I was waiting for something that I could sufficiently write about and turns out this really grinds my gears.
So minstrels. Wow. Okay. So basically it is a show with white people pretending to be black people and performing songs and plays. I understand it is a big part of american music but oh my goodness what the **********. It’s crazy to me how popular they were (well not really, but it’s just blowing my mind) and the fact they used black face. I think it’s just ironic that we enslave black people for so long and treat them with such inequality but even BACK THEN popular culture was surrounded with their music, acting, etc. What we talked about in class is that they transgressed cultural boundaries which very slightly makes sense but given the time and places they were performed doesn’t really hit me as acceptable. I was surprised that President Lincoln was a fan of them as well and now I feel duped for liking Abraham Lincoln so much.
Another term we discussed in class was that minstrels were a “carnivalesce space,” meaning that it was a place where ordinary rules were suspended. Men would be women, people would be doing things that “normal” people wouldn’t do, people could act like animals, and just be completely opposite of what they are. Minstrels were supposed to be apart of that tradition, but in a country that struggles to unite 2 races to begin with, I feel it’s just contradictory.
Not a fan. Will now cringe whenever I hear Lincoln’s name/think about Minstrels/think about American history and all our #*&% ups.