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Conversations on Blackface, when whites darken their skins to interpret exaggerated versions of non-white characters, often focus on the history of the role of the media in perpetuating the racist act.
In some cases, historical means 19th century theater minstrels, silent films, or more recent history of satire like Robert Downey Jr.’s 2008 film “Tropic Thunder”, which has aged horribly in a Hollywood landscape that requires sensitivity and authenticity. performances, whatever the genre.
But it’s not always about decades or centuries ago. In the past seven days, however, at least three headlines involved directly or indirectly in the harmful lore have aired – from the Kardashian-Jenner family aesthetic to the astonishing rebound of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam to the crisis team helping fashion brand Prada. recover from the scandal.
In short, according to academic and author Ayanna Thompson, the continued prevalence of Blackface – both in content and past images of important people – is not so easily explained by heartfelt apologies and warning labels on classic movies.
In her new book “Blackface,” Thompson calls it “the ultimate zombie performance mode,” a practice that won’t die despite the many icons and world leaders shot down by the backlash, and countless reflections on the stereotypes it nourishes. Last summer, comedians and artists seemed to be finding a solution to the problem after George Floyd’s murder, with powerful actors like Tina Fey and Jimmy Kimmel decrying past works and disappearing images of Blackface from their libraries.
Thompson recently discussed her new book with Variety, on a topic she finds increasingly relevant to creators and show business executives who may lack more in-depth context around this issue.
This topic is unfortunately still relevant today, but what specifically prompted you to explore this topic in book form?
In 2012, when my son was in third grade, he had to do a research project where the students had to choose a famous person from history and introduce themselves as that person. My son was William Shakespeare, and my dark-haired grandson did not have a white face. It would never have happened to him or to me. There were three [white] From 8 year olds to Blackface, playing their heroes Martin Luther King, Serena Williams and Arthur Ashe. I couldn’t believe it.
They were little children. Who came up with the idea of putting on makeup? Who thought it was a form of celebration? Who had the idea that, in order to fully inhabit your hero, you had to use racial prostheses? When I asked teachers and other parents, no one thought this was a problem. When I approached the manager he thought I was crazy. I could see through his eyes that I was an irrationally angry black woman. It occurred to me that white privilege meant that this director didn’t feel obligated to know this story. He didn’t think it was something we shared collectively. It took me 10 years to write this book. I had to write something that people could give to their teachers, to their friends, to their colleagues, to the students, to say, “Here’s why this is problematic. Why don’t black and brown kids think they should put on a white face when making Halloween costumes? What do whites think when they put on Halloween costumes, do special projects, that black makeup is part of what they should be doing? The book is an exploration on this subject. And I take this seriously as our shared American history. It cannot be up to people of color to move this story forward. We’ve killed Blackface a number of times in our history, but he always comes to life because of this reluctance for this to be our collective history. I hope this book is the last on this topic.
One of the coolest things in the book is a concept you introduce called “white innocence”, can you unbox it?
Before we got there, the history of portraying blacks and brunettes on English-speaking stages had always been whites’ property. From the middle ages when there were evil figures in religious plays, then non-religious works in Shakespeare’s time when tons of Africans, Moors and Turks all played with racial prosthetics. This includes makeup, fake noses, wigs, etc. We have hundreds of years of black characters in the performance being white property. This is important as the foundation for what makes people believe in their own white innocence.
For example, when you’re Megyn Kelly defending Luann de Lesseps’ Blackface as Diana Ross in 2018 saying, “But who doesn’t want to be Diana Ross for a day?” White innocence is: “I love black people, I love black culture. It was also Governor Ralph Northam, when he played the role of Michael Jackson [in 1984]. Ditto for Justin Trudeau. This idea that you can celebrate black culture, black heroes, identities by putting on black makeup. On a weird subconscious level, stretching back hundreds of years of history, being a black character in a play or movie is actually being a white person playing that. This is where white innocence comes from. I ask, aren’t blacks and browns just as innocent because we don’t assume this is a performance mode open to us?
Comedy specifically seems to be a big deal over the past few decades, why?
I feel like the birth of Minstrel Blackface as a genre is the 19th century. It lives long until the 20th century – even the BBC had a minstrels show that was broadcast in prime time until 1978. In the black arts movement in the late 1960s, BIPOC artists attempted to say, “We are going to create our own art where we can fully represent ourselves. It helped kill Blackface’s minstrel.
Oddly, by the time we get to the 80s, it does come back. It is the birth of the neoconservatives and the Reagan presidency. “The Cosby Show” was huge and there was a feeling of “We’re so above all problems.” It was also around this time that the neoconservatives began to celebrate the fact that they had taken a color-blind approach to the world – namely, “We no longer have to see, talk or think about race because that we are all equal. Then you see this push from Blackface. You really saw it a lot just before and just after the election of Barack Obama. I think he had the same philosophy of “We are post-racial and racist”.
Let’s talk about all the comedians: Jimmy Fallon doing Chris Rock on “SNL”, Jimmy Kimmel doing Oprah Winfrey and Carl Malone on “The Man Show”, Sarah Silverman doing a whole Blackface routine on “The Sarah Silverman Program”, four episodes of ” 30 Rock “, and five years of Fred Armisen as Obama on” SNL “. All of this happened in the 21st century. And let’s not even get into “Tropic Thunder” and “Zoolander”.
There was a desire for actors. Not explicitly in their ideological thinking, but a feeling of “I’m post-racial, I can’t be racist.” So all of these things that I have studied and noticed is that all of these people are comedy students. They are all interested in pushing the boundaries of comedy and thinking about what’s taboo. It was something that had been taboo, and now they’re like, “We want to see if we can do it!” Since it is clear that I am not a racist, I can do it!
Your hope is that this book will resonate in the walls of show business, why?
Because it’s a tough climb. I don’t think people in the industry read anything other than what they create. It would be nice if there was someone to say, “We should talk about this. Maybe the Academy could sponsor a book club or something. I think of how television and movies have moved radically away from something simple like depictions of people smoking. They recognized that this was harm, something that actively harmed the public because it created a perception of smoking as either sexy or something you do when you need to take care of yourself. We got away from that pretty harshly, for the benefit of society. It was obviously a collective decision. They could all come to the collective decision that Blackface is public harm and we can play a role in stopping it. That would be the ultimate goal.
“Blackface”, released by Bloomsbury’s Object Lessons label, is currently on sale.
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