From: garym@mcgath.com   
      
   On 3/31/24 11:36 AM, Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:   
   > Is TCM having a theme of blackface and racial stereotypes this   
   > month?   We have:   
   >   
   > THE TEAHOUSE OF THE AUGUST MOON (1956): A combination of   
   > progressiveness (interracial romance) on one hand, and racial   
   > stereotypying and yellowface (Marlon Brando as a Japanese) on the   
   > other.   
      
   It annoys me whenever I see the term "blackface" used in a trivial way.   
   Blackface was a device used by the minstrel shows of the 19th century.   
   It isn't simply dark makeup, but _caricature_. You can see it, for   
   example, in the final scene of the 1927 _The Jazz Singer_. In the   
   minstrel shows, it was part of a shtick which made black people objects   
   of ridicule. "Coon songs," sung in fake dialect, generally went along   
   with it. Even black performers sometimes had to wear that makeup, which   
   helps to show that it wasn't just to make the actors look like black   
   people.   
      
   Using terms like "blackface," "yellowface," etc. for makeup that simply   
   alters a performer's skin tone trivializes what it was.   
      
   --   
   Gary McGath    http://www.mcgath.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)