How The Black Minstrel Set Stereotypes Of African Americans

The Minstrel show set the stereotypes for African Americans in the 19th century. With the shows mimicking demeanor and use of black face, the minstrels showed the way they believed African Americans acted. The interlocutor would wink to the audience to establish the mutual understanding that the performers are differentfrom the audience but only because the performers are in the blackface. Acknowledging that the blackfaced white actors are only in black face and are not actually “black” is an important destinction that entertains the white audience and performers. The mintrels would say that the performance was not aimed to discuss the direct connect between the white mintrel performers and the African Americans. The concern of the mintrels

Although there were changes to the contest of the show, the African American minstrels maintained the original idea of performing color and performing gender for the entertainment and satisfactory of the audiences. The African American minstrel performers were able to provide a “realness” to the performances. With some performances including scenes from a plantation like setting, the African Americans were able to provide “trueness” to the show by the fact that they were black and not just acting black. The black minstrel advertised themselves as authentic. The black minstrels turned the negativity portrayed the South that African Americans were stereotyped to be from, into a poitive living area were residents were relatively happy with their

African Americans found these ways to use double inversion to their advantage. “American male impersonators’ double inversion of color and gender directly tapped into the anxieties that the dominant culture had about African American women and men. By changing the nature of those characterizations, black minstrelsy, in effect, negated their “coloring” and asserted themselves as a race with first, a proud history, and second, an exciting present.”, Anne Marie Bean also