had been dressed up as purple aliens for a space-themed residence party.^[203]

Thailand

In Thailand, actors darken their faces to portray the Negrito of Thailand in a popular play by King Chulalongkorn (1868–1910), Ngo Pa (Thai: เงาะป่า), which has been turned into a musical and a movie.^[204]

United Kingdom

United States

20th century

This elaborate, figural Art Deco Ronson tabletop cigarette lighter, manufactured in 1936, is an example of an everyday consumer item rendered in classic darky iconographical style.

In the early 20th century, group of African-American laborers began a marching club in the New Orleans Mardi Gras parade, dressed as hobos and calling themselves "The Tramps". Wanting a flashier look, they renamed themselves "Zulus" and copied their costumes from a blackface vaudeville skit performed at a local black jazz club and cabaret.^[213] The result is one of the best known and most striking krewes of Mardi Gras, the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club. Dressed in grass skirts, top hats and exaggerated blackface, the Zulus of New Orleans are controversial as well as popular.^[214]

An example of the disregard in American culture for racial boundaries and the color line was the popular duo Amos 'n' Andy, characters played by two white men. They gradually stripped off the blackface makeup during live 1929 performances while continuing to talk in dialect (see African-American English).^[215]

In 1936 Orson Welles was touring his Voodoo Macbeth; the lead actor, Maurice Ellis, fell ill, so Welles stepped into the role, performing in blackface.^[216]

The wearing of blackface was once a regular part of the annual Mummers Parade in Philadelphia. Growing dissent from civil rights groups and the offense of the black community led to a 1964 city policy, ruling out blackface.^[217] Despite the ban on blackface, brownface was still used in the parade in 2016 to depict Mexicans, causing outrage once again among civil rights groups.^[218] Also in 1964, bowing to pressure from the interracial group Concern, teenagers in Norfolk, Connecticut, reluctantly agreed to discontinue using blackface in their traditional minstrel show that was a fund-raiser for the March of Dimes.^[219]

Grace Slick, singer of Jefferson Airplane, was wearing blackface when they performed "Crown of Creation" and "Lather" at The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1968. A clip is included in a 2004 documentary Fly Jefferson Airplane, directed by Bob Sarles. Frank Zappa is depicted in blackface on the covers of his triple album Joe's Garage, released in 1979. In 1980, an underground film, Forbidden Zone, was released, directed by Richard Elfman and starring the band Oingo Boingo, which received controversy for blackface sequences.^[220]

Joni Mitchell has donned blackface numerous times throughout her career, even marketing her 1977 album using her alter ego "Art Nouveau" on her album cover Don Juan's Reckless Daughter.

Mitchell has remained unapologetic about her alter 'persona,' citing that she "does not have the soul of a white woman ... I write like a black poet. I frequently write from a black perspective" in an interview with LA Weekly.^[221] Her denial of any fault has not gone without criticism, as Sheila Weller writes in her book Girls Like Us "Joni romanticized being black, without the disadvantages. She would increasingly insist that her music was 'black' and that, as it progressed deeply into jazz, it should be played on black stations (it rarely was)."

Soul Man is a 1986 American film featuring C. Thomas Howell as Mark Watson a pampered rich college graduate who uses 'tanning pills' in order to qualify for a Graduate school scholarship to Harvard Law only available to African American students. He expects to be treated as a fellow student and instead learns the isolation of 'being black' on campus. Mark Watson later befriends and falls in love with the original candidate of the scholarship, a single mother who works as a waitress to support her education. The character later 'comes out' as white, leading to the famous defending line "Can you blame him for the color of his skin?" The film was met with vast criticism of a white man donning black face to humanize white ignorance at the expense of African American viewers. Despite a large box office intake, has scored low on every film critic platform. "A white man donning blackface is taboo," said C Thomas Howell "Conversation over — you can't win. But our intentions were pure: We wanted to make a funny movie that had a message about racism."^[222]

Former Illinois congressman and House Republican party minority leader Bob Michel caused a minor stir in 1988, when on the USA Today television program he fondly recalled minstrel shows in which he had participated as a young man and expressed his regret that they had fallen out of fashion.^[223][224]

Trading Places is a 1983 American film, telling the elaborate story of a commodities banker and street hustler crossing paths after being made part of a bet. The film features a scene between Eddie Murphy, Jamie Lee Curtis, Denholm Elliott, and Dan Aykroyd when they must don disguises to enter a train. For no reason relevant to the plot Dan Aykroyd's character puts on full black face make up, a dread locked wig and a Jamaican accent to fill the position of a Jamaican pot head. The film has received very little criticism for its use of racial and Ethnic stereotype, Rotten Tomatoes even citing it as "featuring deft interplay between Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd, Trading Places is an immensely appealing social satire."^[225]

In 1993, white actor Ted Danson ignited a firestorm of controversy when he appeared at a New York Friars' Club roast in blackface, delivering a risqué shtick written by his then love interest, African-American comedian Whoopi Goldberg.

Promotional poster for Spike Lee's movie Bamboozled (2000)

Blackface and minstrelsy serve as the theme of Spike Lee's film Bamboozled (2000). It tells of a disgruntled black television executive who reintroduces the old blackface style in a series concept in an attempt to get himself fired, and is instead horrified by its success. The original design of the Pokémon character Jynx caused controversy over its alleged resemblance to a blackface caricature. It has since been redesigned with a purple skin tone.^[226]

USSR

Larisa Dolina performing the role of a Cuban singer (1983)

In the 1976 Soviet film How Czar Peter the Great Married Off His Moor, Vladimir Vysotsky performs the role of Abram Petrovich Gannibal.

In the 1983 film We Are from Jazz, Larisa Dolina performed the role of a Cuban singer Clementine Fernandez.