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What is Racial Performance?

     Racial Performance, sometimes called racial burlesqe, is the perpetration of stereotypes in order to portray a particular race, usually “constituted by performing what others consider to be ‘white’” or nonwhite (Nawatski 116).  Minstrelsy suggests at its root that ‘race’ is performable, if not always already performed. That is, with the proper makeup, a white person could be ‘black,’ and by removing pigmentation, a black person could become ‘white.’ ‘Race’ is theatrical—it is an outward spectacle—rather than being anything internal or essential’’ (Favor 123).  Though race may be "performative", racial performance is not always for the sake of entertainment. Racial Performance can work negatively against a group of people by “scripting racial difference as inferiority” (Lott 101).  The reinforcement of these differences, no matter how poorly founded, often “create[s] a socially accepted definition of race” (Lott 101).  Adversely, it can advance an individual willing to exploit the majority's acceptance of these definitions, by allowing their performance of the stereotypes to paint them as another specific race.  Through these performances, an individual may reap the benefits of that race.

     There are several forms of racial performance:

Signifying is an attempt to subvert the system of hierarchy and order as a result of unacceptance of blacks by whites. The literary critic Henry Louis Gates, Jr. wrote a book titled the Signify Monkey, in which he explores the history of signification and its significance in black society.  He explains that the trickster god "Esu clearly ha[d] priority in the art of interpretation" and "that the monkey became, through a displacement in African myths in the New world, a central character in this crucial scene of instruction" (Gate 15).  Signifying is A “technique of indirect argument or persuasion,” “a language of implication,” “to imply, goad, beg, boast, by indirect verbal or gestural means.”  “The name ‘signifying’ shows the monkey to be a trickster, signifying being the language of trickery" (Abraham quoted in 54).  Though it bears much discussion, it is not a key form of performance in this exposition.

Passing is the act of "a non-white person successfully pretending to be a white person...by performing what others consider to be ‘white'" (Nawatski 116).  Nawatski argues that "whiteness is not achieved simply by having a certain ancestry, skin tone, hair color and texture, or facial features" but by performing the scripts commonly associated with whites to the degree that "one is not seen as an imposter" (116).

Blackface is performance of race for entertainment and the furthering of misconceptions about a nonwhite race.  While Dictionary.com offers an inflexible definition as "an entertainer, esp. one in a minstrel show, made up in the role of a black" and "the makeup, as burnt cork, used in this role", it spans beyond the traditional show described on the Blackface Minstrelsy page.  These "stage depictions of African Americans, which were actually caricatures of blackness performed by white men, had little to do with black culture or actual black experience" (Lott 101).

Whiteface is, surprisingly, not an exact reversal of Blackface Minstrelsy.  While traditional Blackface reinforced negative stereotypes about blacks and produced others, Whiteface served as a platform for nonwhite performers in Europe to perform white roles before white audiences alongside white performers and receive respect and acclaim within that artform, despite their initial nonwhite status.  Just as Blackface "helped its immigrant performers to transform themselves from racial Others to ethnic white Americans," Whiteface propelled talented performers into a state of sucessful passing (Nawatski 115).

Coon Songs are another result of whites not accepting blacks but this is also specific to stage performance and entertainment.  Based upon the term coon, a probable reference to the "Southern belief that all black people were thieves, and raccoons were known to steal food" coon songs depicted blacks as "foolish, lazy, and thieving," though what made them so unusual was that they were performed by both  whites and blacks (Major quoted in 141).  With so little room in America's musical culture for uplifting black music during the early twentieth century, most black performers were simply forced to produce music counterproductive to their own community's interests; however, scholars have found that many of these songs were rich with "signification" (Schroeder 139).  Though performers like Akon and Rick Ross have continued the tradiotion of perpetrating stereotypes of blacks, singing music that discusses and reinforces malice and vice in the black community and manufacturing less innocent personas for themselves,

 coon songs are also not a key form of performance in this exposition.

Is Blackface as Dead as Vaudeville?

     Blackface Minstrelsy has received heavy criticism for the past several decades as shameful and disturbing, due to its blatantly derogatory implications and the its ability to stunt positive Black African-American stage culture, but its greatest performance to date is its reoccurence in modern culture and the many cultural phenomena that have spun off since its alleged disappearance.  Of course, there have been occasional reprises of this custom in the performing arts world, with some artists using minstrelsy in their acts for historical accuracy or satire of outdated practices, but there is much speculation that its more familiar applications hide in plain sight, taking part in one of the most lucrative industries in the United States.  Who has been keeping the tradition of racial performance alive and thriving in a culture so watchful of politically incorrectness and equal opportunity: why the music industry, of course!

     Through American music, performers have been able to cross the racial divides of consumers and even reaffiliate with an entirely different race than socially assigned.  With the ideology of race as a social construction a "pre-eminently sociohistorical concept", it stands to reason that one can effectly change races by reasserting oneself firmly within the "set of interpretative codes and racial meanings...rules shaped by [America's] perception of race" to temporarily alter his or her own race (Omi and Winant 15-16).

    The evolution of racial performance has been followed and observed for historical and literary purposes for decades.  Blackface has adapted to the tastes of the current American public, providing   Through these observations, a set of destinguishing markers have been used again and again to determine the bounds and requirements for consideration.

What are the markers:

1.)   The Stereotypes to Portray-     The stereotype or parody of the non-white race being "performed" is crucial in order to reinforce the "social definitions" at work (Lott 101).

2.)   The Paint-     No longer simply burnt cork and the attire of a happy, dimwitted slave, any perversion of the appearance to resemble the parody acts as paint, especially in regards to urban clothing.

3.)   The Removable Mask-     Although the paint is well-applied, the audience must be able to look at the performer and see that it is, in fact, removable paint.  The audience's knowledge of the performer's actual whiteness is necessary to create the show.

     Now that the different types of racial performance have been explained and the different markers of Blackface have been identified, please enjoy this link to Youtube.com where the trailer for the movie Bamboozled can be loaded and viewed.  This Spike Lee film was released to theaters in Canada in the year 2000, then made its way to American theaters to a great deal of upset and controversy.  This is a film about a young Black writer who, when discouraged by the entertainment industry's stereotypical expectations, pitches a show for a modern day blackface minstrel show to voice his protestations.  Unfortunately, the shows gets picked up by a large broadcasting company and receives high ratings from most demographic, including many Blacks.  Bamboozled is helpful in showing the plight of lost identity through racial satire.  While watching, observe "Delacroix, or ‘Dela,’ the creator of Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show, [who] performs whiteness by speaking a hypercorrect form of English that mimics the speech of wealthy, educated, white Americans" and his "white boss, Dunwitty, [who] performs blackness by appropriating hip-hop speech" (Nawatski 130).  Both perform racially, but neither of the two acknowledge this as an act.

Click here to view the Bamboozled Trailer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMZ6zp-3oGY

Works Cited 

"blackface". Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. 28 November 2010 <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/blackface>.

Bamboozled. Dir. Spike Lee. Spike Lee, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Damon Wayans, Gilian Illiana Waters, Kris Park, Mos Def, Michael Rapaport, Paul Mooney, Sarah Jones, Savion Glover, Susan Batson, Tariq Trotter, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Tommy Davidson. 2000.

Favor, J. Martin. Authentic Blackness: The Folk in the New Negro Renaissance. Durham: Duke University Press, 1999.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The Signifying Monkey. New York City: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Lott, Eric. Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class. New York City: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Nawatzki, Robert. ""Blackin' Up is Us Doin' White Folks Doin' Us": Blackface Minstrelsy and Racial Performance in Contemporary American Fiction and Film." Literature Interpretation Theory 18.2 (2007): 115-136.