Why did black people don blackface in early American theatre? Explain the power dynamics of blackface worn by black performers.

African –American people were not accepted to perform on stage for most of the 19^th The site of them was not tolerable to white audiences so in order for the white audience to feel more comfortable, they had to put on blackface as if they were Caucasian playing the role of a black person [2].

The interesting power dynamic of black face by black performers allowed the surrendering of the black performer’s power. Blackface was worn as a way to mock the African-American race.

How did ‘Shuffle Along’ reinforce or challenge:

The use of blackface in theater: The use of black face in reinforced or challenged “Shuffle Along” because of the way it was used. Black performers had to use blackface when performing to appear as a Caucasian performing as a black person. This showed that they surrendered their power because it mocked their own race.

The taboo of black sexuality: The observation of the white reaction to the song ‘Love Will Find a Way’ by Roger Matthews and Lottie Gee, the prima donna, was not what Les Walton, a journalist expected as they expressed more discomfort as opposed to rage or revolt [2]. White audiences did not want colored people to show too much affection from black individuals on stage. The audience would applaud if a coloured man serenades a girl at the window, but once he begins to resemble a Romeo, then he has crossed a line due to the fact black sexuality was dangerous to them [2].

Typical rhythms in musical theater: “Shuffle Along” challenged typical rhythms in musical theater because the “changes were often seemed as less rhythmical than mathematical” [2]. This made the pattern and rhythm much more difficult for dancers to follow.

Chorus lines: The chorus lines for “Shuffle Along” were mainly dance jazz, which was performed by stereotypical chorus girls. Josephine Baker was one of the performers on the chorus line.

Which song remains the most well-known from Shuffle Along? Had you heard this song before?

The song that remains most well-known from Shuffle along is “I’m Just Wild About Harry”. It is a song that most people can hum to and it was used as the theme song for Harry S. Truman’s presidential campaign in 1948 [2]. The song was written by African-Americans and was not used again till Barack Obama’s candidacy.

Explain what «patting Juba» meant, and who was Juba (the second Juba). Why is this story included, and how does it tie to our main story?

In the 1840s, P.T Barnum had a white kid in one of his shows named Diamond, the second Juba, who performed Juba or Juber dancing. “Patting Juba” is African dancing, plantation dancing. Juba was the inspiration behind the blacks and Irish-Americans creating tap. Juba was performed by you drumming on your body, slapping your chest and knees and the soles of your feet. Diamond would dance in blackface and Juba was seen as a black thing. Diamond ended up running away in 1841 due to him supposedly being dishonest with financial dealings before Barnum found out. Barnum was without his Juba dancer. He found the best in the world, a young boy that would come and perform for him in replacement of the second Juba. The first Juba was black and had to don the blackface [2]. This ties into our main story with how coloured individuals achieved small victories by donning the blackface.

Here is a video of the Juba Dance for you to have a better understanding what the Juba dance is:

Which claims about the historical significance of Shuffle Along are not exactly true? Who or what should actually claim this title?

Most of the claims that are made for “Shuffle Along” say that it is the first black Broadway show or the first successful one. Which isn’t exactly true because William’s and Walker’s show “Bandanna Land” of 1907-1909 was a black show performed over a decade before “Shuffle Along”. “Bandanna Land” should claim the first black successful Broadway show [2].

Explain the concept of the 2016 show and how it celebrated Shuffle Along. How does it approach the material?

There had been previous attempts in reviving “Shuffle Along” in 1932 and 1952 but both of them failed. George Wolfe, who started the recent revival portrayed it as not a revival, but a transformation. The new title for the show would be “Shuffle Along, or the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed”. He would not redo the show but instead “he would tell the story of the original creators and cast and how they pulled it off” [2]. This approach would give a voice to various white outsiders during the original show. This was approached through things such as syncopation, dancing and singing which were preserved.

Here is a sample of the performance of “Shuffle Along” when it was performed in 2017:

What new information came to light for you when reading this article, and does it change your perspective on the conditions and challenges faced by early African American performers?

What I learned from reading this article was the challenges African Americans went through in order to do things that they loved. Black performers were treated unfairly and went through many difficulties such as performing through blackface and the discomfort that was expressed upon them when too much affection was shown within their performance.

Look back to the section entitled ‘Minstrelsy and American Popular Music’ in your textbook (page 28), specifically the paragraph that begins “Minstrelsy would give blacks…” – in light of the article, do you feel this paragraph (or the textbook in general) offers a fair perspective on blackface in America? Why or why not?

After reading his section in the textbook, I feel like the textbook does not portray blackface and minstrels in light to what has occurred. It portrays Minstrels as more of a positive thing that contributed to four important firsts that influenced the coming generations of popular music:

“1. It was entertainment for the masses.

2. It used vernacular speech for music.

3. It created a new genre of music by synthesizing middle-class urban song and folk music.

4. It was the first instance of a phenomenon in American popular music that has continued to the present day: that of invigorating and transforming the dominant popular style through the infusion of energetic, often danceable music [1]”.

From the wording of the textbook and how it explains Minstrels, it gives them a positive outlook and that Minstrels were important. It portrays blackface as a positive occurrence. In my opinion, blackface was not a positive portrayal and offers up an unfair perspective of how it is viewed in America.

Works Cited:

[1] Campbell, Michael. 2012. Popular Music In America: The Beat Goes On. 4th ed. Boston, MA: Schirmer.

[2] Sullivan, John. 2016. “‘Shuffle Along’ And The Lost History Of Black Performance In America”. Nytimes.Com. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/magazine/shuffle-along-and-the-painful-history-of-black-performance-in-america.html?mcubz=1

Ferdinand Joseph Lamothe was born in New Orleans on October 20^th, 1890. He was a mix of African, French and Spanish ethnicity and eventually changed his last name to Morton, which was used by his stepfather [5].

At the age of 10, Morton began to play piano and a few years later, he was playing in the red light district bordellos. This is where he earned his nickname “Jelly Roll” [5]. He was on the forefront of a movement that would be known as “jazz” when he would have blended styles of ragtime, minstrelsy and the blues, and with undertones of Caribbean dance rhythms [3].

From 1904 to 1917 he roamed around the south as a gambler, pool shark, pimp, vaudeville comedian and a pianist. He began to hit his stride from 1917 to 1922 when he played on the West Coast and then in Chicago. In 1923 and 1924, he began recording piano solos for the Gennett label where they proved to be popular and influential [2]. Some of his most innovative and creative jazz and popular music emerged, such as “King Porter Stomp”, “New Orleans Stomp”, and “Kansas City Stomp” [3]. Beginning in 1926, Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers, a seven or eight piece band that was a New Orleans ensemble style, produced hits such as “Black Bottom Stomp” and “Smoke-House Blues”. The sound and style helped lay the foundation for the swing movement [2].

By the early 1930s Morton’s fame began to become overshadowed by Louis Armstrong and other emerging innovators [5]. Morton recorded again briefly in 1939-1940 but due to his failing health that he blamed on a voodoo curse Morton had to stop. He died in 1941 [3].

Morton faced challenges at the beginning of his career. He was never hesitant to promote himself and claimed he had ‘invented’ jazz, but in reality he was just the first great jazz musician to write down his music. He worked as a young teen in clubs and brothels of Storyville, the red-light district of New Orleans [6]. Working in this environment proved to be a challenge that needed to be overcome. It wasn’t until 1923 where he finally caught a break and signed with a record company where he began to produce and record music.

Morton’s contribution to music is the consideration that he is the inventor of jazz. This is questionable, he is the first to put his jazz style music onto paper, however there is no record of him being the sole inventor of jazz. No question about it though, he had a powerful influence by his ability to play the piano and was a great musician people still adore to this day.

“King Porter Stomp” is a piano solo that was recorded by Morton in 1923. I chose this song because it shows the emergence of swing-era jazz that Jelly Roll Morton helped establish. This song is one of his first recordings he did and it represents the brilliance as to what was in store for the years to come.

“Black Bottom Stomp” by Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers is a jazz composition that was recorded in 1926 [2].  His band was more New Orleans style which is a seven or eight piece ensemble. In this song you can hear trumpet, clarinet, trombone, piano, bass, drums and others. I chose this song because this was one of the first recordings with his band. The way Morton is able to incorporate two-beats and four-beats into this song and in among other structures of music. It is fascinating in how he was able to achieve this style. This song is personally one of my favorites that I heard of Jelly Roll Morton’s work.

“Doctor Jazz” is a third song I found interesting. It was recorded by Jelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot Peppers in 1926. This song was a great example of early New Orleans style jazz. There is an increasing in intensity towards the end of the song and various solos from the members on different instruments. In this song you can hear Jell Roll Morton’s piano solo and him singing for a bit.  I chose this song because it was one of his songs I could not stop tapping my foot to as I kept listening to it on repeat.

Works Cited:

[1] Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopedia. n.d. Jelly Roll Morton. Accessed July 18 18, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jelly-Roll-Morton.

[2] n.d. Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton born Ferdinand Lamothe. Accessed July 18, 2018. http://www.redhotjazz.com/jellyroll.html.

[3] History. n.d. Jazz great Jelly Roll Morton dies. Accessed July 18, 2018. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/jazz-great-jelly-roll-morton-dies.

[4] n.d. Jelly Roll Morton. Accessed July 18, 2018. http://www.neworleansonline.com/neworleans/music/musichistory/musicgreats/jellyroll.html.

[5] 2014. Jelly Roll Morton Biography. April 2. Accessed July 18, 2018. https://www.biography.com/people/jelly-roll-morton-9415945.

[6] Spitzer, Nick. 2000. King Porter Stomp. October 16. Accessed July 18, 2018. https://www.npr.org/2000/10/16/1112571/npr-100-i-king-porter-stomp-i.

Good afternoon, everyone! My name is Emily Huel and before I dive into today’s blog post, I would like everyone to consider the following three songs: “She’s a Lady,” “Love Never Felt So Good,” and opening theme to Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show (which were respectively performed by Tom Jones, Michael Jackson, and the Tonight Show Band).

Despite the fact that these songs cover a relatively broad range of musical styles and, to a far lesser extent, time periods, the three of them were all written or co-written by the same man: Paul Anka.

Beginnings:

Paul Anka was born on July 30, 1941 in Ottawa, Canada. His parents, who were Lebanese/Syrian immigrants, owned a restaurant that was popular among various entertainers.¹  It was at this restaurant, the Locanda, where Anka honed his trademark charm, “schmoozing with. . . Ottawa journalists, politicians, and businessmen.”²  A gifted writer, Anka originally planned to become a journalist and worked for the Ottawa Citizen for a brief period. However, Anka had always been interested in Music: he grew up singing in his church choir and took piano lessons. When he was thirteen, he formed his own group: The Bobbysoxers.³ His first attempt at recording resulted in some success: while visiting his uncle in Los Angeles, he was able to convince Modern Record’s Ernie Freeman to sign him to label’s subsidiary, RPM. His first recorded song, “Blau-Wile Deveest Fontaine” was released in 1956. While he did achieve some local exposure, appearing in CBC’s Pick the Stars and the Cross-Canada Hit Parade, the single didn’t gain much traction. ⁴ In 1957, after spending three months collecting soup labels, Anka won a trip to New York. Here he was able to secure a meeting with ABC-Paramount Record’s Don Costa, who agreed to sign him.⁵ In 1957, the sixteen-year-old Anka made his debut on network television, performing his song “Diana” on American Bandstand.⁶ “Diana,” a song Anka wrote about an older teen crush, was his first single: the song soon became the No. 1 song in the world and would eventually sell over 20 million copies, securing Anka’s place among other crooners of his day.⁷

As a Crooner:

As described by one French reviewer, a “Paul Anka cocktail” could be described as a “finger of Johnnie Ray, a touch of Frankie Laine, the zest of Elvis Presley, several drops of the Platters – shake and serve.”⁸ Musically, Anka’s singing could be classified as crooning, which is “an intimate, pleasant singing style.” This allowed crooners (such as Bing Crosby) to sing in an intimate, personal way. Songs that utilized crooning emphasised melody, were slower and less syncopated, and contained more subdued sonorities.⁹ Crooners often used song interpretation to distinguish their songs and did so through inflection, subtle timing, and speech-like presentation.¹⁰ Consider the following song by Paul Anka: “Put Your Head On My Shoulder.”

Now, compare both the song and Anka’s performance of it to the following video of Nat King Cole, who was one of Anka’s crooning predecessors, singing “Unforgettable.”

Both songs are slower love ballads. Lyrically, they both mimic tender words spoken between lovers. Neither are fast-paced and both invoke a dream-like mood from their listening. Furthermore, while Campbell describes “Unforgettable” as a song for slow-dancing.¹¹ Not only is “Put Your Head On My Shoulder” likely a song for slow-dancing, the lyrics themselves actually describe the act of slow-dancing (which, in Anka’s case, could arguably be a “clean” metaphor for love-making). Additionally, there are some similarities between the two performances. In Anka’s performance, he directly interacts and “flirts” with the audience, occasionally blowing kisses and holding the hands of audience members. He plays to a young girl’s libido and he does it well. Anka himself describes his role as a sex-symbol in the documentary Lonely Boy. In this documentary, Anka describes the lengths he went to in order to appeal to teenage girls: he changed his hair, worked out and dieted extensively, and even received a nose job. According to Anka, about 60% of his success involved the emotions of girls and subtle allusions to sex. In summary, he played the role of a lonely young boy so any girl could imagine that he’s singing to her.¹² This method is something that I like to call The Boyfriend Experience. Now, this method is less explicit in Nat King Cole’s performance. However, it is still there, albeit in a subtler way. This done partly by the way the video is filmed. The performance, to an extent, is not filmed as a performance: while we can hear the audience as they cheer, they are more or less absent. Instead, Cole makes up the entirety of the frame and looks directly into the camera. This creates an illusion of personalized intimacy and viewers can easily pretend that Cole is singing sweetly to them. Moreover, Cole’s demeanor is extremely flirty. He has a twinkle in his eye and he occasionally, almost bashfully, looks away. Therefore, by borrowing an understated sex-appeal and the concept of The Boyfriend Experience from artists such as Nat King Cole, Anka aligns himself with other pop-crooners of his time. However, it is Anka’s talent as a keen songwriter that places him within a league of his own.

Later Career and Influence:

Unfortunately for Anka, his newfound success as a crooner was relatively short-lived. By the time that the Rock Revolution hit in the sixties, Anka’s style felt largely out of place. However, Anka purchased the rights to his music and rebranded himself as a songwriter. In addition, to the three songs mentioned at the beginning, Anka also wrote for fellow crooner Frank Sinatra, penning the song “My Way.”¹³ According to Anka, “Songwriting has separated [him] from the pack. It has allowed [him] to survive the cultural changes and musical changes. . .” He even won an Oscar for composing the theme for The Longest Day.¹⁴ Anka has continued to perform and release music over the years (his most recent album, Classic Songs, My Wayis a compilation of covers that span multiple genres and time periods).¹⁵ However, it can be argued that while his singing career made him a heartthrob, it is his writing that made him a legend. Over the course of his career, Anka has written more than 900 songs which have been performed by artists such as Buddy Holly, Barbra Streisand, The Sex Pistols, and Elvis Presley. Globally, as one of the few artists throughout history to have a record in Billboard’s Top 50 charts for six consecutive decades, Paul Anka’s influence transcends his heartthrob beginnings and reaches across multiple genres.¹⁶ Furthermore, to Canadians, Paul Anka was their first homegrown pop-star: at a time when the media strongly favoured American music, Paul Anka likely did for Canada what the Beatles did for the UK and paved the path for later Canadian musicians.¹⁷  As a final fun fact, did you know that Paul Anka was co-owner of the Ottawa Senators during the nineties?¹⁸  As many of us are likely aware, for a young Canadian with big dreams, owning your very own hockey team is likely the ultimate measure of success.

Endnotes:

1. Rachel Cole, “Paul Anka: American Singer and Songwriter,” last modified March 14, 2016, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Anka.
2. “Paul Anka Biography,” Biography,” accessed July 18, 2018, https://www.biography.com/people/paul-anka-3424.
3. “Biography,” Paul Anka, accessed July 18, 2018, http://paulanka.com/biography/.
4. “Paul Anka,” Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, accessed July 18, 2018, http://www.cshf.ca/songwriter/paul-anka/.
5. “Biography.”
6. “Paul Anka,” Canada’s Walk of Fame, accessed July 18, 2018, https://www.canadaswalkoffame.com/inductees/2005/paul-anka.
7. “Paul Anka Biography.”
8. “Paul Anka,” Historica Canada, accessed July 18, 2018, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/paul-anka-emc/.
9. Michael Campbell, Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On, 4^th ed (Boston: Schirmer, 2013), 71.
10. Ibid., 153.
11. Ibid., 154.
12. Lonely Boy, directed by Wolf Koening and Roman Kroiter (1962; Montreal, QC: National Film Board of Canada), accessed July 18, 2018, http://www.nfb.ca/film/lonely_boy/.
13. “Paul Anka Biography”
14. “Paul Anka,” Canada Songwriters Hall of Fame.
15. “Biography.”
16. “Paul Anka Biography;” “Paul Anka,” Canada’s Walk of Fame.
17. John Douglas, “9.15 Cold War Themes,” in Canadian History: Post-Confederation (Victoria, BC: BCcampus, n.d.), https://opentextbc.ca/postconfederation/chapter/9-14-cold-war-themes/.
18. “Expansion Senators thrown an Anka,” UPI, last modified May 13, 1991, https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/05/13/Expansion-Senators-thrown-an-Anka/9421674107200/.

Bibliography:

“Biography.” Paul Anka. Accessed July 18, 2018. http://paulanka.com/biography/.

Campbell, Michael. Popular Music: The Beat Goes On. 4^th ed. Boston: Schirmer. 2013.

Cole, Rachel. “Paul Anka: American Singer and Songwriter.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Last Modified March 14, 2016. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Anka.

Douglas, John. “9.15 Cold War Themes.” In Canadian History: Post Confederation. Victoria, BC: BCcampus. n.d. https://opentextbc.ca/postconfederation/chapter/9-14-cold-war-themes/.

“Expansion Senators thrown an Anka.” UPI. Last Modified May 13, 1991. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/05/13/Expansion-Senators-thrown-an-Anka/9421674107200/.

Koening, Wolf, and Roman Kroiter, dirs. Lonely Boy. 1962; Montreal, QC:  National Film Board of Canada. Accessed July 18, 2018. http://www.nfb.ca/film/lonely_boy/.

“Paul Anka.” Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. Accessed July 18, 2018. http://www.cshf.ca/songwriter/paul-anka/.

“Paul Anka.” Canada’s Walk of Fame. Accessed July 18, 2018. https://www.canadaswalkoffame.com/inductees/2005/paul-anka.

“Paul Anka.” Historica Canada. Accessed July 18, 2018. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/paul-anka-emc/.

“Paul Anka Biography.” Biography. Accessed July 18, 2018. https://www.biography.com/people/paul-anka-3424.

Hello all! My name is Raeann, I am a fourth-year Business Economics student. I chose to do my blog post on Ma Rainey, “The Mother of the Blues”. I hadn’t heard of her until reading about her in this class and I was immediately intrigued when I started researching her found out how brave and bold she really was and how much she didn’t care about what people would think of her. She is an influence to all women, which is why I chose her.

Gertrude Pridgett was born on April 26, 1886, in Columbus Georgia. She was a talented singer and dancer who performed in local talent shows until she met her future husband William “Pa” Rainey. Once Gertrude and Pa married on February 2, 1904, she was then known as “Ma Rainey”(1).

“Ma” and “Pa” decided to tour south together and perform in tent shows. As they traveled, Ma had been exposed to country blues music for the first time and safe to say she fell in love with it. Ma then started to incorporate authentic blues into her song repertoire. (1)

Ma Rainey became extremely well known for being one of the first singers to perform blues music and people recognized her as “The Mother of the Blues”.(1)

Ma was known to not have a beautiful voice,“Ma’s music was rough, earthy, bold and bawdy, but profoundly moving” (2). Her voice was huge and commanding and she knew how to deliver her songs in a real and captivating way (1). She also was famous for her “moaning”, in a few songs she would moan and groan and crowds would go wild! The deep moaning blues video below captures her expressive moans.

Ma Rainey was known for writing about real life issues that everyone else was afraid to talk about. Rainey had sung about race, homosexuality, gender inequality, infidelity and much more. People were attracted to Ma’s realness and bravery for singing about issues that most people felt at that time was too inappropriate to talk about. Many believed Ma was singing “ahead of her time” (3).

Rainey had been faced with many challenges in her life. She was one of the first popular African American female recorders of all time. In the early decades of the 20^th century this was extremely unusual because females did not have leading roles at the time, and African Americans were trying to get by in a white-dominated country. Despite these racial and gender inequalities, Ma Rainey had ignored them and stood up for herself and blues music and continued to entertain with her forward and honest opinions.

Rainey recorded a song called “Black Bottom”, and as you listen to it, you can tell she did not care about what people will think about her lyrics.

Another daring issue Ma was willing to address was her own sexuality. Ma was married to Pa, even though both of them were accused of infidelity while separated on the road. Ma had even addressed that her affairs were not only with men, but instead with women, revealing herself as a homosexual in her music. In the 1920’s this was a bold subject to touch on, but Ma did it!

Ma’s song “Prove it on Me” was a clear indicator that she was interested in women. Some of the telling lyrics are:

Where she went, I don’t know
I mean to follow everywhere she goes;
Folks say I’m crooked. I didn’t know where she took it
I want the whole world to know

They say I do it, ain’t nobody caught me
Sure got to prove it on me;
Went out last night with a crowd of my friends
They must’ve been women, ’cause I don’t like no men

Above, Rainey is implying here that people are saying she is “crooked” because back in the 1920’s homosexuality was frowned upon and if you weren’t heterosexual then there was something wrong and “crooked” about you. She also implies “she don’t like no men” which is another obvious sign Ma was implying she was a lesbian.

Through her bravery and boldness in what she wrote and how she sang it, Ma influence African Americans, women, homosexuals and many others by not being afraid to talk about real issues that happen in peoples everyday lives and society as a whole.

Ma Rainey was able to influence all of these people because she was dedicated to her music and performed as much as she possibly could. Between 1920-1926 Ma did over 100 recordings (1). She was always on the road and expressing herself through blues and sharing her stories.

Ma retired in the 1930’s when blues music popularity started to fade (4). Ma Rainey passed away in December of 1939. She will always be know as the gutless artist who influenced many other musicians of her day, people in society, and most of all blues music.

Works Cited

(1) Biography.com website. “Ma Rainey”. April 27, 2017. Accessed July 18, 2018.    https://www.biography.com/people/ma-rainey-9542413

(2)  Raudler, Dave. “Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey”. Jazz rhythm website. Date n/a.        jazzhotbigstep.com

(3) Friedrich, Brandon. “Ma Rainey’s Lesbian Lyrics” Billboard website. July 6, 2017.         billboard.com/ma-rainey-lesbian-lyrics

(4) rockhall website . “Ma Rainey Biography”. Acessed July 18, 2018          rockhall.com/inductees/ma-rainey

Summary

The article “Haunting and Minstrelsy in Bob Dylan’s Masked and Anonymous” by Joseph Byrd addresses the significance of the history of blackface minstrelsy and how it is not adequately covered in modern-day textbooks. “Blackface Comedy” is the mimicking black people by white American men. These men did this to create entertainment for the public. Thomas Dartmouth Rice and George Washington Dixon were the first performers to provide this type of entertainment [1].  Rice and Dixon “created the two stock characters that would follow minstrelsy for a century, Jim Crow, the ragged rural hobo, and Zip Coon, the flashy city dandy.” [2]  Next, Dan Emmett created the Virginia Minstrels, which consisted of several different types of acts that were watched by “lower-class urban males.” His song lyrics created many negative stereotypes regarding African American people [3]. However, as Byrd discusses in his article the songs reached many other classes and had a strong impact due to there graphic lyrics. Following Emmett in this genre is Stephen Foster. He is somewhat less racist towards black people than Emmett, but still expresses “… black people are happier in slavery than they would be free.” [4] Lyrics like this sent an untruthful message about black people of the time. The article then goes on to discuss that this assumption brought about social and political problems, which created a false dichotomy [5]. Currently, textbooks lack in-depth information on the history behind minstrelsy. Some authors briefly touch on it but will hide under different subheadings. Byrd argues that when authors do this they deny students the chance to learn about the different types of music and keep teachers from teaching the evolution of this music and how it has affected society today [6].

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/552957660471610850

What new information caught your interest in this article?

What stuck out the most to me when I first read this article was how much textbooks lacked in the history of minstrelsy. I was shocked that the authors strategically chose songs lyrics to display in an attempt to hide the level of racism that the songs from that time expressed. I would never have thought this would be done at a university level. I thought by this age and time authors would not hold back on the deep history of this sort, I thought that they would use it as an opportunity to allow professors to open up conversations about it with students.

Lumpenproletariat

In this article Byrd 2009 explains that Lumpenproletariats “were low-paid and unemployed first-generation whites and Irish immigrants trying to survive in an unskilled labour force…” This term allows us to truly understand that minstrelsy was meant for the humorous entertainments of lower-class white men. This has driven and is continuing the drive racism amongst white people as a joke [7].

Jim Crow Laws 

The Jim Crow laws were a system that segregated white and black people. The laws made black people “second class citizens.”  During the time of the Jim Crow laws black people were prohibited from doing many things, such as: eating with white people, sitting in public spaces with white people, voting, going to school with white people, and with many other things that deeply impacted black people everyday life [8]. The laws are named after Thomas Dartmouth Rice’s minstrel character ‘Jim Crow,’ “a caricature of a clumsy, dimwitted black slave.” [9]

https://sites.google.com/site/rpinlaw/home/jim-crow-laws-in-post-war-south

http://www.african-american-civil-rights.org/jim-crow-laws/

The Reality of Minstrel Lyrics

Understanding the reality of minstrel lyrics is key because it is still having an effect on society today. Minstrel music and shows were the beginnings of the marginalization of black people. This was done by “… pretending that slavery was amusing, right, and natural.” [10]. The lyrics of the songs made people believe that black people were happy as slaves and the use of blackface provided comedy. As more people became exposed to minstrel and its racist nature it engraved it within people. This has been passed down from generation to generation and is continuing to have an effect on people in today’s society. As Byrd discusses in his article by authors avoiding racist lyrics in their textbooks they are ignoring the strong impact minstrel music has had on society. Another Citation? 

https://civilwarfolkmusic.com/2013/04/18/1851-foster-old-folks-at-home/

Endnotes

[1]  Joseph Byrd, “Whitewashing Blackface Minstrelsy in American College Textbooks,” Popular Music and Society 32, no. 1 (2009): 77, doi:10.1080/03007760802207882.

[2] Joseph Byrd, “Whitewashing Blackface Minstrelsy in American College Textbooks,” Popular Music and Society 32, no. 1 (2009): 77, doi:10.1080/03007760802207882.

[3] Joseph Byrd, “Whitewashing Blackface Minstrelsy in American College Textbooks,” Popular Music and Society 32, no. 1 (2009): 77-79, doi:10.1080/03007760802207882.

[4] Joseph Byrd, “Whitewashing Blackface Minstrelsy in American College Textbooks,” Popular Music and Society 32, no. 1 (2009): 80, doi:10.1080/03007760802207882.

[5] Joseph Byrd, “Whitewashing Blackface Minstrelsy in American College Textbooks,” Popular Music and Society 32, no. 1 (2009): 80-82, doi:10.1080/03007760802207882.

[6] Joseph Byrd, “Whitewashing Blackface Minstrelsy in American College Textbooks,” Popular Music and Society 32, no. 1 (2009): 82-83, doi:10.1080/03007760802207882.

[7] Joseph Byrd, “Whitewashing Blackface Minstrelsy in American College Textbooks,” Popular Music and Society 32, no. 1 (2009): 78, doi:10.1080/03007760802207882.

[8] David Pilgrim, “What Was Jim Crow,” Ferris Sate University, accessed July 18, 2018,  https://ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm

[9] Evan Andrews, “Was Jim Crow a Real Peron?” History, January 29, 2014, accessed July 18, 2018, https://www.history.com/news/was-jim-crow-a-real-person

[10] Eric Lott, “Love and Theft: The Racial Unconscious of Blackface Minstrelsy,” Representations, no. 39 (1992): 24, doi:10.2307/2928593.

References