Ī 2023 article appearing on the National Museum of African American History and Culture website, asserts that the birth of blackface is attributable to class warfare: that Strausbaugh sees as crucial to blackface. 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. White people routinely portrayed the black characters in the Elizabethan and Jacobean theater (see English Renaissance theatre), most famously in Othello (1604). The journalist and cultural commentator 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. There is no consensus about a single moment that constitutes the origin of blackface. Seuss depicting blackface-styled caricatures of Black people It was generally considered highly offensive, disrespectful, and racist by the late 20th century on into the 21st century, though the practice (or similar-looking ones) were exported to other countries. In the United States, blackface declined in popularity beginning in the 1940s with performances dotting the cultural landscape into the Civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Įarly in the 20th century, blackface branched off from the minstrel show and became a form of entertainment in its own right, including as Tom Shows parodying abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. It contributed to the spread of racial stereotypes such as 'Jim Crow,' the 'happy-go-lucky darky on the plantation,' and 'Zip Coon' also known as the ' dandified coon.' By the middle of the 18th century, blackface minstrel shows had become a distinctive American artform, translating formal works such as opera into popular terms for a general audience.

In the United States, the practice became a popular entertainment during the 18th century into the 19th. West minstrel show poster, originally published by the Strobridge Lithographing Company, shows the transformation from a person of European descent to a caricature of a dark-skinned person of African descent.īlackface is the practice of non- Black performers using burnt cork or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of Black people on stage or in entertainment.

For other uses, see Blackface (disambiguation).

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