Black Face: “The makeup used by a non black performer playing a black role. The role played is typically comedic or musical and usually is considered offensive.”
This was often used during minstrel shows and cartoons to offend the African American population. It was also used to establish the low ranking of African Americans in society.
Although seeing constant reminders of how individuals view your worth is damaging, it is also very terrifying. Characters like Uncle Tom and Mammy were presented to the public as the average African American male and female. Uncle Tom was a stereotype set to depict Black men as direct servants to white men in the corporate world, and Mammy was meant to depict Black women as those who were created to take care of the white household and didn’t have a family or purpose of their own.
The creators and the audience who utilize the cartoons against their Black peers are either evil spirited, uneducated on human worth, or all of the above. I used a present verb because ladies and gentlemen, it still goes on today.
Recently, there has been an incident where students of predominantly white institutions have been using social media in a new craze. The students use a black illuminating peeling mask and captioned the picture “Feels so good to finally be a N*gga.” The two students in particular that were first witnessed in this horrible trend, told the press that the picture was never intended to spread across the internet and it was only for fun. Personally I would like to ask why does it feel good to be a “N*gga”? We have the same women that our men chase after, not only disrespecting them, but the Black women that created them. What feels good about that?
For some reason, our men can’t see past it and at times, so do our women. To me, that honestly doesn’t make sense. It’s almost like there is a fight to be good enough or fit into a society that never really wanted us in the first place.
The humorous aspect about the whole thing is that society wants to be like us but not us. Once again, stripping us down like they did our ancestors and taking what we’ve created, later to only make us feel like we are not good enough.
We are going through the exact same thing that they did, just with different details. The terror is alive and well.
That terror that has been presented in those cartoons and shows have been passed down for generations but now the terror has transformed into a different beast.
Now that we, as a Black community, have made a name for ourselves many want to copy our style and accomplishments. From our music, to our swag, to our looks, curvy body full lips and all, to our men and their strength and athletic talent, to our women and their entertainment feats; we are what many want to be.
The present contradiction is that many want our characteristics but not the civil issues that are attached. When will the cycle repeat and when can we hope for its end? To create, hold ownership and respect, and be recognized as the ones who did it first is overdue and would be much obliged. The only question is, whose time are we on?
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We’re cool but our color isn’t. Black Face: The new Frontier
October 4, 2016
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