Blackface!

The mask which the actor wears is apt to become his face -- Plato

Blackface is more than just burnt cork applied as makeup.
It is a style of entertainment based on racist Black stereotypes
that has its roots in minstrel shows and continues to this day.

Movies have always been a powerful medium for the propagation of racial stereotypes. Early silent movies such as "The Wooing and Wedding of a Coon" in 1904, "The Slave" in 1905, "The Sambo Series" 1909-1911 and "The Nigger" in 1915 offered existing stereotypes through an exciting new medium. 

The premiere of "Birth of a Nation" in 1915 marked a change in emphasis from the pretentious and inept Jim Crow stereotypes to that of the Savage Negro. In D.W. Griffith's film, the Ku Klux Klan rescues the South, and Southern women in particular, from savage Blacks who have gained power over Whites with the help of Northern carpetbaggers. Griffith later admitted that his film was designed to, "create a feeling of abhorrence in white people, especially white women, against colored men."

Northern Blacks responded to "Birth of a Nation" by producing their own movies. "Race movies" were all-black affairs that were made for Black audiences. But few of the small independent Black film companies survived the Depression plus the added costs associated with the change in technology from silent to sound, and eventually Hollywood stepped in and took control of Black filmmaking by providing the financing. Race movies then changed from organic Black entertainment to knock-offs of standard Hollywood fare; like westerns, crime dramas and musicals; but featuring an all-Black cast.

Between 1930 and 1950, animators at Warner Brothers, Walt Disney, MGM, Merrie Melodies, Looney Tunes, R.K.O., and many other independent studios, produced thousands of cartoons that perpetuated the same old racist black stereotypes. This period is now known as the golden age of animation, and until the mid 1960s, cartoons were screened before all feature films. Later, these same cartoons would cycle endlessly for decades on broadcast TV or cable syndication.

The only Blacks to appear in early television were those who performed racist caricatures. In 1951, Amos 'N" Andy ranked 13th in the Nielsen ratings and in 1952 it won an Emmy award. The NAACP responded by initiating a boycott of Blatz beer. By April 1953 Blatz withdrew its sponsorship and CBS announced "The network has bowed to the change in national thinking." Yet the series was in syndication more than 4 times as long as it was broadcast on the network. It remained in syndication for 13 years after it was withdrawn from the network schedule. As late as 1963, it still played on 50 US stations. The programs were finally locked in vaults as of 1966, but videotapes and DVDs continue to circulate among collectors. 

NAACP protests also resulted in blackface scenes being cut from TV showings of such films as Babes in Arms and Holiday Inn. 15 years passed from Amos 'N" Andy  until the introduction of another African-American situation comedy (Julia in 1968). The series failed to gain an audience and that may be why during the 1970's, stereotypical "coons and mammies" were again featured in shows such as Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, Good Times, What's Happening and Diff'rent Strokes.

In Bamboozled (2000), Spike Lee addresses the legacy of blackface minstrelsy, and raises the question of who is wearing the blackface now. Many of the Black characters in television comedies today are derived from the same racist stereotypes of blacks that have existed since the days of minstrel shows. Robert Townsend, a talented African-American actor and independent filmmaker, was the star and co-executive producer of The Parent 'Hood (1995-2000). The program -- aimed at family viewers, relied on working class coon and mammy caricatures for a good portion of its "humor."

Negative stereotypes of Blacks continue in film, television and music. The predominant modern stereotypes are the violent, brutish Black male and the lazy Black female -- the Welfare Mother. The FOX Television sitcom, South Central (1994) was, in the words of Brotherhood Crusade President Danny Blackwell, "the Amos 'n' Andy of 1994." Ultimately as author Tony Brown has observed, black families "became narrow, negative, stereotypical portrayals designed to reflect what television producers and distributors believe the majority of the American public/market imagines black families to be." 

With the advent of "rap" music and videos, the minstrel-show plantation has been born again as the "hood." While the setting has changed from the idyllic plantation to the mean streets of urban America, the process is the same: a black culture is being marketed for white profit, with black performers portraying racist stereotypes. Performers claim that they represent authentic black America, while critics decry the glorification of ugly caricatures and its effects on Black youth.

There are those who believe that blackface is so offensive it should be erased from the cultural record. Any artistic, technical, or film-history value it has is far outweighed by the repulsive stereotypes it reinforces. It is said to be an example of history that is "best forgotten."

The opposing view is that no history is best forgotten. It's foolish and dangerous to censor historical events we're not comfortable remembering. The impulse to erase the historical record of books, films, TV shows and other cultural artifacts of things people find offensive or embarrassing today is a totalitarian urge that results only in ignorance.