The year is 486 BC and you are stood in City Dionysia, a festival in Ancient Athens, observing a performance of the first official comedy, in honour of the god Dionysus (the god of theatre and ecstasy, as well as wine which may explain why original ‘satyr plays’ involved mock drunkenness and crude trickery. Aristophanes, Phrynichus and Menander are the renowned playwrights of the comedic genre, where in Ancient Greece ordinary citizens, politicians, philosophers and Gods were permissible targets for mockery. It was a legitimate and nonpunishable pastime; to laugh at the parody of your counterparts. A victimless game. Such slander often included
‘individual masks’, (see right) where the actors used caricatured masks of real people- even the great Socrates was mimicked for his unique and recognisable visage. ‘Teasing and taunting’ was similarly employed to ridicule (-apologies, I mean make light of) an audience member’s diseases, physical deformities, ugliness, family misfortunes, perversions, bad manners, dishonesty, cowardice in battle, clumsiness … the list goes on.
Civilised ancient Greece graced contemporary society with a plethora of, now, commonalities, such as the Tragic genre, the odometer, indoor plumbing and central heating. Without the Greeks we wouldn’t have the word empathy! (meaning this blog wouldn’t exist). Moving on.. it has occurred to me that the elements that construct the Old comedic genre remain, like other inventions, prevalent in contemporary comedy.
In light of the many widespread national and global protests calling for justice and rights for black people, and ‘POC’ as a whole, many rightly frustrated and simply tired ‘BME’ individuals (I use the terms ‘POC’ and ‘BME’ in inverted commas as I am aware many individuals choose to avoid such mass media labels) have spoken up about the appropriation and travesty of the black and brown body for comedic purposes. However, when I write ‘spoken up about’ I mean made a loud and intentional *cough* *cough* and repeated their exasperation at this blatant racism, which has been broadcasted for all eyes to witness by the entertainment industry for years.
The phenomenon of ‘blackface’ is not a new controversy, yet it still surprises me that many white people uphold m
asses of ignorance and wilful blindness to it. A recent survey by Pew Research Centre revealed that 34% of Americans believe it acceptable for a white person to wear ‘blackface’ as a Halloween costume. For those 34%, and others, who remain bewildered at how black people take offence to the darkening of a white person's face for a couple of laughs, it is only right that I explain where it all started.
You are familiar with the image of Jim Crow, portrayed by the white man Thomas D. Rice with black coal or shoe polish smeared on his skin, pronounced blood-red lips and often, however not in Rice’s case, a woolly wig. In the early 19th century, Jim Crow became a fictional persona of the African slave, who even stole and popularised a traditional slave song ‘Jump Jim Crow’. Minstrel shows then became popular by the 1830’s where white men codified not only the black body of enslaved Africans in the South, but made a commodity from their language, physique and character. Such theatrical characters were hyper sexual, lazy, uneducated, cowardly and criminal. These personas often indicated the devil or a danger. Jim Crow Laws is now a familiar term used in discourses about segregation and the post-American Civil War period. The popularisation of minstrel performances rationalised the Jim Crow segregation of black folks trying to claim full citizenship and the right to vote in America during this, still, hostile North-South divide.
(The National Museum for African-American History and Culture unpacked the disturbing history of blackface in Blackface: The Birth of An American Stereotype, which I recommend for further insight) https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/blackface-birth-american-stereotype
The influence of minstrel performances can not be underestimated, despite the time that has past since slavery. The rise of the media, the entertainment industry and the comedic genre all bolster this dehumanising stereotype to be tolerated in contemporary society. Everyday public figures who have dabbled, to say the least, in the humiliation and degradation of the black body grace our screens.
Matt Lucas and David Walliams (Little Britain- 2007 and Come Fly with me- 2011), Ant and Dec (Saturday Night Takeaway- 2003), Reece Shearsmith (The League of Gentlemen- 2002), Ted Danson (New York Friars Club Roast- 1993), Jimmy Fallon (Saturday Night Live- 2000), Jimmy Kimmel (The Man’s Show- 2000), Michael Ertel who dressed as a hurricane Katrina victim (Florida's former secretary of state- 2005) Ralph Northam (Virginia Governor- 1984). There are plenty more names I could mention, but alas.
A common argument in approval of ‘blackface’ is it’s comedic purpose. It baffles me how many people, I have to assume, find it impossible to laugh at a comedy sketch where the dehumanisation and stereotyping of black people and ‘POC’ is absent.
Must the way black people stereo-typically look and act be the punchline? Can these well established comedians and TV personalities not rack their brain for an alternative joke? The black experience is not a joke. Black people are not black painted white people. The colour does not wash off at the end of the shoot. Black people can not stop being black at the end of the Halloween party. And most of all, black people can not make money and fame off of purely their skin colour. This is where the white supremacy aspect of the entertainment industry comes in. (If anything, successful black public figures are indeed successful in spite of their blackness, not because of it- unless they are the token black character or act needed to boost diversity for promotion’s sake.)
Al Jolson, deemed “The King of Blackface'' and was “The world's greatest entertainer” (according to Wikipedia) was a Russian-born American comedian, actor and singer in the early to mid 1900s. Al Jolson used blackface as a tool to create profit and wealth, which stood him in good stead as an entertainer and even has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Nobel Sissle, a black American Jazz composer said that “he (Jolson) immortalise the Negro motherhood of America as no individual could”.
The fertile soil of the Western promise-land is built on the theft on African culture; from their people, customs and even appearance. There are 400 years worth of skeletons in the ‘great’ country’s closet.
With great reluctance, I feel it is necessary to mention a very recent social media 'scandal’ concerning a white 31 year old Youtube star. This said internet personality, I grew up watching. After coming back to Twitter after a detox, I saw “Dawson” trending and instantly I knew exactly what to expect when I clicked on the hashtag. Retweeted clips of white tears, ‘sincere’ regret and a long winded (yet, oddly not long enough)
The Youtuber still sells merch with the face of Shanaynay, a , vulgar, “ghetto”, “light-skinned” teenager, who Dawson first played dress-up as in 2008. Now deleted videos of Shane have resurfaced, including clips where the 31 year old made numerous paedophilia, r*pe, mass genocide, Islamophobic, anti-semitic and racist jokes, as well as using racist and transphobic slurs, respectively.
To no surprise, Shane is “not a racist”. His unconvincing apology read a narrative centred on himself as a victim, neglecting the millions of non-white viewers he has offended throughout his whole established Youtube career.
Likewise to Al Jolson, Shane has accumulated wealth by using morbid racism as comedy (how pathetic). I’m sure the hundreds of public figures, from the early 19th century to 2020, who have used racism to form a platform do not consider themselves as a racist. Each distasteful joke, a brick which builds their podium. Each disturbing costume, an immodest paycheck.
It is salient to understand that ‘blackface’ is not a then problem. The debasement of the black body is now a problem, and it is surfacing everywhere. Yes, I am pleased some televised shows are no longer being broadcasted due to years of complaints, but the passive tolerance and acceptance of ‘blackface’ has yet to be eradicated.
The only thing I can suggest is to continue educating yourself on this issue. Hundreds of celebrities, public officials, damn, even politicians are still praised despite their shameful racist dress-up. Comedy should not be hurtful. This is something the Ancient Greeks had yet to understand, but we do now.
Petitions to sign <3
Stop the minstrel show in The Netherlands https://www.change.org/p/the-dutch-government-zwarte-piet-end-the-blackface-minstrel-show-in-the-netherlands
British education on black history https://www.change.org/p/gavin-williamson-mp-teach-british-children-about-the-realities-of-british-imperialism-and-colonialism?recruiter=1100366940&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_petition&recruited_by_id=63f782c0-a35e-11ea-8907-8fc7af712ec3&use_react=false
Justice for Belly Mujinga https://www.change.org/p/govia-thameslink-justice-for-belly-mujinga-justiceforbellymujinga
Justice for Breonna Taylor
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