{"id":4106,"date":"2019-10-02T22:28:06","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T03:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=4106"},"modified":"2019-12-15T17:08:56","modified_gmt":"2019-12-15T23:08:56","slug":"us-and-them-the-mentality-of-minstrelsy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2019\/10\/02\/us-and-them-the-mentality-of-minstrelsy\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cUs\u201d and \u201cThem\u201d: The Mentality of Minstrelsy"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my search for primary sources, I came across three commentaries on minstrelsy that held very different views of black performers. Despite their differences, though, they all gave clear examples of an \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d mentality\u2014a white \u201cus\u201d viewing a black \u201cthem\u201d as \u201cother\u201d\u2014betraying a deep racism even when praising black performers or not mentioning them at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

From the Freeman<\/em>1<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

The most overtly racist commentary I came across was in the newspaper the Freeman<\/em>, in which the author writes that the average African American comedian is a \u201cperfect stranger\u201d to originality, instead trying to \u201cimitate the higher class of white comedians,\u201d an attempt which \u201cleave[s] you in disgust.\u201d1<\/sup><\/a> Such a broad denial of African American talent is an obvious example of racist \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d thinking, in which the \u201cus\u201d is clearly much better than the \u201cthem.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In contrast, the Cleveland Gazette<\/em> shares a view that is very complimentary of black performers:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

From the Cleveland Gazette<\/em>2<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Even this view, though, shows a blatant \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d mentality. Mr. Frohman\u2019s authority is given by his having \u201cmany years of experience with colored people.\u201d This implies that black performers are different enough from white performers that one must have extensive experience with them in order to hold such a view. This seems almost dehumanizing to me, as one would speak in the same way of having experience with a certain type of animal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Cover of How to Put On a Minstrel Show<\/em>3<\/sup><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Lastly, I was interested by the extent to which black performers were left unmentioned in How to Put On a Minstrel Show<\/em> by Harold Rossiter. As black performers were a realistically viable option in minstrel shows, one would expect at least a mention of them in such a guide\u2014which includes mentions of female performers\u2014but it fails to do so. The word \u201cnegro,\u201d for example, only appears three times: twice in advice against using too much negro dialect, and once in advice against choosing a song that would be \u201cunusual for a negro minstrel to sing.\u201d \u201cNegro minstrel\u201d seems to refer only to the race of the character, and not the race of the performer, as this comment leads into a discussion of the particular types of music appropriate for minstrel shows, independant of performer.3<\/sup><\/a> This complete dismissal of black performers as possibilities shows a mentality that is so consumed by the \u201cus\u201d that the \u201cthem\u201d does not even exist as an option\u2014that they\u2019re simply unmentioned speaks volumes.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the surface, these three sources have very different views of black minstrel performers. All three, though, prove to be ultimately based in the same mentality that black performers are a \u201cthem\u201d distinctly \u201cother\u201d from a white \u201cus.\u201d This mentality existing underneath and across such difference shows how widespread and ingrained this mentality was during the height of minstrelsy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

1 <\/a>Freeman<\/span><\/i>\u00a0(Indianapolis, Indiana), March 8, 1890: 5. <\/span>Readex: African American Newspapers<\/span><\/i>. https:\/\/infoweb.newsbank.com\/apps\/readex\/doc?p=EANAAA&docref=image\/v2:12B28495A8DAB1C8@EANAAA-12BC6A86252E2C58@2411435-12BC14F72F342EC8@4<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

2 <\/a>Cleveland Gazette<\/span><\/i>\u00a0(Cleveland, Ohio), December 22, 1883: 2. <\/span>Readex: African American Newspapers<\/span><\/i>. https:\/\/infoweb.newsbank.com\/apps\/readex\/doc?p=EANAAA&docref=image\/v2:12B716FE88B82998@EANAAA-12CC2D3DD2BAB938@2409167-12CBE5C758F47D20@1<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

3 <\/a>Rossiter, Harold. <\/span>How to Put On a Minstrel Show<\/span><\/i>. Chicago: Max Stein Publishing House, 1921. https:\/\/infoweb.newsbank.com\/iw-search\/we\/Evans\/?p_product=EAIX&p_theme=eai&p_nbid=M4FE57BMMTU3MDA2NjY5OS4zMzQ1MzU6MToxNDoxOTkuOTEuMTgwLjE5Nw&p_action=doc&p_queryname=page3&f_qdnum=6&f_qrnum=543&f_qname=8&f_qnext=v2%3A13D59FCC0F7F54B8%40EAIX-147E02DCC3485118%408215&f_qprev=v2%3A13D59FCC0F7F54B8%40EAIX-147E02BD74B69930%402721&p_docref=v2:13D59FCC0F7F54B8@EAIX-154E9B0050389E50@S1879-1606D6241581936C@0<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my search for primary sources, I came across three commentaries on minstrelsy that held very different views of black performers. Despite their differences, though, they all gave clear examples of an \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d mentality\u2014a white \u201cus\u201d viewing a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3314,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[581,1159,1048,172],"class_list":["post-4106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-african-american","tag-african-american-musicians","tag-black-minstrels","tag-minstrelsy"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-14e","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4106"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4889,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106\/revisions\/4889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}