BLACK & WHITE MINSTRELS

an extract from a show from the 1960's

• Category

  Film & Animation

[phipley]

I am of mixed breed, coloured x white and I love this show. My mum is the coloured and I remember she always enjoyed watching the show..we hail from New Zealand and it was exactly what it is...Light/White entertainment. I think it was extremely popular in its day and no one everlooked at it as being racist...its like the ""Gollywog"" doll.

[againstracism1]

Interesting how everyone looks at this and sees white people stereotyping black people.

In fact, there are both white and black American-south stereotypes on show here, in roughly equal numbers - nobody seein' them banjo-pickin southern belles?

What it really is, is British people stereotyping Americans.

But people see what their culture trains them to see.

[Jeremy Fisher]

get a disease

[Tony Eu]

The best group performersin the 50s.



[Joseph Williams]

To be honest I'm reasonably unembarrassed by the fact that what I mainly notice here is a bunch of white men painted up like they're black rather than the dixieland musical parody but an interesting point nevertheless. Maybe we should be paying more attention to the British National Party's opinions on recycling?

[Joe Marx]

And Im not trying to say that we shouldn't enjoy watching this. These performers are very talented, but watch it with an understanding that it was damaging. And white chicks is racist but in a completely different way. White Chicks poked fun of some white girls' silly habits, minstrelsy made the entire black race out to be listless, lazy, and uneducated. Everyone's racist in some way, but let's understand it and be aware of it, not deny its existence. Peace!

[Joe Marx]

@gamewizard ...first of all, this white chicks is a modern film of a different era all together. This was the 60s, a time blacks still were fighting to get equal treatment by the government. This video isn't one of the worse minstrel shows. These performers are very talented, but this form of entertainment marginalized blacks and left damaging misconceptions about African Americans in the minds of Americans long after. (Not that it matters but I am white.)

[T Daugherty]

yall mufuckas are crazy this is racism at its highest point.

[gamewizard]

Then why did you watch it?

[gamewizard]

Oh, so it's not racist to have black men dress up like white women and play to their stereotypes? What's the difference? The Black and White Minstrel Show had a lot of talented men and women on it who were just as enjoyable to watch so if White Chicks is OK and not racist, then neither is this.

[gamewizard]

"it's like saying nothing was wrong with slavery."

The Bible does not condemn slavery, there are actually places with guidelines as to the ethical treatment of slaves. If God is OK with it, why shouldn't we be?

[gamewizard]

You're actually wrong. Homo Sapiens a SPECIES, not a race. Races are defined by the local gene pools the same way that breeds of animals are defined. A German Shepherd comes from a different gene pool than a Chihuahua but they are both from the species Canis Lupus. In the same way, we may all be members of the Homo Sapiens species, but not be members of the same race. The term 'human race' is a misnomer.