Blackface, blackface everywhere, but when to stop and think?

My blackface cup runeth over.

I started talking about blackface and it’s influence on the project a few weeks ago and now it’s everywhere.  Seriously though.  Take Sunday night – I thought I was just going out to see a nice double feature of classic film noir, innocent enough, yes?  One of the films, A Double Life, starring Ronald Coleman and Shelly Winters, was about an actor’s decent into lunacy while playing Othello.  White actor + Moor role = blackface!

Having worked in Shakespearean theater, I’ve seen and read Othello many times.  These days theatres tend to cast black, or otherwise colored, actors in the role, instead of applying a layer of makeup to what would normally be a white person.  The meaning totally changes when the actor in Othello’s role is using blackface.  Believe me, it does.  In any case, flashbacks to O.J. ensued.  I realize how far back all of these stories go.

I also remembered working on a play where myself along with 2 other dressers, a makeup artist, and some wig girls had to change an actor from white to black in under 30 seconds.   Black in 30 seconds.  This quick change always got a big laugh from the audience, but the play itself was pretty horrible.  Which makes me wonder, is the use of blackface a last stitch effort that lacking forms of entertainment try to use to wow their audience?  Is blackface becoming the new indicator of when a show or personality has jumped the shark?  Does the entertainment industry desperately cling to blackface to garner attention and create commotion around shows that are loosing steam?

Here are a few instances of modern blackface:

1) Mad Men

I haven’t seen the whole episode, so I’m not sure how to comment on it.  I also know that Mad Men is insanely popular, so I’m not sure my theory stands up in this case.  We’d have to take a look at the Nielsen ratings, I suppose.

2) Will.i.am with Nicki Minaj at MTV’s VMA’s (4 months ago)

I think my favorite thing about Will’s all black getup is the weird ass plastic headpiece, and Nicki’s expression.  This was his response via Twitter:

“Just because I where all black, including head mask, as expression and emphasize my outfit, it shouldn’t be looked at as racial.  Let go of the past. There are far more important things 2 bark about. (Jobs, health, education) not a black man wearing all black everything.”

I have some very strong feelings about this, but basically I can sum them up by saying this:  Show me a man in blackface and I’ll show you a man who’s run out of good ideas.

Blackface these days seems to be an easy way to get some cheap thrills, create a little bit of commotion, and remind us of the history that we’ve been simultaneously clinging to and denying for far too long.

Love and Enjoy.

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