Sign in or register
for additional privileges

Birth of An Industry: Blackface Minstrelsy and the Rise of American Animation

Nicholas Sammond, Author

You appear to be using an older verion of Internet Explorer. For the best experience please upgrade your IE version or switch to a another web browser.

Introduction, Page 14

A central conceit of early minstrelsy was that its ostensibly white performers had traveled to plantations and witnessed the authentic songs, dances and wordplay of African American slaves. This fantasy treated the slave as a natural commodity, an object and owner of nothing, not even her own thoughts and gestures. 

In the 1800s, this minstrel as happy trickster was embodied by Jim Crow, later by Tambo and Bones. In the twentieth century there are echoes of the minstrel in characters such as Lincoln Perry's Stepin Fetchit and Redd Foxx's Fred Sanford from Sanford and Sons. 

Even as late as 1953, in John Ford's The Sun Shines Bright, Perry performs his controversial Fetchit persona, falling asleep and snoring loudly in the courtroom. He speaks with heavy-lidded eyes and droopy lips, and excitedly joins in with the banjo player to sing and dance to the minstrel tune "Dixieland". 

Perry's character is also parodied in the 1935 Disney Silly Symphony short Broken Toys. In this uplifting Depression-era short, a group of discarded toys bands together to repair each other, then marches off to give themselves to orphans. While most of the toys make valuable contributions to the repair effort, the Stepin Fetchit doll has a hard time staying awake; African Americans had a harder time embodying racialized ideals of New Deal uplift.

More recently, white entertainers have used blackface in attempts to comment on the racial formation of the moment, an example being Ted Danson's widely criticized appearance in burnt cork alongside his then-girlfriend Whoopie Goldberg at a 1993 Friar's Club roast. 
Comment on this page
 

Discussion of "Introduction, Page 14"

Add your voice to this discussion.

Checking your signed in status ...

Previous page on path Introduction, page 7 of 17 Next page on path
Bones    Tambo    Image    Moving Image    Sound    Black and White    1930s    Color    1950s    Walt Disney    1970s    Live Cinema

Related:  Race, Page 206Conclusion, Page 275Performance, Page 77Race, Page 258Space, Page 181Space, Page 182Introduction, Page 29Race, Page 254Race, Page 231Labor, Page 123Labor, Page 101Space, Page 178Space, Page 150Introduction, Page 2Performance, Page 74Space, Page 138Performance, Page 50Performance, Page 45Race, Page 239Performance, Page 60Introduction, Page 16Performance, Page 46Space, Page 152Race, Page 219Introduction, Page 1Race, Page 220Race, Page 253Space, Page 193Labor, Page 119Conclusion, Page 296Labor, Page 132Race, Page 251Labor, Page 122Labor, Page 110Space, Page 197Race, Page 204Race, Page 232Race, Page 225Conclusion, Page 292Performance, Page 47Space, Page 171Performance, Page 43Space, Page 137Performance, Page 84Race, Page 248Labor, Page 128Conclusion, Page 304Introduction, Page 6Race, Page 235Space, Page 183Introduction, Page 15Labor, Page 129Conclusion, Page 300Labor, Page 109Performance, Page 67Conclusion, Page 284Performance, Page 35Performance, Page 34Race, Page 229Labor, Page 113Space, Page 143Space, Page 190Introduction, Page 21Performance, Page 42Introduction, Page 18Race, Page 261Space, Page 165Race, Page 230Introduction, Page 23Space, Page 192Space, Page 188Conclusion, Page 298Space, Page 189Conclusion, Page 303Space, Page 141Conclusion, Page 289Conclusion, Page 286Conclusion, Page 302Race, Page 221Labor, Page 112Labor, Page 102Race, Page 213Space, Page 177Space, Page 169Labor, Page 133Space, Page 156Performance, Page 72Space, Page 194Conclusion, Page 273Space, Page 155Space, Page 162Performance, Page 54Space, Page 172Introduction, Page 30Race, Page 252Conclusion, Page 278Labor, Page 98Space, Page 163Space, Page 159Labor, Page 88Space, Page 191Performance, Page 82Introduction, Page 26Space, Page 175Space, Page 148Space, Page 170Performance, Page 70Race, Page 247Space, Page 146Race, Page 245Space, Page 184Introduction, Page 20Race, Page 224Introduction, Page 4Performance, Page 80Performance, Page 52Conclusion, Page 291Performance, Page 44Race, Page 257Introduction, Page 9Performance, Page 41Space, Page 187Space, Page 195Conclusion, Page 290Labor, Page 131Labor, Page 93Performance, Page 78Performance, Page 62Introduction, Page 12Labor, Page 96Conclusion, Page 272Conclusion, Page 268introduction-page-22Performance, Page 40Performance, Page 56Conclusion, Page 274Labor, Page 126