Sky Room Talk
BLACKFACE: DOMINANT CULTURE REPRESENTATION OF THE OTHER
Wednesday, April 10 at 7:30 PM
$11 Members | $16 Public
with Professor Bill Jennings
The Sky Room Cafe will be closing at 5 PM the evening of this event.
Although many want to think of blackface as something gone and better forgotten, recent events have again revealed that it is an inescapable piece of America's tangled racial politics. For those looking to be informed on what blackface is, and why blackface is, we are joined by Professor Bill Jennings for a lively and eye-opening Blackface 101, tracing this bizarre American institution from its origins to the present day, where blackface is not just disgraced politicians but newly coined 'blackfishing,' as exemplified by Rachel Dolezal, the Kardashians, and your fave popstars like Ariana Grande.
A descendant of the institution of slavery, blackface was once widely accepted, even celebrated as mainstream, and still lingers today, a vivid reminder of racism. Blackface co-opted black identity for mockery in minstrel shows and propaganda, limiting the rights of African-Americans to self-representation, even in showbiz. Through close analysis of film excerpts from Hollywood movies, including D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1915), Professor Bill Jennings' lively and eye-opening presentation will contextualize such depictions, and examine how the dominant culture in the United States attempts to define the racial characteristics of the other. It was then with great irony that blackface moved into the mainstream by way of Al Jolson, a civil-rights activist. His subversion led to the inclusion of black performers onscreen, who would also have to don blackface. Blackface has since left its stain on society, developing different modes of humiliation for Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Latinx, excluding none. Jennings will also list varied examples of how these othered definitions contribute to maintaining social and economic power today.