Stereotyping African Americans in the us culture

In parallel with the introduction of the stereotype of a black clown in melodrama, the same stereotype, but on a much larger scale, was fixed through the most popular genre of popular art in the United States of the XIX century – minstrel performances, which with great success exploited the musical, song and dance culture of blacks.

More than three centuries ago, Africans who did not voluntarily fall to the new world, they brought with them a kind of syncopated rhythm of their worldview. Even during the horrific ocean crossing, a live “cargo” was supposed to entertain the crew by “jumping and dancing for several hours every day” on the deck of a slave ship. So “" with splashing, tapping, drumming (which, of course, corresponded to the rhythms of the heartbeat), the introduction began in America, the” basic rhythm”that Africa exported to our shores in the XV century." This rhythm was destined to become one of the fundamental components of American Music.

On the cotton plantations of the South the whole way of life was directed in order to eliminate all references to the former Homeland, beliefs and art of the ancestors from the memory of the slaves as quickly as possible. This was facilitated by the tribal disparity of yesterday's Africans, and the huge number of their languages. It is quite natural that the English language became the means of communication between slaves and their self-expression, to which the Christian religion was soon added. However, in their labor, humorous, sad songs, the slaves retained their native rhythmic and intonation structures; from parents to children, a special plasticity, excellent hearing, sensitivity to rhythm and Melody also passed. At the end of a hard working day or weekend, the sound of music was heard near the Houses of Negroes – it was performed on homemade instruments made according to African models from improvised materials – stones, wood, bones. In white historiography, it was traditionally believed that these "Vespers" were intended to please the Masters; Modern African-American researchers hold a different point of view, believing that the slaves had no desire to entertain the planter and his family, but, on the contrary, found solace /ˈsɒlɪs in singing, dancing and mocking whites, which, however, was well hidden. Yes, at least that, and many whites liked the “concerts”.

Naturally, this original layer of entertainment culture with its powerful commercial potential attracted the attention of enterprising businessmen, who "paid tribute to the richness of black culture by imitating and exploiting it" (J. R. R. Tolkien). Hatch). Since the beginning of the XIX century, white actors disguised as blacks have performed Negro songs and dances. The greatest success in this genre fell to the lot of Thomas “Daddy” Rice, who in 1828 found a successful stage mask – an old lame Negro Jim Crow (later this name became a nickname for discriminatory laws in the southern United States). But the truly great era of “Negro entertainment” began in 1843. when composer and musician Daniel Emett (author of the unofficial Southern national anthem – “Dixie”) formed the group “Virgin minstrels”with his friends. Smeared on their faces with burnt cork and dressed in colorful clothes, they imitated the Negro manner of playing, singing, behavior, bringing their characteristic features to the grotesque. Successful performances of the troupe in New York led to the emergence of many similar groups. Before the Civil War, blacks were not allowed to participate in such shows; however, when from the 1860s pp. the first Negro and mixed corpses began to appear ("minstrels from the plantation” by Lew Johnson," Minstrels from Georgia " by J. R. R. Tolkien Hicks, et al.), their participants also had to use burnt cork – that is, continue to caricature Blacks.

Gradually, minstrel performances acquired a fairly clear stage form. The list of participants significantly expanded and established itself, which necessarily included the host (interlocutor) and comedians (end-men), with whom he exchanged jokes and Jokes. In addition to them, the troupe included singers, dancers, musicians, actors who acted out scenes “from black life” and parodies of famous plays. Minstrel performances became the first democratic form of theatrical art of the Supreme Soviet and held the palm among all segments of the White and black population in popularity for the next half century. After 1870, the peak of their glory passes, but in one form or another they are retained on stage (and later on screen)up to the 40s. our century.

The main source of comedy in this genre was a reduced and distorted image of the Negro. According to J. R. R. Tolkien,W. Johnson, they were “a caricature of black life and perpetuated the stage tradition of portraying blacks only."like irresponsible and carefree creatures who smile broadly, laugh loudly, play the banjo, sing and dance." So it's not surprising that since the 1920s pp. when the national consciousness of the black intelligentsia reached a qualitatively new degree, the figures of Negro culture hastened to renounce this shameful, in their opinion, page in the theatrical history of their fellow tribesmen. For the only positive result of the dominance of minstrel shows, later drama historians agreed that they provided blacks with some professional training and experience that was impossible to obtain at the time somewhere else. However, in the 1960s and 1970s, when a significant time distance somewhat calmed the passions around minstrel performances, they attracted attention as the only form of early stage activity of blacks, from which material evidence remained (texts of sketches, musical scores, drawings, photographs, descriptions, etc.). The latest intelligence has shown that it is not entirely correct to interpret this genre is exclusively like a malicious mockery of blacks. Both in origin, structure, and content, it was quite ambiguous and, no doubt, contained it contains elements of different traditions. Thus, today Theorists view the minstrel theater as one of the sources of shaping African-American drama, and practicing playwrights are willing to use his formal techniques in his own works (O. Davis, D. T. Ward, N. Shange, etc.).