are minstrel shows back?
on the topic of digital minstresly
I've avoided discussing this topic because it could be taken the wrong way and possibly be quite controversial, but I don't think there's a point in staying silent about it. It's a bold move to call something the modern equivalent of such a horrific series of events in history, but when you compare these actions/behaviours and public reactions, there are a few jaw-dropping similarities. In our times, there's a fine line between humour and the constant reinforcement of stereotypes, which often blurs. Many of the creators and influencers I'll speak on aren't that humorous, but they have such online platforms and continue to share content because a small group of people enjoys it. But when your content comes at the expense of your own community, is it worth it?
Minstrel shows are racist comedic performances of white actors in exaggerated costumes and in blackface that were popular in the United States from the early 19th century to the early 20th century. They mocked the culture, looks, language, dance, and essentially anything they could think of that related to the lives of African Americans. In these performances, Black people were characterised as ignorant, hypersexual, poor, lazy, and the list goes on. One of the most famous performers was Thomas Dartmouth Rice, the "father of American minstrelsy," due to his Jim Crow character. If you know about this period, that name should ring alarm bells in your head. The Jim Crow Laws were laws that mandated segregation in all public spaces in the South of the US that begun as early as 1865 up until 1965. Using this character’s for a set of laws says everything you need to know about their racist and oppressive nature.
Performing in blackface was humorous to many White Americans at the time because of how they felt towards black people; therefore, it was normalised within society. And even after its decline, actors performed in blackface and perpetuated this disgusting tradition up until the late 90s. Nowadays, you'll still find some people who see this as a regular act and not "serious", which is shocking. If you have time, you could find a list of your favourite actors who did blackface and read up on their apologies where they "didn't know" or were "too young to understand." These excuses don't erase what they've done, they just further reflect on the racial insensitivity and lack of empathy some people have towards marginalised groups.
You might ask yourself how this kind of entertainment reappears in our digital society, but bear with me for a moment. Black people have always had a particular portrayal in the media, and a lot of that is tied to these racist origins, but I will say that Vine and Musically revitalised minstrelsy back in the early 2010s. These two apps were video sharing ones, similar to TikTok where young adults posted anything from skits to dances, but Vine itself was known for its 7 second comedy skits. The shocking part is that many of the creators on those apps, especially Vine, who mocked Black people, were Black themselves. When I rewatched Vine compilations as an adult, it was clear that a lot of Black creators on there relied on Black stereotypes to be funny. More than often, they acted as burglars, "hood", the absent father trope, and also, in one particular King Bach video, they stole watermelon and fried chicken from a KFC…. and I think that describes these videos well enough.
The problem isn't that they used Black stereotypes to create these skits; your favourite comedian probably does that, too. It's funny and something that, as a community, we can laugh about and be entertained with because we relate to it. But the issue with those Vine skits was that nothing else came from them. Black people were only seen as the butt of the joke. Nothing else. The Black people in these skits weren't represented as actual people, just this unsettling combination of stereotypes that were attributed to us over the centuries. You have to understand your audience when you're a comedian who focuses on dark humour. And for a lot of these Black creators on Vine, their audiences were young white men who didn't understand what it meant to be Black. This dynamic is reminiscent of minstrelsy because although most of those performers were white, there were also small groups of Black Americans who partook in these shows and made their living by putting on plantation shows for white audiences. These types of shows just perpetuated the stereotypes that white audiences wanted to see, which is precisely what those Vine videos did as well.
Nowadays, Vine is no longer, but these issues have rolled over to TikTok. It's not foreign anymore to see a POC contribute to harmful stereotypes in order to get their five seconds of online fame, but when those videos are the ones that gain more attention, we need to ask ourselves why. If you've ever been on an Instagram reel doom scroll, you've probably stumbled across these particular videos of Black men jumping around, dancing, and screaming at restaurants and other public places. These videos get millions of views and shares across platforms, and most people don't actually enjoy this content, as it's usually called "cringe" and "annoying." But these creators barely get any views when they do any other form of content. All this does, is reinforce the idea that a video is only ever funny when we mock ourselves. And even when it's not in the form of videos, Black people are always in the conversation somehow. For example, think about any trending meme over the past decades; we are the face of 90% of those reaction memes or anything related. This could be a typical example of me being overdramatic, but it rubs me the wrong way.
Whenever the internet deems something funny, they will not let it go, especially when they see nothing wrong with it. And the second you react to it unpleasantly, you're told you're too sensitive and taking it too "deep." It's not that I'm taking it too deep, but it’s more so that racist and harmful jokes have desensitised the internet, and they're expected on any form of media. The mockery that Black people go through online and in real life is still present, and non-Black people can't relate to that, therefore, it makes it easy for them to dismiss our concerns and feelings.
It says a lot about our society when this type of content goes viral and is deemed entertaining. It's disturbing. As adults, we have a better understanding of why this isn't humorous, but imagine the children who see this and find it funny, causing them to recreate this sort of behaviour in their lives without truly understanding its impact. I'm not here to tell these creators how to live and share their content, but they need to be more aware of what they're doing and how their audience reacts. As Black people, we tend to use humour as a way to cope with our trauma and personal experiences, but there's a time and a place for that, and when people who don't understand this try to join in, it creates a never-ending cycle of minstrelsy.
also, please don’t forgot to keep using your voice to fight for the people of palestine, congo, sudan, tigray and in all oppressed places in the world.
“when the people stand up, imperialism trembles” - thomas sankara