Editing Blackface (section)

== History within the United States ==
[[File:Dreadnought hoax larger photo (cropped).png|thumb|upright=1.3|The [[Dreadnought hoax|''Dreadnought'' hoaxers]] in [[Ethiopian Empire|Abyssinian]] costume]]
Blackface was a performance tradition in the [[American Theatre Wing|American theater]] for roughly 100 years beginning around 1830. It was practiced in Britain as well, surviving longer than in the U.S.; ''[[The Black and White Minstrel Show]]'' on television lasted until 1978.<ref name="Black_and_white_minstrel">{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|p=62}}</ref>

In both the United States and Britain, blackface was most commonly used in the minstrel performance tradition, which it both predated and outlasted. Early white performers in blackface used burnt cork and later [[Foundation (cosmetics)|greasepaint]] or shoe polish to blacken their skin and exaggerate their lips, often wearing woolly wigs, gloves, tailcoats, or ragged clothes to complete the transformation. According to a 1901 source: "Be careful to get the black even around the eyes and mouth. Leave the lips just as they are, they will appear red to the audience. Comedians leave a wide white space all around the lips. It makes the mouth appear larger and will look red as the lips do. If you wish to represent an old darkey, use white drop chalk, outlining the eyebrows, chin, whisk- ers or a gray beard."<ref>{{cite web|title=An excerpt from *The Complete Minstrel Guide*, published in 1901.|url=https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/blackface-minstrelsy-in-modern-america/sources/1426|access-date=2022-02-06|website=Digital Public Library of America|language=en}}</ref> Later, black artists also performed in blackface. The famous [[Dreadnought hoax|''Dreadnought'' hoax]] involved the use of blackface and costume for a group of high-profile authors to gain access to a military vessel.<ref>{{cite web |date=February 5, 2012 |title=How a bearded Virginia Woolf and her band of 'jolly savages' hoaxed the navy |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/feb/05/bloomsbury-dreadnought-hoax-recalled-letter |website=The Guardian}}</ref>

Stereotypes embodied in the stock characters of blackface minstrels not only played a significant role in cementing and proliferating racist images, attitudes, and perceptions worldwide, but also in popularizing black culture.<ref>Lott, Eric. "Blackface and Blackness: The Minstrel Show in American Culture", in Annemarie Bean, James V. Hatch, and [[Brooks McNamara]] (eds), ''Inside the minstrel mask: readings in nineteenth-century blackface minstrelsy'', pp. 5–6.</ref> In some quarters, the caricatures that were the legacy of blackface persist to the present day and are a cause of ongoing controversy. Another view is that "blackface is a form of [[cross-dressing]] in which one puts on the insignias of a sex, class, or race that stands in opposition to one's own".<ref>Rogin, Michael (University of California Press 1998) ''Blackface, White Noise: Jewish Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot'' (p. 30)</ref>

By the mid-20th century, changing attitudes about race and racism effectively ended the prominence of blackface makeup used in performance in the U.S. and elsewhere. [[Blackface in contemporary art]] remains in relatively limited use as a theatrical device; today, it is more commonly used as social commentary or satire. Perhaps the most enduring effect of blackface is the precedent it established in the introduction of [[African-American culture]] to an international audience, albeit through a distorted lens.<ref name="Lott-17-18">{{Harvnb|Lott|1993|pp=17–18}}.</ref><ref name="Watkins 82">{{Harvnb|Watkins|1999|p=82}}.</ref> Blackface's [[Cultural appropriation|appropriation]],<ref name="Lott-17-18" /><ref name="Watkins 82" /><ref>''Inside the minstrel mask: Readings in nineteenth-century blackface minstrelsy'' by Bean, Annemarie, James V. Hatch, and Brooks McNamara. 1996. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.</ref> [[Exploitation of labour|exploitation]], and [[Cultural assimilation|assimilation]]<ref name="Lott-17-18" /> of African-American culture&nbsp;– as well as the inter-ethnic artistic collaborations that stemmed from it&nbsp;– were but a prologue to the lucrative packaging, marketing, and dissemination of African-American cultural expression and its myriad derivative forms in today's world popular culture.<ref name="Watkins 82" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rodriquez |first1=Jason |title=Color-Blind Ideology and the Cultural Appropriation of Hip-Hop |journal=Journal of Contemporary Ethnography |date=December 2006 |volume=35 |issue=6 |pages=645–668 |doi=10.1177/0891241606286997 |s2cid=146539852 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lott |first1=Eric |title=Review of Darktown Strutters |journal=African American Review |date=1997 |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=169–172 |doi=10.2307/3042205 |jstor=3042205 |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2838/is_n1_v31/ai_19569682 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051204174551/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2838/is_n1_v31/ai_19569682 |archive-date=4 December 2005 }}</ref>

=== 19th century ===
[[File:John McCullough as Othello.jpg|thumb|The white American actor [[John McCullough (actor)|John McCullough]] as Othello, 1878]]
[[Lewis Hallam Jr.|Lewis Hallam, Jr.]], a white blackface actor of [[Old American Company|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.<ref>{{cite book|last= Tosches |first= Nick |title= Where Dead Voices Gather |publisher= Back Bay |year= 2002 |isbn= 978-0-316-89537-8 |page = 10}}</ref> The play attracted notice, and other performers adopted the style. From at least the 1810s, blackface [[clown]]s were popular in the United States.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|p=68}}.</ref> 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.<ref name=gotham>[[Edwin G. Burrows|Burrows, Edwin G.]] & [[Mike Wallace (historian)|Wallace, Mike]]. ''[[Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898]]''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. p. 489.</ref> [[Edwin Forrest]] played a plantation black in 1823,<ref name=gotham /> and [[George Washington Dixon]] was already building his stage career around blackface in 1828,<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|p=74 ''et. seq.''}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{Harvnb|Lott|1993|p=211}}.</ref> and scored stardom with it by 1832.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|p=67}}.</ref>

{{blockquote|First on de heel tap, den on the toe<br />Every time I wheel about I jump Jim Crow.<br />I wheel about and turn about an do just so,<br />And every time I wheel about I jump Jim Crow.<ref>Oakley, Giles (2nd Edition) The Devil's Music: A History of the Blues ({{ISBN|0306807432}})</ref>}}

Rice traveled the U.S., performing under the stage name "Daddy Jim Crow". The name ''Jim Crow'' later became attached to [[Jim Crow laws|statutes]] that codified the reinstitution of [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregation]] and [[racial discrimination|discrimination]] after [[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]].<ref>Ronald L. F. Davis, [http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/creating2.htm Creating Jim Crow] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070601223741/http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/history/creating2.htm |date=June 1, 2007 }}, ''The History of Jim Crow'' online, New York Life. Accessed January 31, 2008.</ref>

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'acte]]s'' 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 stereotype|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;<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|p=27}}.</ref> the late 19th- and early 20th-century American and British stage where it last prospered<ref name="autogenerated1">{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|pp=130–31}}.</ref> featured many other, mostly [[Ethnic group|ethnically]]-based, comic stereotypes: conniving Jews;<ref>Jody Rosen (2006), album notes to ''Jewface'', Reboot Stereophonic CD RSR006</ref><ref name="Strausbaugh-131">{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|p=131}}.</ref> drunken brawling [[Ireland|Irishmen]] with [[wikt:blarney|blarney]];<ref name="Strausbaugh-131" /><ref>Michael C. O'Neill, [http://www.eoneill.com/library/laconics/1/1o.htm O'Neill's Ireland: Old Sod or Blarney Bog?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120418092410/http://www.eoneill.com/library/laconics/1/1o.htm |date=April 18, 2012 }}, ''Laconics'' (eOneill.com), 2006. Accessed online February 2, 2008.</ref><ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19960102/ai_n9632177 Pat, Paddy and Teague] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016142610/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19960102/ai_n9632177 |date=October 16, 2015 }}, ''The Independent'' (London), January 2, 1996. Accessed online (at findarticles.com) February 2, 2008.</ref> oily Italians;<ref name="Strausbaugh-131" /> stodgy Germans;<ref name="Strausbaugh-131" /> and gullible rural people.<ref name="Strausbaugh-131" />

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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=30}}.</ref> 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. ([[Edwin Pearce Christy|E. P. Christy]] did more or less the same, apparently independently, earlier the same year in [[Buffalo, New York]].)<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|pp=102–03}}</ref> Their loosely structured show with the musicians sitting in a semicircle, a [[tambourine]] player on one end and a [[bones (instrument)|bones]] player on the other, set the precedent for what would soon become the first act of a standard three-act minstrel show.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|pp=51–52}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|pp=56–57}}</ref>

[[File:Carrie Swain as Topsy in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.jpg|thumb|Carrie Swain in blackface as Topsy in ''Uncle Tom's Cabin''.]]
In the 1870s the actress [[Carrie Swain]] began performing in minstrel shows alongside her husband, the acrobat and blackface performer Sam Swain. It is possible that she was the first woman performer to appear in blackface.<ref>{{cite book|title=From "Barney's Courtship" to Burns and Allen: Male-female Comedy Teams in American Vaudeville, 1865-1932|first=Shirley Louise|last= Staples|year=1981|publisher=[[Tufts University Press]]|page=119}}</ref> Theatre scholar Shirley Staples stated, "Carrie Swain may have been the first woman to attempt the acrobatic comedy typical of male blackface work."<ref>{{cite book|title=Male-female Comedy Teams in American Vaudeville, 1865-1932|first=Shirley|last= Staples|year= 1984|publisher=[[UMI Research Press]]|isbn=9780835715201|page=58}}</ref> She later portrayed the blackface role of Topsy in a musical adaptation of [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]] [[anti-slavery]] novel ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' by composer [[Caryl Florio]] and dramatist H. Wayne Ellis. It premiered at the [[Chestnut Street Opera House]] in Philadelphia on May 22, 1882.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OVdShkzkX74C&q=American+Musical+Theatre:+A+Chronicle|title=American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle|first1=Gerald Martin|last1=Bordman|first2=Richard|last2= Norton|year=2010|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=9780199729708|page=72}}</ref>

The songs of [[Northern United States|Northern]] composer [[Stephen Foster]] figured prominently in blackface minstrel shows of the period. Though written in dialect and [[Political correctness|politically incorrect]] by modern standards, his later songs were free of the ridicule and blatantly racist caricatures that typified other songs of the genre. Foster's works treated [[Slavery in the United States|slaves]] and the [[Southern United States|South]] in general with sentimentality that appealed to audiences of the day.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Key |first1=Susan |title=Sound and Sentimentality: Nostalgia in the Songs of Stephen Foster |journal=American Music |date=1995 |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=145–166 |id={{Gale|A18253704}} {{ProQuest|1295933905}} |doi=10.2307/3052252 |jstor=3052252 }}</ref>
[[File:Man in blackface as minstrel LCCN2001703945 (cropped).tif|thumb|left|A man in blackface as minstrel, {{Circa|1890}}]]
White minstrel shows featured white performers pretending to be black people, playing their versions of 'black music' and speaking [[:wikt:ersatz|ersatz]] [[African-American English|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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|p=126}}.</ref> As the minstrel show went into decline, blackface returned to its novelty act roots and became part of [[vaudeville]].<ref name="autogenerated1" /> Blackface featured prominently in film at least into the 1930s, and the "aural blackface"<ref name="Strausbaugh-225">{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|p=225}}.</ref> of the ''[[Amos 'n' Andy]]'' radio show lasted into the 1950s.<ref name="Strausbaugh-225" /> Meanwhile, amateur blackface minstrel shows continued to be common at least into the 1950s.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|pp=145–49}}.</ref> 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.<ref>Ransom, Harry. ''Minstrel Show Collection'', p. 149 (1959), UTA.</ref>

As a result, the genre played an important role in shaping perceptions of and prejudices about black people generally and African Americans in particular. Some social commentators have stated that blackface provided an outlet for white peoples' 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&nbsp;– and male&nbsp;– Other while at the same time maintaining some symbolic control over them."<ref>{{Harvnb|Lott|1993|p=25}}.</ref>

Blackface, at least initially, could also give voice to an oppositional dynamic that was prohibited by society. As early as 1832, [[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."<ref>{{cite book|last=Ashny|first=LeRoy|title=With Amusement for All|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|date=2006|pages=17–18}}</ref>

=== 20th century ===
[[File:BlackfaceMinstrelsPostcard.jpg|thumb|left|This postcard, published c.&nbsp;1908, shows a white minstrel team. While both are wearing wigs, the man on the left is in blackface and [[drag (clothing)|drag]].]]
[[File:Al Jolson in Mammy.jpg|thumbnail|Singer and actor [[Al Jolson]] wearing blackface in the musical film ''[[Mammy (1930 film)|Mammy]]'' (1930)]]

In the [[Inequality in Hollywood|early years of film]], black characters were routinely played by white people in blackface. In [[Film adaptations of Uncle Tom's Cabin|the first filmic adaptation]] of ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' (1903), all of the major black roles were white people in blackface.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|pp=203–04}}.</ref> Even the 1914 ''Uncle Tom'' starring African-American actor [[Sam Lucas]] in the title role had a white male in blackface as Topsy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|pp=204–06}}.</ref> [[D. W. Griffith]]'s ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]'' (1915) used white people in blackface to represent all of its major black characters,<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|pp=211–12}}.</ref> but reaction against the film's racism largely put an end to this practice in dramatic film roles. Thereafter, white people in blackface would appear almost exclusively in broad comedies or "ventriloquizing" blackness<ref>Michael Rogin, ''Blackface, White Noise: Jewish Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot'' (1998), University of California Press, p. 79, {{ISBN|0520213807}}.</ref> in the context of a vaudeville or minstrel performance within a film.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|p=214}}.</ref> This stands in contrast to made-up white people routinely playing Native Americans, Asians, Arabs, and so forth, for several more decades.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|pp=214–15}}.</ref>

From the 1910s up until the early 1950s, many well-known entertainers of stage and screen also [[List of entertainers who performed in blackface|performed in blackface]].<ref>One extensive list can be found at {{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|pp=222–25}}.</ref> Light-skinned people who performed in blackface in film included [[Al Jolson]],<ref name="RJ-Smith">Smith, R. J., "{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20041124222423/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1346/is_8_46/ai_76929846 Pardon the Expression]}}" (book review), ''Los Angeles Magazine'', August 2001. Accessed February 2, 2008.</ref> [[Eddie Cantor]],<ref name=Kenrick>{{cite web|last1=John|first1=Kenrick|url=http://www.musicals101.com/blackface.htm|website=Musicals 101|title=Blackface and Old Wounds|access-date=May 25, 2016}}</ref> [[Bing Crosby]],<ref name="RJ-Smith" /> [[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]], [[Marx Brothers|The Marx Brothers]], [[Mickey Rooney]], [[Shirley Temple]], [[Judy Garland]], [[Donald O'Connor]] and [[Chester Morris]] and [[George E. Stone]] in several of the ''Boston Blackie'' films.<ref name=Kenrick /> In 1936, when [[Orson Welles]] was touring his ''[[Voodoo Macbeth]]''; the lead actor, Maurice Ellis, fell ill, so Welles stepped into the role, performing in blackface.<ref>{{cite book |last=Callow |first=Simon |title=Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu |publisher=Penguin |year=1995 |page=[https://archive.org/details/orsonwellesvolum00simo/page/145 145] |isbn=978-0-670-86722-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/orsonwellesvolum00simo/page/145 }}</ref>

As late as the 1940s, [[Warner Bros.]] used blackface in ''[[Yankee Doodle Dandy]]'' (1942), a [[minstrel show]] sketch in ''[[This Is the Army]]'' (1943) and by casting [[Flora Robson]] as a [[Haitians|Haitian]] maid in ''[[Saratoga Trunk]]'' (1945).<ref name="Bogle">{{citation|last=Bogle|first=Donald|title=Heat Wave: The Life and Career of Ethel Waters|author-link=Donald Bogle|year=2011|isbn=978-0-06-124173-4|publisher=Harper-Collins|page=[https://archive.org/details/heatwavelifecare2011bogl/page/369 369]|url=https://archive.org/details/heatwavelifecare2011bogl/page/369}}</ref> In ''[[The Spoilers (1942 film)|The Spoilers]]'' (1942), [[John Wayne]] appeared in blackface and bantered in a mock accent with a black maid who mistook him for an authentic black man.

In ''[[Holiday Inn (film)|Holiday Inn]],'' [[Bing Crosby]] and [[Marjorie Reynolds]] sang “Abraham,” a song honoring Lincoln’s birthday, in shoe-polish blackface. The band behind them and the waiters were also in blackface.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/02/08/my-year-olds-saw-blackface-christmas-movie-asked-why-are-they-doing-that |title=My 5-year-olds saw blackface in a 1942 Christmas movie and asked, 'Why are they doing that?' |first=Emily |last=Wax-Thibodeaux |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] }}</ref>

Blackface makeup was largely eliminated even from live-action film comedy in the U.S. after the end of the 1930s, when public sensibilities regarding [[Race (classification of human beings)|race]] were beginning to change and blackface became increasingly associated with racism and [[Prejudice|bigotry]].<ref name="Clark"/> 
Still, the tradition did not end all at once. The radio program ''[[Amos 'n' Andy]]'' (1928–1960) constituted a type of "oral blackface", in that the black characters were portrayed by white people and conformed to stage blackface stereotypes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|p=225}}; the televised version (1951–53) used African-American actors.</ref> 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 [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM]] cartoons "included a blackface, coon, or mammy figure".<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|p=240}}.</ref> [[Bugs Bunny]] appeared in blackface at least as late as ''[[Southern Fried Rabbit]]'' in 1953.<ref>{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|p=241}}.</ref>

Singer [[Grace Slick]] was wearing blackface when her band [[Jefferson Airplane]] performed "Crown of Creation" and "[[Lather (song)|Lather]]" at ''[[The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour]]'' in 1968. A clip is included in a 2004 documentary ''Fly Jefferson Airplane'', directed by [[Bob Sarles]].

The 1976 action comedy ''[[Silver Streak (film)|Silver Streak]]'' included a farcical scene in which [[Gene Wilder]] must impersonate a black man, as instructed by [[Richard Pryor]]. 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.<ref>{{cite video |people=Elfman, Richard and Bright, Matthew |date=2004 |title=Forbidden Zone |medium=DVD [[Audio commentary]] |publisher=Fantoma |id=UPC 695026704423}}</ref>

Also in 1980, the white members of [[UB40]] appeared in blackface in their "Dream a Lie" video, while the black members appeared in [[Whiteface (performance)|whiteface]] to give the opposite appearance.<ref name=UB40>{{cite video
| title=UB40&nbsp;– Dream A Lie
| access-date=November 18, 2015
| medium=Video
| publisher=YouTube
| url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfoVVRDU378
| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211030/LfoVVRDU378| archive-date=2021-10-30}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

''[[Trading Places]]'' (1983) is a 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. Aykroyd's character puts on full blackface make-up, a [[Dreadlocks|dreadlocked]] wig and a Jamaican accent to fill the position of a Jamaican [[Cannabis (drug)|pothead]]. The film, being an obvious satire, has received little criticism for its use of racial and [[ethnic stereotype]] due to it mocking the ignorance of Aykroyd's character rather than black people as a whole, with [[Rotten Tomatoes]] citing it as "featuring deft interplay between Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd, ''Trading Places'' is an immensely appealing social satire".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/trading_places/|title=Trading Places|website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]|access-date=October 24, 2018}}</ref>

''[[Soul Man (film)|Soul Man]]'' is a 1986 film featuring [[C. Thomas Howell]] as Mark Watson, a pampered rich white college graduate who uses "tanning pills" to qualify for a 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. He 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. He later "comes out" as white, leading to the famous defending line: "Can you blame him for the color of his skin?" Unlike ''Trading Places'', the film was met with heavy criticism of a white man donning blackface to humanize white ignorance at the expense of African American viewers. Despite a large box office intake, it has scored low on every film critic platform. "A white man donning blackface is taboo," said Howell; "Conversation over&nbsp;– you can't win. But our intentions were pure: We wanted to make a funny movie that had a message about racism."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/throwback-thursday-soul-man-star-rae-dawn-chong-rachel-dolezal-i-say-welcome-her-804252|title=Throwback Thursday: 'Soul Man' Star Rae Dawn Chong on Rachel Dolezal: 'I Say Welcome Her In'|website=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]|date=June 25, 2015|access-date=October 24, 2018}}</ref>

==== Parades ====
In the early 20th century, a group of African American laborers began a [[Marching band|marching club]] in the [[Mardi Gras in New Orleans|New Orleans Mardi Gras]] parade, dressed as [[hobo]]s 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mardigrasdigest.com/News/Feature_Zulu_Blackface.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060227143627/http://www.mardigrasdigest.com/News/Feature_Zulu_Blackface.htm|archive-date=February 27, 2006|url-status=usurped|title=Zulu Blackface: The Real Story!}}</ref> The result is one of the best known and most striking [[krewe]]s of Mardi Gras, the [[Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club|Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club]]. Dressed in [[grass skirt]]s, [[top hat]] and exaggerated makeup, the Zulus of New Orleans are controversial as well as popular.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/neworleans/sfeature/zulu.html "The Zulu Parade of Mardi Gras"], ''American Experience'', [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]]. Accessed July 16, 2008.</ref> The group has, since the 1960s, argued that the black and white makeup they continue to wear is not blackface.

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.<ref name="Mummer's the word">John Francis Marion, <!--Original URL blocked as potentially harmful by Virgin Media UK. Uncomment if it's safe: {{usurped|1=[http://riverfrontmummers.com/mummers/articles/article1.html--> "On New Year's Day in Philadelphia, Mummer's the word", ''Smithsonian Magazine'', January 1981. Reproduced by Riverfront Mummers. {{Cite web {{!}}url=http://riverfrontmummers.com/mummers/articles/article1.html {{!}}title=Archived copy {{!}}access-date=January 3, 2008 {{!}}archive-date=June 14, 2007 {{!}}archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070614205533/http://riverfrontmummers.com/mummers/articles/article1.html {{!}}url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.metro.us/philadelphia/mummers-face-backlash-for-brownface-anti-gay-incidents/zsJpad---ZTkao7g5a2U8U/ |title=Mummers face backlash for 'brownface,' anti-gay incidents|last=Newhouse|first=Sam{{!}}date=January 4, 2016|newspaper=Metro|language=en|access-date=January 27, 2017}}</ref> 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 fundraiser for the [[March of Dimes]].<ref name="Norfolk Youth Bow to Ban on Blackface">Joseph A. O'Brien (January 30, 1964). [https://www.proquest.com/docview/548271631 "Norfolk Youth Bows To Ban on 'Blackface{{'"}}]. ''The Hartford Courant''. Accessed February 3, 2011. {{subscription required}}</ref>

=== 21st century ===
{{See also|Blackface in contemporary art}}
[[File:Bamboozled (2000 film) poster.jpg|upright|thumb|Poster for [[Spike Lee]]'s movie ''[[Bamboozled]]'' (2000)]]
Commodities bearing iconic "darky" images, from tableware, soap and toy marbles to home accessories and T-shirts, continue to be manufactured and marketed. Some are reproductions of historical [[Cultural artifact|artifacts]] ("[[wikt:negrobilia|negrobilia]]"), while others are designed for today's marketplace ("fantasy"). There is a thriving [[niche market]] for such items in the U.S., particularly. The value of the original examples of darky iconography (vintage negrobilia [[collectable]]s) has risen steadily since the 1970s.<ref>Leah Dilworth (2003), ''Acts of Possession: : Collecting in America'', Rutgers University Press, p. 255, {{ISBN|0813532728}}.</ref>

There have been several inflammatory incidents of white college students donning blackface. Such incidents usually escalate around [[Halloween]], with students accused of perpetuating racial stereotypes.<ref>Johnson, Sophie.[http://whitmanpioneer.wordpress.com/2006/10/26/%E2%80%98blackface%E2%80%99-incident-ignites-campus/ "'Blackface' incident ignites campus]". ''Whitman College Pioneer'', October 26, 2006. Retrieved November 27, 2007.</ref><ref>Walter, Vic.[http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/11/gates_unfinishe.html "Gates' Unfinished Business: Racism at Texas A&M] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160222210901/http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/11/gates_unfinishe.html |date=February 22, 2016 }}". ABC News, The Blotter, November 10, 2006. Retrieved November 27, 2007.</ref><ref>Editorial. [http://media.www.dailyillini.com/media/storage/paper736/news/2007/10/31/Editorials/Blackface.A.Black.Mark.For.Every.Student-3067335.shtml "Blackface a Black Mark for Every Student] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081207202225/http://media.www.dailyillini.com/media/storage/paper736/news/2007/10/31/Editorials/Blackface.A.Black.Mark.For.Every.Student-3067335.shtml |date=December 7, 2008 }} ''The Daily Illini'', October 31, 2007. Retrieved on 12–2–07.</ref><ref>Connolly, Joe. [http://www.dailyorange.com/2.8657/blackface-makes-its-way-to-college-campuses-1.1247695 "Blackface Makes Its Way To College Campuses] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315201201/http://www.dailyorange.com/2.8657/blackface-makes-its-way-to-college-campuses-1.1247695 |date=March 15, 2012 }}". ''The Daily Orange'', November 11, 2003. Retrieved on November 26, 2007.</ref>

In 1998, [[Harmony Korine]] released ''[[The Diary of Anne Frank Pt II]]'', a 40-minute three-screen collage featuring a man in blackface dancing and singing "[[My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean]]".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-09-14 |title=Act Da Fool: Strange Fruit Meet High Fashion |url=https://www.diverseeducation.com/opinion/article/15091948/act-da-fool-strange-fruit-meet-high-fashion |access-date=2024-04-11 |website=Diverse: Issues In Higher Education |language=en-us}}</ref>

Blackface and minstrelsy serve as the theme of African American director [[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.

In 2000, [[Jimmy Fallon]] performed in blackface on ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'', imitating former cast member [[Chris Rock]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/06/02/jimmy-fallon-addresses-snl-blackface-controversy/3122263001/ |title=Jimmy Fallon addresses 'SNL' blackface controversy: 'I'm not a racist' |date=June 2, 2020 |first1=Sara |last1=Moniuszko |website=USAToday.com |access-date=October 5, 2021}}</ref> That same year, [[Harmony Korine]] directed the short film ''Korine Tap'' for ''Stop For a Minute'', a series of short films commissioned by [[Dazed & Confused (Magazine)|Dazed & Confused]] magazine and FilmFour Lab. The film featured Korine tap dancing while wearing blackface.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2001-01-12 |title=Moloney creates short for FilmFour project |url=https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/11-january-2001/moloney-creates-short-for-filmfour-project/ |access-date=2024-04-11 |website=Design Week |language=en-UK}}</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13UYX6UiYN0 |title=Korine Tap / Stop For a Minute (2000) Directed by Harmony Korine |language=en |access-date=2024-04-11 |via=www.youtube.com}}</ref>

[[Jimmy Kimmel]] donned black paint and used an exaggerated, accented voice to portray [[National Basketball Association|NBA]] player [[Karl Malone]] on ''[[The Man Show]]'' in 2003. Kimmel repeatedly impersonated the NBA player on ''The Man Show'' and even made an appearance on [[Crank Yankers]] using his exaggerated [[African-American Vernacular English|Ebonics/African-American Vernacular English]] to prank call about [[Beanie Babies]].{{cn|date=February 2025}}

In November 2005, controversy erupted when journalist [[Steve Gilliard]] posted a photograph on his blog. The image was of African American [[Michael Steele]], a politician, then a candidate for [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]]. It had been doctored to include bushy, white eyebrows and big, red lips. The caption read, "I's simple [[Sambo (racial term)|Sambo]] and I's running for the big house." Gilliard, also African-American, defended the image, commenting that the politically conservative Steele has "refused to stand up for his people".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=SAMBOBLOG-10-27-05&cat=WW|title=Virginia governor's candidate pulls ads after 'Sambo' attack|author=James W. Brosnan|publisher=Scripps Howard News Service|date=October 27, 2005|access-date=January 31, 2008 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080113191856/http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=SAMBOBLOG-10-27-05&cat=WW |archive-date = January 13, 2008}}</ref> (See {{section link|Uncle Tom|Epithet}}.)

In a 2006 reality television program, ''[[Black. White.]]'', white participants wore blackface makeup and black participants wore whiteface makeup in an attempt to be better able to see the world through the perspective of the other race.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.seattlepi.com/ae/tv/article/On-TV-Black-White-is-uncomfortable-1197650.php#ixzz1jHpwtNJN |title=On TV: 'Black. White.' is uncomfortable, revealing reality TV |newspaper=Seattle Post-Intelligencer |first=Melanie |last=McFarland |date=March 6, 2006 |access-date=August 7, 2013}}</ref>

In 2007, [[Sarah Silverman]] performed in blackface for a skit from ''[[The Sarah Silverman Program]]''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/12/entertainment/sarah-silverman-blackface-scli-intl/index.html |title=Sarah Silverman says blackface sketch got her fired from movie |date=August 12, 2019 |first1=Rob |last1=Picheta |website=CNN.com |access-date=October 5, 2021}}</ref>

''[[A Mighty Heart (film)|A Mighty Heart]]'' is a 2007 American film featuring [[Angelina Jolie]] playing [[Mariane Pearl]], the wife of the kidnapped ''[[The Wall Street Journal|Wall Street Journal]]'' reporter [[Daniel Pearl]]. Mariane is of multiracial descent, born from an Afro-Chinese-Cuban mother and a Dutch Jewish father. She personally cast Jolie to play herself, defending the choice to have Jolie "sporting a spray tan and a corkscrew wig".<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062202029.html | title=A Part Colored by History| date=June 23, 2007| last1=Wiltz| first1=Teresa}}</ref> Criticism of the film came in large part for the choice to have Jolie portraying Mariane Pearl in this manner. Defense of the casting choice was in large part due to Pearl's mixed racial heritage, critics claiming it would have been impossible to find an Afro-Latina actress with the same crowd-drawing caliber of Jolie. Director [[Michael Winterbottom]] defended his casting choice in an interview, "To try and find a French actress who's half-Cuban, quarter-Chinese, half-Dutch who speaks great English and could do that part better - I mean, if there had been some more choices, I might have thought, 'Why don't we use that person?'...I don't think there would have been anyone better".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/mighty-heart-casting-stirs-debate-over-race/|title="Mighty Heart" casting stirs debate over race|date=June 27, 2007|access-date=October 24, 2018}}</ref>

A 2008 imitation of [[Barack Obama]] by American comedian [[Fred Armisen]] (of German, Korean, and Venezuelan descent) on the popular television program ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' caused some stir, with ''[[The Guardian]]''{{'s}} commentator asking why ''SNL'' did not hire an additional black actor to do the sketch; the show had only one black cast member at the time.<ref>{{cite news |first=Hannah |last=Pool |newspaper=The Guardian |date=February 26, 2008 |title=Blacked-up Obama is a pretty weak joke |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/tvandradioblog/2008/feb/26/blackedupobamaisaprettywe}}</ref>

Also in 2008, [[Robert Downey Jr.]]'s character Kirk Lazarus appeared in [[brownface]] in the [[Ben Stiller]]-directed film ''[[Tropic Thunder]]''. As with ''Trading Places'', the intent was satire; specifically, blackface was ironically employed to humorously mock one of the many [[:Category:Entertainment scandals|foibles of Hollywood]] rather than black people themselves. Downey was even nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal.<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 29, 2020 |title=Tropic Thunder: Why RDJ's Blackface Wasn't Controversial |url=https://screenrant.com/tropic-thunder-robert-downey-blackface-no-controversy-why/ |access-date=2022-03-02 |website=ScreenRant |language=en-US}}</ref> According to Downey, "90 per cent of my black friends were like, 'Dude, that was great.' I can't disagree with [the other 10 per cent], but I know where my heart lies."<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Sharf |first1=Zack |date=January 21, 2020 |title=Robert Downey Jr. Has No Regrets Over 'Tropic Thunder' Blackface: 'It Blasted the Cap on the Issue' |url=https://www.indiewire.com/2020/01/robert-downey-jr-tropic-thunder-blackface-regrets-1202204722/ |access-date=2022-03-02 |website=IndieWire |language=en}}</ref>

Once more in 2008, comedian [[Frank Caliendo]], who is well known for his [[Impressionist (entertainment)|impressions]], used blackface to do an impression of former NBA player and sports analyst [[Charles Barkley]]. Caliendo defended his use of blackface by comparing it positively to [[Ted Danson]]'s infamous use of it in 1993 at a [[New York Friars Club|Friars]] [[Roast (comedy)|Roast]], which Caliendo said was "the wrong thing to do".<ref>{{Citeweb|url=https://www.recordnet.com/story/entertainment/events/2008/04/10/frank-caliendo-thrives-with-little/52454865007/|title=Frank Caliendo thrives with a little help from his (impersonated) friends|last=Rotter|first=Joshua|publisher=[[The Record (Stockton, California)|The Record]]|date=April 10, 2008|accessdate=February 11, 2025}}</ref> 

In the November 2010 episode "[[List of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episodes#Season 6 (2010)|Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth]]", the TV show ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'' comically explored if blackface could ever be done "right". One of the characters, Frank Reynolds insists that [[Laurence Olivier]]'s blackface performance in [[Othello (1965 British film)|his 1965 production of ''Othello'']] was not offensive, while Dennis claimed it "distasteful" and "never okay". In the same episode, the gang shows their [[fan film]], ''[[Lethal Weapon]] 5'', in which the character Mac appears in blackface.<ref>{{cite news|last=Sims |first=David |url=https://www.avclub.com/its-always-sunny-in-philadelphia-dee-reynolds-shapin-1798166506 |title="Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth"|newspaper=The A.V. Club |date=July 5, 2011 |access-date=July 11, 2011}}</ref> In the season 9 episode "The Gang make Lethal Weapon 6", Mac once again dons black make-up, along with Dee, who plays his character's daughter in the film. Later in the series, the episode "[[The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 7|The Gang Makes ''Lethal Weapon 7'']]" addresses the topic again along with the removal of their films from the library.

A 2012 [[Popchips]] commercial showing actor [[Ashton Kutcher]] with brown make-up on his face impersonating a stereotypical Indian person generated controversy and was eventually pulled by the company after complaints of racism.<ref>{{cite web|last=Potts|first=Kimberly|url=https://thewrap.com/ashton-kutcher-brownface-ad-pulled-38346/|title=Ashton Kutcher 'Brownface' Ad With Indian Character 'Raj' Pulled (Video)|publisher=The Wrap|date=May 3, 2012|access-date=May 13, 2015}}</ref> In the TV series ''[[Mad Men]]'', set in the 1960s in New York City, the character [[Roger Sterling]] appears in blackface in the season 3 episode "My Old Kentucky Home". [[Julianne Hough]] attracted controversy in October 2013 when she donned blackface as part of a Halloween costume depicting the character of "Crazy Eyes" from ''[[Orange Is the New Black]]''.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/29/derek-hough-blackface_n_4175160.html | work=Huffington Post | first=Cavan | last=Sieczkowski | title=Derek Hough Defends Sister In Blackface Controversy | date=October 29, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/julianne-hough-slammed-for-donning-black-face-halloween-costume/ | work=Fox News | title=Julianne Hough slammed for donning 'black face' Halloween costume | date=October 28, 2013}}</ref> Hough later apologized, stating on Twitter: "I realize my costume hurt and offended people and I truly apologize."<ref>[https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/10/27/julianne-hough-apologizes-for-halloween-costume/3272201/ "Julianne Hough dons blackface for Halloween, apologizes"]. ''USA Today''. October 27, 2013. Retrieved on November 26, 2015.</ref>

[[Billy Crystal]] impersonated [[Sammy Davis Jr.]] in the [[84th Academy Awards|2012 Oscars]] opening montage. The scene depicts Crystal in black face-paint wearing an oiled wave wig while talking to [[Justin Bieber]]. In the scene Crystal leaves a parting remark to Bieber, "Have fun storming the [[Führer]]", a poor association to his famous line in ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]'', "Have fun storming the castle".
The skit was remarked as poor taste, considering he was chosen as the "safer" choice after [[Eddie Murphy]] bowed out following producer and creative partner [[Brett Ratner]]'s homophobic remarks.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/celebritology/post/billy-crystal-how-bad-was-his-oscar-hosting/2012/02/27/gIQATYtedR_blog.html | title=Billy Crystal: How bad was his Oscar hosting?| newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/eddie-murphy-oscars-brett-ratner-259387|title=Eddie Murphy Exits as Oscar Host|website=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]|date=November 9, 2011|access-date=October 24, 2018}}</ref>

[[Victoria Foyt]] was accused of using blackface in the trailer for her [[Young adult fiction|young adult]] novel ''[[Save the Pearls: Revealing Eden]]'' as well as in the book and its artwork.<ref name="TheFrisky">[http://www.thefrisky.com/2012-07-27/today-in-racism-ya-series-save-the-pearls-employs-offensive-blackface-and-bizarre-racist-stereotypes-plot/ Today In Racism: YA Series "Save The Pearls" Employs Offensive Blackface And Bizarre Racist Stereotypes Plot] The Frisky</ref><ref>[http://www.xojane.com/issues/save-the-pearls-revealing-eden-ya-novel-racist Is YA Novel "Save the Pearls" Straight-Up Racist or Just Misguided?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120801020311/http://www.xojane.com/issues/save-the-pearls-revealing-eden-ya-novel-racist |date=August 1, 2012 }} XOJane</ref>

Performer [[Chuck Knipp]] (who is white and gay) has used drag, blackface, and broad racial caricature to portray a character named "Shirley Q. Liquor" in his cabaret act, generally performed for all-white audiences. Knipp's outrageously stereotypical character has drawn criticism and prompted demonstrations from Black, Gay and [[transgender]] activists.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20060214030028/http://www.gaycitynews.com/gcn_308/blackfacedragagain.html Blackface Drag Again Draws Fire]}} ''Gay City News''. Volume 3, Issue 308 | February 19–25, 2004</ref>

The [[Metropolitan Opera]], based in New York City, used blackface in productions of the opera ''[[Otello]]'' until 2015,<ref>[https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/08/04/429366961/metropolitan-opera-to-drop-use-of-blackface-style-makeup-in-otello "Metropolitan Opera To Drop Use Of Blackface-Style Makeup In 'Otello'"]. ''NPR.org''. August 4, 2015. Retrieved on November 26, 2015.</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/01/arts/music/debating-otello-blackface-and-casting-trends.html|title=Debating 'Otello{{sic|,'|hide=y}} Blackface and Casting Trends|date=October 1, 2015|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|last1=Brantley|first1=Ben|last2=Tommasini|first2=Anthony}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/20/arts/music/an-otello-without-the-blackface-nods-to-modern-tastes.html|title=An 'Otello' Without Blackface Highlights an Enduring Tradition in Opera|date=September 20, 2015|newspaper=The New York Times|last1=Cooper|first1=Michael}}</ref> though some have argued that the practice of using dark makeup for the character did not qualify as blackface.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/how-do-african-american-singers-feel-about-blackface-in-opera/2015/10/16/fbbaa318-7176-11e5-9cbb-790369643cf9_story.html|title=The rarity of black faces, not 'Otello' in blackface, should be issue in opera|date=October 16, 2015|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref>

On February 1, 2019, images from [[Governor of Virginia]] [[Ralph Northam]]'s medical school yearbook were published on the far-right website ''[[Big League Politics]]''.<ref>{{cite news|last=Gabriel|first= Trip|author2= Michael M. Grynbaum|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/us/politics/northam-fairfax-big-league-politics.html |title=With Northam Picture, Obscure Publication Plays Big Role in Virginia Politics|newspaper=The New York Times|date= February 4, 2019|access-date= February 10, 2019}}</ref><ref name="scoop of a lifetime">{{cite news |last=Farhi |first=Paul |title=A tip from a 'concerned citizen' helps a reporter land the scoop of a lifetime |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/a-tip-from-a-concerned-citizen-helps-a-reporter-land-the-scoop-of-a-lifetime/2019/02/03/e30762ea-2765-11e9-ad53-824486280311_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=February 3, 2019 |date=February 3, 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/reports-virginia-governor-s-yearbook-page-had-photo-men-blackface-n966066|author1=Dareh Gregorian|author2=Hallie Jackson|title=Va. Gov. Northam's yearbook pic of men in blackface, Klan robe spurs calls for his resignation|work=NBCNews.com|date=February 2, 2019|access-date=February 15, 2019}}</ref> The photos showed an image of Northam in blackface and an unidentified person in a [[Ku Klux Klan]] hood on Northam's page in the yearbook.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/va-gov-northams-medical-school-yearbook-page-shows-men-in-blackface-kkk-robe/2019/02/01/517a43ee-265f-11e9-90cd-dedb0c92dc17_story.html|title=Gov. Ralph Northam 'deeply sorry' after photo emerges from his 1984 yearbook showing blackface, KKK hood|last1=Vozzella|first1=Laura|last2=Morrison|first2=Jim|last3=Schneider|first3=Gregory S.|date=February 1, 2019|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=February 1, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://pilotonline.com/news/government/politics/virginia/article_67fdd682-2662-11e9-a7d1-c7ed70e09b50.html|title=Ralph Northam yearbook page shows men in blackface and KKK robe|date=February 1, 2019|work=Virginian-Pilot|access-date=February 1, 2019|archive-date=February 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190201212901/https://pilotonline.com/news/government/politics/virginia/article_67fdd682-2662-11e9-a7d1-c7ed70e09b50.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/01/politics/northam-blackface-photo/index.html|title=Virginia governor's yearbook page shows 2 people in blackface, KKK garb|last=Kelly|first=Caroline|date=February 1, 2019|publisher=CNN|access-date=February 1, 2019}}</ref> A spokesman for [[Eastern Virginia Medical School]] confirmed that the image appeared in its 1984 yearbook.<ref name="APWTOP2119"/> Shortly after the news broke, Northam apologized for appearing in the photo.<ref name="APWTOP2119">[https://wtop.com/virginia/2019/02/virginia-governors-1984-yearbook-page-shows-racist-imagery/ Virginia governor confirms 1984 yearbook page with racist imagery] (Associated Press)</ref>

Blackface performances are not unusual within the Latino community of Miami. As Spanish-speakers from different countries, ethnic, racial, class, and educational backgrounds settle in the United States, they have to grapple with being re-classified vis-a-vis other American-born and immigrant groups. Blackface performances have, for instance, tried to work through U.S. racial and ethnic classifications in conflict with national identities. A case in point is the representation of Latino and its popular embodiment as a stereotypical Dominican man.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Brownface of Latinidad in Cuban Miami |first1=Ariana |last1=Hernandez-Reguant |first2=Jossianna |last2=Arroyo |publisher=Cuba Counterpoints |date=July 13, 2015 |url=http://cubacounterpoints.com/archives/1600 |access-date=December 15, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104002025/http://cubacounterpoints.com/archives/1600 |archive-date=November 4, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the wake of [[George Floyd protests|protests over the treatment of African-Americans]] following the [[murder of George Floyd]] in 2020, episodes of popular television programs featuring characters in blackface were pulled from circulation. This includes ''[[The Golden Girls]]'', ''[[The Office (American TV series)|The Office]]'', ''[[It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'', ''[[30 Rock]]'', ''[[Community (TV series)|Community]]'', and ''[[Scrubs (TV series)|Scrubs]]'', among others.<ref>{{cite web|last=Shafer|first=Ellise|title='Golden Girls' Episode With Blackface Scene Removed From Hulu|url=https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/golden-girls-blackface-hulu-removed-1234692451/|work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=June 28, 2020|language=en}}</ref>

==== Stunt doubles ====
White men are the main source of stunt doubles in American TV and film productions. The practice of a male performer portraying standing-in for a female actor is known as "wigging". When the stunt performer is made up to look like another race, the practice is called a "paint down". Stunt performers [[Janeshia Adams-Ginyard]] and Sharon Schaffer have equated it in 2018 with blackface minstrelsy.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Robb |first1=David |title=Stuntwomen Panel: Evangeline Lilly Says She Was Intentionally Injured While Filming 'Lost' |url=https://deadline.com/2018/05/stuntwomen-panel-evangeline-lilly-deven-macnair-1202393558/ |access-date=December 21, 2018 |work=Deadline |date=May 17, 2018 |language=en}}</ref>

==== Digital media ====
{{POV section|date=March 2023}}
Digital media provide opportunities to inhabit and perform Black identity without actually painting one's face, which, in a way, some critics have likened to blackface and minstrelsy. In 1999, Adam Clayton Powell III coined the term "high-tech blackface" to refer to stereotypical portrayals of [[List of black video game characters|black characters in video games]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/21/technology/blood-gore-sex-and-now-race.html|title=Blood, Gore, Sex and Now: Race|last=Marriot|first=Michael|date=October 21, 1999|work=The New York Times|access-date=October 12, 2016}}</ref> David Leonard writes, "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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Leonard|first=David|title=High Tech Blackface&nbsp;– Race, Sports Video Games and Becoming the Other|journal=Intelligent Agent|volume=4|issue=4}}</ref> 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]]."<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Phillips|first1=Amanda|last2=Reed|first2=Alison|year=2013|title=Additive Race: Colorblind Discourses of Realism in Performance Capture Technologies|journal=Digital Creativity |volume=24|issue=2}}</ref>

In addition, writers such as [[Lauren Michele Jackson]], Victoria Princewill and [[Shafiqah Hudson]] criticized non-Black people sharing animated images, or [[GIF]]s, of Black people or Black-skinned [[emoji]]s, calling the practice "digital blackface".<ref>{{cite news|last=Jackson|first=Lauren Michele|date=August 2, 2017|title=We Need to Talk About Digital Blackface in Reaction GIFs|work=[[Teen Vogue]]|url=https://www.teenvogue.com/story/digital-blackface-reaction-gifs|access-date=December 1, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Princewill|first=Victoria|date=August 14, 2017|title=Is it OK to use black emojis and gifs?|work=[[BBC]]|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-40931479/is-it-ok-to-use-black-emojis-and-gifs|access-date=September 7, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=July 8, 2018|title=Why are memes of black people reacting so popular online?|url=http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/jul/08/why-are-memes-of-black-people-reacting-so-popular-online|access-date=March 16, 2021|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> Writers [[Amanda Hess#The New York Times|Amanda Hess]] and Shane O'Neill have elaborated on their work, pointing out that GIFs of women of color, in particular, have been most frequently used to express user's emotions online. Hess and O'Neill also suggest that the emoji app [[Bitstrips|Bitmoji]] uses "black emotional reactions and verbal expressions" and designs them to fit non-Black bodies and faces. Writer [[Manuel Arturo Abreu]] refers to this phenomenon as "online imagined Black English", where non-Black users engage in [[African-American Vernacular English|African American Vernacular English]], or AAVE, on the internet without understanding the full context of the particular phrase being used.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hess |first1=Amanda |last2=O’Neill |first2=Shane |title=Video: The White Internet's Love Affair With Digital Blackface |url=https://www.nytimes.com/video/arts/100000005615988/the-white-internets-love-affair-with-digital-blackface.html |work=The New York Times |date=23 December 2017 }}</ref>

Following these critiques, the term "digital blackface" has since evolved with the rise of other social media and digital media technologies. In 2020, writer Francesa Sobande wrote on the digital representations of Black people, defining digital blackface as "encompassing online depictions and practices that echo the anti-Black underpinnings of [[Minstrel show|minstrelsy shows]] involving non-Black people 'dressing up' and 'performing' as though they are Black". Sobande's argument suggests that this acts as a "digital expression of the oppression that Black people face" outside of the internet, where they can be viewed as an objectified type of "[[Commodity#Commodification of labor|commodity or labor tool]]".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sobande|first=Francesca|date=January 22, 2021|title=Spectacularized and Branded Digital (Re)presentations of Black People and Blackness|journal=Television & New Media|volume=22|issue=2|pages=131–146|language=en|doi=10.1177/1527476420983745|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Since the criticisms made by these writers, instances of digital blackface have varied in type across the internet. In 2016, a controversy emerged over social media app [[Snapchat]]'s [[Bob Marley]] filter, which allowed users to superimpose dark skin, dreadlocks, and a knitted cap over their own faces.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2016/04/20/snapchat-under-fire-blackface-filter/83284206|title=Snapchat under fire for Marley filter called blackface|last=Graham|first=Jefferson|date=April 21, 2016|access-date=October 12, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://fortune.com/2016/04/20/snapchat-bob-marley-filter-blackface/|title=Is Snapchat's New Bob Marley Filter Just Blackface?|last=Brueck|first=Hilary|date=April 20, 2016|work=Fortune}}</ref> A number of controversies have also emerged about students at American universities sharing images of themselves appearing to wear blackface makeup.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://abc13.com/news/prairie-view-athlete-in-hot-water-after-blackface-post/1534688/|title='Blackface' Social Media Post Lands Prairie View A&M Athlete in Hot Water|last=Clemons|first=Tracy|date=September 30, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.wistv.com/story/33281715/blackface-or-charcoal-mask-college-investigates-photo-on-social-media|title=Blackface or charcoal mask? College investigates photo on social media|last1=Turnage|first1=Jeremy|date=September 29, 2016|last2=Mills|first2=Chad|access-date=October 14, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pennsylvania-blackface-idUSKCN1213PZ|title=Pennsylvania college students suspended over blackface video|last=Simpson|first=Ian|date=October 1, 2016|access-date=October 14, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/16/us/kansas-state-blackface-photo-trnd|title=Kansas State student apologizes but denies wearing blackface|last=Park|first=Madison|date=September 16, 2016|access-date=October 14, 2016}}</ref> In 2020, two high school students in Georgia were expelled after posting a "racially insensitive" [[TikTok]] video that used racial slurs and [[Stereotypes of African Americans|stereotypes]] about Black people.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Padilla |first1=Mariel |title=2 Georgia High Schoolers Posted Racist Video, Officials Say |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/18/us/racist-tik-tok-video-carrollton.html |work=The New York Times |date=19 April 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Miller|first=Joshua Rhett|date=April 20, 2020|title=Georgia students expelled for posting 'racist' TikTok video|url=https://nypost.com/2020/04/20/georgia-students-expelled-for-posting-racist-video-on-tiktok/|access-date=March 16, 2021|website=New York Post|language=en-US}}</ref>

Senior writer [[Jason Parham]] suggests that the social media app [[TikTok]], and its [[TikTok#Viral trends|viral trends and challenges]], has become a new medium for 21st century minstrelsy. Parham argues that "unlike Facebook and Twitter, where instances of digital blackface are either text-based or image-based, TikTok is a video-first platform" where "creators embody Blackness with an auteur-driven virtuosity—taking on Black rhythms, gestures, affect, slang". Examples of these controversial trends and challenges have included "the Hot Cheeto Girl", which is said to mimic [[stereotype]]s of Black and Latin women, the "#HowsMyForm" challenge, which plays on racist stereotypes of Black people and other racial groups, and other perceived instances of [[cultural appropriation]], such as "[[blackfishing]]".<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Parham |first1=Jason |title=TikTok and the Evolution of Digital Blackface |url=https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-evolution-digital-blackface/ |magazine=Wired |date=4 August 2020 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Magsino|first=Isiah|title=Teens won't stop posting racist videos and challenges on TikTok. Experts explain why the problem continues.|url=https://www.insider.com/tiktok-continues-to-have-problems-with-racist-videos-2020-5|access-date=March 16, 2021|website=Insider}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|title=Unpacking the Racism of Digital Blackface in the Information Age| date=January 27, 2021 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1tfKEVBcdY| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211030/b1tfKEVBcdY| archive-date=2021-10-30|language=en|access-date=March 16, 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In 2021, conversation around digital blackface gained further traction after [[Oprah Winfrey]]'s interview with [[Meghan, Duchess of Sussex|Meghan Markle]] and [[Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex|Prince Harry]], where Winfrey's reactions during the interview began to circulate the internet in the form of [[meme]]s. A widespread [[Instagram]] post by the Slow Factory Foundation, an activist group founded by [[Céline Semaan Vernon]], calling attention to digital blackface led to many critiques and criticisms about whether or not it was appropriate for non-Black people to continue sharing these images of Winfrey.<ref>{{Cite instagram|user=theslowfactory|date=March 9, 2021|title=📌What is digital blackface, and are you performing it?|postid=CMNcTx7F86a|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/iarchive/instagram/theslowfactory/2525799470601850522_2525799467565142010 |archive-date=2021-12-23 |url-access=subscription|access-date=March 16, 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Elizalde|first=Elizabeth|date=March 13, 2021|title=Organization says sharing Oprah interview memes is 'digital blackface'|url=https://nypost.com/2021/03/12/organization-says-sharing-oprah-interview-memes-is-digital-blackface/|access-date=March 16, 2021|website=New York Post|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Wang|first=Lydia|title=This Oprah Photo Is Quickly Becoming The Latest Example Of Digital Blackface|url=https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2021/03/10357290/oprah-meghan-markle-reaction-digital-blackface|access-date=March 16, 2021|website=www.refinery29.com|language=en}}</ref>

==== Universities ====
In 2021, music professor [[Bright Sheng]] [[Bright Sheng#Blackface controversy (2021)|stepped down from teaching]] a [[University of Michigan]] [[musical composition]] class, where he says he had intended to show how [[Giuseppe Verdi]] adapted [[William Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[Othello]]'' into his opera ''[[Otello]]'', after showing the [[Othello (1965 British film)|1965 British movie ''Othello'']], whose actors received 4 [[38th Academy Awards|Oscar nominations]], but in which the white actor [[Laurence Olivier]] played [[Othello (character)|Othello]] in blackface, which caused controversy even at the time.<ref name=Reason2021-10-08a/><ref name=IHE2021-10-11a>{{Cite magazine|last=Flaherty|first=Colleen|date=October 11, 2021|title=Professor Not Teaching After Blackface 'Othello' Showing|url=https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2021/10/11/professor-not-teaching-after-blackface-%E2%80%98othello%E2%80%99-showing|access-date=2021-10-12|magazine=[[Inside Higher Ed]]|language=en-us|quote=}}</ref><ref name=Newsweek2021-10-09a>{{Cite magazine|last=Roche|first=Darragh|date=October 9, 2021|title=College Music Professor Steps Down After Showing Students 'Blackface' Othello|url=https://www.newsweek.com/college-music-professor-steps-down-students-blackface-othello-1637274|access-date=2021-10-11|magazine=[[Newsweek]]|language=en-us|quote=}}</ref> Sheng allegedly failed to give students any warning that the movie contained blackface, and his two subsequent apologies failed to satisfy his critics, with the wording of the second one causing further controversy.<ref name=Reason2021-10-08a/><ref name=Newsweek2021-10-09a/> There was disagreement over whether showing the blackface performance constituted racism.<ref name=Reason2021-10-08a/><ref name=WSWS2021-10-11a>{{cite web|author=International Youth and Students for Social Equality at the University of Michigan|date=October 8, 2021|title=Oppose the right-wing, racialist attack on composer Bright Sheng at University of Michigan|url=https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/10/11/she1-o11.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211011192144/https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/10/11/she1-o11.html |archive-date=October 11, 2021 |access-date=2021-10-12|publisher=[[World Socialist Web Site]]|language=en-us|quote=The denunciation of Olivier's performance, which he had previously given on the British stage, is particularly reactionary in that the actor was attempting to take on the timid, semi-racist approaches to the Othello character that had prevailed for a century and a half. In representing Othello as black, as an African, Olivier was rebuffing various commentators appalled at the thought of the white maiden Desdemona falling head over heels in love with a black man. As Elise Marks commented in a 2001 essay, "Olivier was one of the first light-skinned actors to play Othello in black makeup since 1814. ... In his autobiography, Olivier boasts that his black Othello was more genuine, more daring, more forceful than the 'pale'—he might almost have said 'diluted'—Othellos of his immediate predecessors."}}</ref> Evan Chambers, a professor of composition (as is Sheng), said "To show the film now, especially without substantial framing, content advisory and a focus on its inherent racism is in itself a racist act, regardless of the professor's intentions",<ref name=Reason2021-10-08a/> while David Gier, dean of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, said: "Professor Sheng's actions do not align with our School's commitment to anti-racist action, diversity, equity and inclusion"<ref name=Newsweek2021-10-09a/> But Robert Soave, a senior editor at ''[[Reason (magazine)|Reason]]'' magazine, said that the university had violated the principle of [[academic freedom]], that showing the movie was neither a racist act nor approval of racism, and that the university owed Sheng an apology for unfairly maligning him, and he compared it to Sheng's earlier experience of surviving the Chinese [[Cultural Revolution]].<ref name=Reason2021-10-08a>{{Cite magazine|last=Soave|first=Robby|date=October 8, 2021|title=Michigan Students Accuse Celebrated Music Professor of Racism for Screening Othello|url=https://reason.com/2021/10/08/bright-sheng-university-of-michigan-othello-racism/|access-date=2021-10-12|magazine=[[Reason (magazine)|Reason]]|language=en-us|quote=One of Sheng's colleagues, Evan Chambers, another professor of composition, sided with the students and accused Sheng of committing a "racist act". "To show the film now, especially without substantial framing, content advisory and a focus on its inherent racism is in itself a racist act, regardless of the professor's intentions," said Chambers. "We need to acknowledge that as a community."... It is a violation of the university's cherished principles of academic freedom to punish Sheng for the choices he makes in the classroom. Screening a racially problematic film in an educational setting is neither a racist act nor an endorsement of racism. At this point, it is Sheng who is owed an apology from the broader university community for falsely maligning him. Imagine surviving the Cultural Revolution in communist China, only to reencounter it on an American university campus in 2021.}}</ref>

=== Black performers in blackface ===
[[File:Hotmikado.jpg|left|thumb|upright|A poster for the 1939 [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] show ''[[The Hot Mikado (1939 production)|The Hot Mikado]]'' using blackface imagery]]

==== 19th century ====
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.<ref>Granville Ganter, [https://www.questia.com/read/1G1-113646013 "He made us laugh some": Frederick Douglass's humor] {{dead link|date=July 2021}} originally published in ''African American Review'', December 22, 2003.</ref> Douglass did, however, maintain: "It is something to be gained when the colored man in any form can appear before a white audience."<ref>Frederick Douglass, [http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/minstrel/miar03at.html Gavitt's Original Ethiopian Serenaders], originally published in ''The North Star'' (Rochester), June 29, 1849. Online in Stephen Railton, ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' and American Culture, University of Virginia. Accessed online January 31, 2008.</ref>

When all-black minstrel shows began to proliferate in the 1860s, they often were billed as "authentic" and "the real thing". These "colored minstrels"<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=199}}.</ref> always claimed to be recently freed slaves (doubtlessly many were, but most were not)<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|pp=198, 236–37}}.</ref> 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"<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=206}}.</ref> than skilled performers. Despite often smaller budgets and smaller venues, their public appeal sometimes rivaled 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.<ref name="autogenerated4">{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=205}}.</ref>

These "colored" troupes&nbsp;– many using the name "Georgia Minstrels"<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=203}}.</ref>&nbsp;– focused on "plantation" material, rather than the more explicit social commentary (and more nastily racist stereotyping) found in portrayals of northern black people.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|pp=179, 198}}.</ref> In the execution of authentic black music and the [[percussion instrument|percussive]], [[polyrhythm]]ic tradition of ''[[Juba dance|pattin' Juba]]'', when the only [[musical instrument|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 Callender|Charles Callendar]]. The Georgia Minstrels toured the United States and abroad and later became [[J. H. Haverly|Haverly's Colored Minstrels]].<ref name="autogenerated4" />

From the mid-1870s, as white blackface minstrelsy became increasingly lavish and moved away from "Negro subjects", black troupes took the opposite tack.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=234}}.</ref> The popularity of the [[Fisk Jubilee Singers]] and other ''jubilee singers'' had demonstrated northern white interest in white religious music as sung by black people, 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|pp=236–37, 244}}.</ref> Where the jubilee singers tried to "clean up" Southern black religion for white consumption, blackface performers exaggerated its more exotic aspects.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=243}}.</ref>

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, black people 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=200}}.</ref> Still, their performances were largely in accord with established blackface stereotypes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=180}}.</ref>

These black performers became stars within the broad African-American community, but were largely ignored or condemned by the [[African-American upper class|black bourgeoisie]]. [[James Monroe Trotter]] &nbsp;– a middle-class African American who had contempt for their "disgusting caricaturing" but admired their "highly musical culture"&nbsp;– wrote in 1882 that "few ... who condemned black minstrels for giving 'aid and comfort to the enemy'" had ever seen them perform.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|pp=226–28}}, including the quotation from Trotter.</ref> Unlike white audiences, black audiences presumably always recognized blackface performance as caricature, but took pleasure in seeing their own culture observed and reflected, much as they would half a century later in the performances of [[Moms Mabley]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|pp=258–59}}.</ref>

Despite reinforcing racist stereotypes, blackface minstrelsy was a practical and often relatively lucrative livelihood when compared to the menial labor to which most black people 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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=195}}.</ref> 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 [[Abolitionism in the United States|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.<ref name="Watkins 82" /> It was through blackface minstrelsy that African American performers first entered the mainstream of American show business.<ref>{{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=228}}.</ref> 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:

{{blockquote|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.<ref name=fox>{{cite book |last=Fox |first=Ted |title=Showtime at the Apollo |location=Rhinebeck, NY |publisher=Mill Road Enterprises |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-9723700-1-1 |id={{OCLC|680471611|54084944|9393699}} |orig-year=1983|hdl=2027/uc1.32106017681500 }} {{subscription required}}</ref>{{Rp|5, 92–92, 1983 ed.}}}}

[[File:Bert Williams blackface 2.jpg|thumb|right|[[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.<ref name="autogenerated3">{{Harvnb|Strausbaugh|2007|p=136}}.</ref>]]

==== 20th century ====
With the rise of vaudeville, [[The Bahamas|Bahamian]]-born actor and comedian [[Bert Williams]] became [[Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.|Florenz Ziegfeld]]'s highest-paid star and only African American star.<ref name="autogenerated3" /><ref>{{cite news|author-link=Margo Jefferson|first=Margo|last=Jefferson|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/13/arts/music/13vaud.html |title=Blackface Master Echoes in Hip-Hop|newspaper=The New York Times|date= October 13, 2004|access-date= February 2, 2008}}</ref>

In the [[Theatre Owners Booking Association|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 (comedian)|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&nbsp;– black and white&nbsp;– 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".<ref>Johnson (1968). ''Black Manhattan'', p. 90. Quoted in {{Harvnb|Toll|1974|p=218}}.</ref> 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.<ref name=fox />{{rp|4, 1983 ed.}}

The minstrel show was appropriated by the black performer from the original white shows, but only in its general form. Black people 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 [[Amiri Baraka|LeRoi Jones]] has written:

{{blockquote|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.)<ref name=leroy /> }}

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:

{{blockquote|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 kind of irony&nbsp;– which, I suppose is the whole point of minstrel shows.<ref name=leroy>{{cite book|first= Leroy|last= Jones|title= Blues People: The Negro Experience in White America and the Music that Developed from It|publisher= TMorrow Quill Paperbacks|year= 1963|location= NY|pages= [https://archive.org/details/bluespeoplenegroexp00bara/page/85 85–86]|isbn= 978-0-688-18474-2|url= https://archive.org/details/bluespeoplenegroexp00bara/page/85}}</ref> }}

=== Puerto Rico ===
During the 20th century, blackface was not an uncommon sight at parades in Puerto Rico.<ref name="PR">{{cite web |title=Carnaval 1962 : "Black face" y diablos. |url=http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00063985/00001 |website=The University of Florida Digital Collections |publisher=El Mundo, UPRP |access-date=February 15, 2019}}</ref> In 2019, when blackface was prominently featured at a carnival in [[San Sebastián, Puerto Rico]], the town immediately faced backlash and criticism.<ref name="PR_2019">{{cite news |title=Cuestionan niños pintados de negro en Festival de la Novilla |url=https://www.primerahora.com/noticias/puerto-rico/nota/cuestionanninospintadosdenegroenfestivaldelanovilla-1322503/ |access-date=February 15, 2019 |work=Primera Hora |date=January 21, 2019 |language=es}}</ref>