Representations of Blackface and Minstrelsy in Twenty- First Century Popular Culture Jack HARBORD School of Arts and Media University of Salford, Salford, UK Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, June 2015 Table of Contents List of Figures iii Acknowledgements vii Abstract viii Introduction 1 1. Literature Review of Minstrelsy Studies 7 2. Terminology and Key Concepts 20 3. Source Materials 27 4. Methodology 39 5. Showing Blackface 5.1. Introduction 58 5. 2. Change the Joke: Blackface in Satire, Parody, and Irony 59 5. 3. Killing Blackface: Violence, Death, and Injury 95 5. 4. Showing Process: Burnt Cork Ritual, Application, and Removal 106 5. 5. Framing Blackface: Mise-en-Abyme and Critical Distance 134 5. 6. When Private goes Public: Blackface in Social Contexts 144 6. Talking Blackface 6. 1. Introduction 158 6. 2. The Discourse of Blackface Equivalency 161 6. 3. A Case Study in Blackface Equivalency: Iggy Azalea 187 6. 4. Blackface Equivalency in Non-African American Cultural Contexts 194 6. 5. Minstrel Show Rap: Three Case Studies 207 i Conclusions: Findings in Contemporary Context 230 References 242 ii List of Figures Figure 1 – Downey Jr. playing Lazarus playing Osiris 30 Figure 2 – Blackface characters in Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show 64 Figure 3 – Mantan: Cotton plantation/watermelon patch 64 Figure 4 – Mantan: chicken coup 64 Figure 5 – Pierre Delacroix surrounded by African American caricature memorabilia 65 Figure 6 – Silverman and Eugene on return to café in ‘Face Wars’ 71 Figure 7 – Blackface crowd outside the police station in ‘Face Wars’ 73 Figure 8 – Smith family in blackface in ‘An Apocalypse to Remember’ 75 Figure 9 – Chris Griffin in blackface as Bill Cosby in ‘Halloween on Spooner Street’ 77 Figure 10 – Token Black wears whiteface in ‘Free Willzyx’ 79 Figure 11 – Eric Cartman/Mitch Connor in blackface in ‘201’ 80 Figure 12 – Cartman approaches the home of George Zimmerman wearing hooded top and blackface in ‘World War Zimmerman’ 81 Figure 13 – Law enforcement official removes blackface from Cartman in ‘World War Zimmerman’ 82 Figure 14 – Tracy Jordon in whiteface in ‘Believe in the Stars’ 85 Figure 15 – Jenna Maroney in blackface in ‘Believe in the Stars’ 86 Figure 16 – Maroney and L'Astname as ‘two black swans’ in ‘Christmas Attack Zone’ 87 Figure 17 – Jon Hamm as Abner in ‘Live from Studio 6H’ 89 Figure 18 – Dave Chappelle as ‘Racial Pixie’ in Chappelle's Show 91 Figure 19 – Animated Manray dances at the end of a shotgun in Bamboozled 96 iii Figure 20 – Manray’s assassins wear the blackface merchandise masks of Mantan in Bamboozled 97 Figure 21 – Triangle of Sloane, Delacroix, and blackface film in Bamboozled 98 Figure 22 – Delacroix in blackface lies dying on his office floor in Bamboozled 99 Figure 23 – Ace Boon Coon is shot on the set of ‘Black and Ugly as Ever’ in ‘The Wu-Tang Candidate’ 101 Figure 24 – Silverman is shot on the steps of the police station in ‘Face Wars’ 104 Figure 25 – Collected images of burnt cork ritual in Bamboozled 108 Figure 26 – Lighting of match in Bitch Bad 110 Figure 27 – Pink wig on mannequin in Bitch Bad 110 Figure 28 – Corks in tin dish in Bitch Bad 110 Figure 29 – Burning corks in Bitch Bad 110 Figure 30 – Burning corks with ‘grills’ in Bitch Bad 110 Figure 31 – ‘Christy’s Melodies’ shows absent blackface 113 Figure 32 – Virginia Serenaders shows absent blackface 113 Figure 33 – W. H. West’s Big Minstrel Jubilee 113 Figure 34 – Al. G. Field Greater Minstrels 114 Figure 35 – Womack tentitively applies blackface 116 Figure 36 – Manray applies blackface for first time 116 Figure 37 – Womack applies blackface aggressively 116 Figure 38 – Manray appears passive and resigned in blackface 116 Figure 39 – Womack cries as he faces his blackface mask 117 iv Figure 40 – Male performer applies bandana in Bitch Bad 118 Figure 41 – Male performer displays grillz in Bitch Bad 118 Figure 42 – Female performer measures-up breast enhancers in Bitch Bad 118 Figure 43 – Female performer puts on wig in Bitch Bad 118 Figure 44 – Blackface in shoe polish tin in Bitch Bad 119 Figure 45 – Female performer first applies blackface in Bitch Bad 119 Figure 46 – Male performer applies blackface in Bitch Bad 119 Figure 47 – Female performer applies blackface in Bitch Bad 119 Figure 48 – Male performer applying red lip-stick in Bitch Bad 119 Figure 49 – Female performer puts on gloves in Bitch Bad 119 Figure 50 – Images of distress and sadness in Bitch Bad 120 Figure 51 – Pepitone applies Silverman’s blackface in ‘Face Wars’ 121 Figure 52 – Pepitone take things seriously in ‘Face Wars’ 121 Figure 53 – Make-up paraphernalia litters the make-up table in ‘Face Wars’ 122 Figure 54 – Silverman shocked at the transformation in ‘Face Wars’ 122 Figure 55 – Silverman overjoyed with the transformation in ‘Face Wars’ 122 Figure 56 – Pigmentation alteration paraphernalia in Tropic Thunder 124 Figure 57 – Lazarus’s ‘dramatic reveal’ in Tropic Thunder 124 Figure 58 – Lazarus overjoyed with the transformation in Tropic Thunder 125 Figure 59 – Lazarus’s stages of blackface removal in Tropic Thunder 127 Figure 60 – Sarah Silverman with smudged blackface in ‘Face Wars’ 128 Figure 61 – From blackface to Hitler Moustache in ‘Face Wars’ 128 v Figure 62 – Images of woman removing blackface in Bitch Bad 130 Figure 63 – Images of man removing blackface in Bitch Bad 131 Figure 64 – Black and white theatre in Bitch Bad 141 Figure 65 – White over black labour in Bitch Bad 141 Figure 66 – Theatre now in colour in Bitch Bad 141 Figure 67 – Lupe Fiasco and the staged images 142 Figure 68 – Whitney Isleib wears blackface make-up to a fancy dress party 147 Figure 69 – Coaches Brian Basteyns and Harold Seeley attend a fancy dress party dressed as members of the Jamaican bobsled team 148 Figure 70 – Waverly High School students re-enacted assault on Rihanna by Chris Brown 149 Figure 71 – Lambda Theta Delta fraternity members perform ‘Suit and Tie’ 153 Figure 72 – Greg Cimeno and William Filene masquerading as Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman 154 Figure 73 – From the Plantation to the Penitentiary album artwork 172 Figure 74 – ‘Boz’s Juba’ 223 Figure 75 – ‘Jube in Dance’ 223 Figure 76 – ‘Juba in Charles Dickens’s American Notes’ 224 Figure 77 – Slaps of the foot in ‘Chicken Noodle Soup’ 224 Figure 78 – Market step in ‘Chicken Noodle Soup’ 227 vi To my parents David and Moira. I am immeasurably grateful for your unwavering patience and support, without which this work and all of my achievements would not have been possible. vii Abstract Blackface minstrelsy just ain’t what it used to be. This statement should not be understood as a call for the return of the minstrel show. Quite literally, minstrelsy and its central feature blackface manifest themselves in divergent ways from their nineteenth and twentieth century manifestations, convey a range of meanings, and serve a number of social and artistic functions in the twenty-first century. Through the analysis of a variety of texts and practices from across cultural fields including music, television, film, journalism, social media, and academic discourses of minstrelsy this thesis identifies how blackface and minstrelsy are manifested, their function in critical, artistic, and social contexts, and the effects of their appearance in popular culture. To achieve this, discussion utilises the analytical methodologies of semiotics and discourse analysis to identify the themes and tropes and consistencies and inconsistencies that form the image and concept of blackface minstrelsy in the twenty-first century. Initial conclusions point to a number of contrasting functions and effects: the notion of equivalency with cultural and industrial practices; use as a discursive and iconographic signifier of racism, exploitation, and marginalisation in cultural criticism; application in comedic, dramatic, and artistic contexts as a tool of satire, parody, and irony; and public displays of blackface, seemingly ignorant of its problematic signification. In conclusion, the thesis locates its findings within wider discourses of race, appropriation, and marginalisation in American society. Moreover, this is positioned in the light of recent tensions between African American communities and the police, the fiftieth anniversary of the ‘Bloody Sunday’ confrontation on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, and the proposal of post-racialism following the election of Barack Obama as United States President in 2008. viii Introduction The blackface minstrel show occupies a special and particularly problematic place in American culture and history. Performed initially by white European descendants in North American cities, the minstrel show developed in popularity, commercial appeal, and cultural influence, and spread across the United States and the wider world as cultural export. Its essential premise—and the feature for which it is mostly remembered—is its portrayal of African American life and culture through masquerade. Performers wore blackface make-up and costumes and used this performance medium to depict a range of characters, scenarios, and performance practices that chimed with their audience’s social, political, and cultural desires and expectations. Its formation in the early 1800s represents ‘the first formal public acknowledgement by whites of black culture’ (Lott, 1995, p. 4) and would develop into the United States’ first definable native popular culture, kick-starting a commercial industry ‘at a time when [it] lacked a definable national culture’ (Mahar, 1999, p. 9). However, the minstrel show primarily relied upon the depiction of slave and African American life, the appropriation of African American cultural practice, the normalisation and mythology of slavery, and the use of archetypal and caricatured representations of figures in American society (mostly, but not exclusively African American). The minstrel show is now widely regarded as a force of racist hegemony in a society built on slave labour.