![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/593\/2019\/10\/trudeau2.jpg\")
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<\/a>Photo courtesy of Afro-Americana Imprints, LCP, no. S351.<\/p><\/div>\n
Blackface is definitely not anything new. Eric Lott explains “blackface minstrelsy was an established nineteenth-century theatrical practice, principally of the urban north, in which white men caricatured black men for profit [1<\/a>].” Lott believes “the black mask offered a way to play with collective fears of a degraded and threatening-and male-Other while at the same time some symbolic control over them [1].”<\/span> As we have discussed in American Music, stock characters such as Jim Crow, Zip Coon, Mammy, and Jezebel would be played by all-white male casts. African Americans in these shows were shown as barbaric, simple, passionate, hyper-sexual, and faux-suave. The cast would then come out at the end of the show as their normal white selves, dressed in elegant attire to prove they were truly \u201ccivilized white men.\u201d As we can see in this \u201cEleventh St. Opera House\u201d advertisement, minstrel shows were catered to families- they even had a discounted price for children (only 15 cents!). Names such as \u201cThe Sure Cure\u201d and \u201cMagic Pearl\u201d further enticed audiences to come experience this strange \u201cother\u201d culture.<\/span><\/p>\n You may ask yourself, how does this relate to the present day? Sure, minstrel shows were incredibly racist and oppressed an entire culture of people (to put it lightly), but minstrel shows don\u2019t happen anymore, right? However, there have been many <\/span>recent<\/span><\/i> cases of popular and respected figures being outed as having donned blackface besides Justin Trudeau:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t