Film Star: We Wear the Mask
Some of the first black stars came about through theater and minstrel music , what were known as "plantation songs" were written by both white and black musicians and featured white people "blacked up" as blacks, and later blacks "blacked up" as whites...playing blacks. Minstrelsy was the most popular form American entertainment for many years, revolutionizing music into what we hear today despite its overt racism. But there was more to the minstrel shows than what appeared on the surface, one particular dance that was shown at the minstrel shows was known as "the cake walk". The white people at the time found it hilarious to watch the black slaves doing this silly dance but what they didn't realize was that the cake walk was actually a dance made up by black people to imitate and make fun of the way white people dance. This became quite a complicated piece of comedy therefore when white's were blacked up on stage doing the cake walk and even more so when they were blacks pretending to be blacked up whites.
Some of the first black stars came about through theater and minstrel music , what were known as "plantation songs" were written by both white and black musicians and featured white people "blacked up" as blacks, and later blacks "blacked up" as whites...playing blacks. Minstrelsy was the most popular form American entertainment for many years, revolutionizing music into what we hear today despite its overt racism. But there was more to the minstrel shows than what appeared on the surface, one particular dance that was shown at the minstrel shows was known as "the cake walk". The white people at the time found it hilarious to watch the black slaves doing this silly dance but what they didn't realize was that the cake walk was actually a dance made up by black people to imitate and make fun of the way white people dance. This became quite a complicated piece of comedy therefore when white's were blacked up on stage doing the cake walk and even more so when they were blacks pretending to be blacked up whites.
|
|