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(Pictured are a few of my ancestors. I included this because I do understand there are varying shades of black and copyright laws prevent me from providing a photo of the comedian in question.)
What is a minstrel? When I google “blackface” (which I did prior to writing this and only scrolled down half the page before almost losing my eyesight to the back of my own head) there are over 27,000,000 results, presumably delineating the history and effects of blackface. I’m not entirely certain to whom these articles are written for as anyone googling blackface has either determined that they will write an article about it or they are well on their way to penning a defense.
Blackface in the traditional sense is overt: white or non-black people literally painting themselves black and affecting AAVE and supposed black characteristics — buffoonery, laziness, and simpleness are a few of the common iterations (apparently blackness has been a comedic costume to drape over otherwise mediocre bodies since we stopped working for fee). Every year the media consumes itself with stories about a politician or group of students or someone without access to the world wide web donning blackface. What the media generally (and intentionally) gets wrong is the dehumanization behind blackface and the more insidious ways blackface operates and moves in and…
