Conversations about Blackface, when white people darken their skin to perform exaggerated versions of nonwhite characters, often centers on the historical when it comes to the media’s role in…
In short, says academic and author Ayanna Thompson, the continued prevalence of Blackface — both in content and old images of prominent figures — is not so easily explained away by heartfelt apologies and warning labels on classic movies.
In 2012, when my son was in the third grade, he had to do a research project where the students had to pick a famous person from history and present as that person. My son was William Shakespeare, and my little brown son was not in white face. That would never have occurred to him or to me. There were three [white] 8-year-olds in Blackface, performing their heroes Martin Luther King, Serena Williams and Arthur Ashe. I could not believe it.
One of the most interesting things in the book is a concept you introduce called “white innocence,” can you unpack that? White innocence is, “I love Black people, I love Black culture.” This was also Governor Ralph Northam, when he. This idea that you can celebrate Black culture, Black heroes, identities by putting on Black makeup. On some weird unconscious level, that patches into some hundreds of years old history, that to be a Black character in a play or a film is actually to be a white person performing that. That’s where white innocence stems from.
You really saw it hugely right before and right after Barack Obama’s election. I think it had the same ethos of “We are post racial and racist.”
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