Blackface is the practice of performers using burned cork, shoe polish, or theatrical makeup to portray a caricature of black people on stage or in entertainment.

Feb 2, 2019 · Blackface isn’t just about painting one’s skin darker or putting on a costume. It invokes a racist and painful history. The origins of blackface date back to the minstrel shows of mid-19th ...

These performances characterized blacks as lazy, ignorant, superstitious, hypersexual, and prone to thievery and cowardice. Thomas Dartmouth Rice, known as the “Father of Minstrelsy,” developed the first popularly known blackface character, “Jim Crow” in 1830.

Feb 13, 2019 · The portrayal of blackface–when people darken their skin with shoe polish, greasepaint or burnt cork and paint on enlarged lips and other exaggerated features—is steeped in centuries of racism.

In 19th-century America, a peculiar form of entertainment took the stage: white performers, faces smeared with dark makeup, grinning and dancing in exaggerated, hideous imitations of black people....

Apr 29, 2021 · Understanding the often-forgotten medieval roots of blackface might help us to end old performance traditions and to create new ones. A book that explains what blackface is, why it occurred,...

Throughout history, portrayals of characters in 'blackface' — with white people made up to caricature Black stereotypes — have been used in ways that demean, denigrate, and trivialize people of African descent.

2 days ago · Academy Award nominee Fernanda Torres is apologizing after a 17-year-old clip of her in blackface recently resurfaced. The star of “I’m Still Here” issued a lengthy apology to Deadline on Sunday, following backlash over a 2008 sketch she appeared in on the long-running Brazilian television ...

4 days ago · The housekeeper (Dalva) [Torres in character with blackface] appears, saying that all the problems Solange has, she also has – children, a house to take care of, and a husband to “satisfy”.

Dec 10, 2024 · Intended as comic entertainment, blackface minstrelsy was performed by a group of white minstrels (traveling musicians) with black-painted faces, whose material caricatured the singing and dancing of enslaved people.