Some Thoughts on Blackface · 10:13pm Jun 23rd, 2013
With all of the technological advancements our society has today, it's easy to forget how relatively new everything is.
One-hundred years ago, we didn't have talking pictures. The first movie with sound came out in 1927. It was known as "The Jazz Singer" and starred Al Jolson. It deserves to be remembered as a culturally-significant film, even if some of the practices featured in the movie would be seen as insensitive today.
The film revolves around Al Jolson's character ,Jack, who rejects his Jewish tradition in favor of life as a jazz singer. He does this by performing in blackface as part of the minstrel show tradition. 
Jack becomes famous, much to the disapproval of his parents. They wanted their son to follow in his father's footsteps and sing Jewish hymns instead of modern jazz.
One day, his father becomes gravely ill and Jack is forced to choose between the show and duty to his family and faith. In order to sing the Kol Nidre for Yom Kippur in his father's place, Jack would have to miss his big premiere.
Al Jolson became the literal poster boy for blackface.
While other stars of the early 20th century - from Shirley Temple to Bing Crosby - donned blackface for various roles, Jolson embraced blackface as the defining element of his public persona. From vaudeville to the silver screen, Jolson brought his minstrel makeup kit with him. Although he frequently performed without burnt cork, it is the image of Jolson's black face and white-gloved outstretched palms that lives on in popular memory. 
In Culver City, California, the Hillside Memorial Park contains a Jewish Cemetery, which inters many deseased Jewish celebrities, including Al Jolson. In a monument dedicated to his memory, Al Jolson is depicted on bended knee with his outstretched hands; an iconic position from the Jazz Singer.
It's ironic that Jolson is derided for his insensitivity towards race. In actuality, his career was distinguished by being more sensitive to these matters than the vast majority of other stars at the time. For example, when Jolson sings "My Mammy" in blackface toward the close of "The Jazz Singer," the symbolic resonance is deeper than the stereotyped image might suggest. The scene comes when Jack is singing to his own mother, Sara, who's in the audience, and deals more directly with the issues of family tension and acceptance than with any attempt to demean African Americans.
Jolson's use of blackface in the Jazz Singer is unique in that it's one of the only times in early cinema where blackface is central to the narrative development of the story, instead of a source of cheap comedy. This proved to be the exception, as African stereotypes were rampant in the early days of cinema.
Why do I bring this up? Because I found a parallel I'd like to draw from My Little Pony. My personal headcanon is that Cranky Doodle Donkey is the Equestrian version of Al Jolson.
He can identify with Pinkie Pie because they both love to make ponies smile. Where they differed was Cranky entertaining through racially-insensitive comedy.
Who here has ever heard of a Tijuana Zebra? 
Donkeys painted with stripes have been popular tourist attractions in Tijuana, Mexico since the 1940s.
My headcanon is that when Cranky Doodle Donkey was younger, he would sing and dance on stage while performing in "stripeface." His stage career allowed him to travel all over Equestria, in hopes of reuniting with Matilda. 
The crowds would cheer his performance, but Cranky didn't care about the fame. The only thing that mattered was finding his lost love. At each performance, the crowd would get larger and larger. While on stage, he would scan the audience for Matilda, in the hopes that she had come to see his act; but he could never find her there.
As Cranky grew older, public opinion regarding stripeface shifted. It was now considered offensive and racist towards zebras. The crowds grew smaller to the point where Cranky couldn't book a venue for his stripeface routine. Cranky was eventually forced to retire from show business. 
I think this has potential for a great story. Pinkie Pie finds Cranky's scrapbook and learns that he was a stage performer. Pinkie Pie is her usual naive self. She thinks it's hilarious that Cranky performed in stripeface and doesn't even consider the possibility that it might offend somepony. Cranky is embarrassed about it, but Pinkie Pie encourages him to perform again. Pinkie Pie's motivational speech would be like something from Singing in the Rain.
Cranky agrees to do it and paints himself like a zebra. Unfortunately, the crowd wasn't mentally-prepared for him to appear in stripeface, and subsequently boos Cranky off stage. He's humiliated, so it's up to Pinkie to set things right.
Pinkie Pie goes to Zecora and asks for her help. Together, they help teach Ponyville that when it comes to race, being overly-sensitive can be just as bad as being insensitive.
I would love to write this story someday. In the meantime, I just thought I'd put the idea out there.
Blackface is one of the only taboos left in our society. In order to pull it off today, you'd need to have the raw charisma of Robert Downey Jr.
I need a hug.
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In Japan, girls practice in ganguro, which is the practice of darkening their skin to look black.
i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp19/pinkpandachan16/---style---/ganguro-girl-phone.jpg
While in the US this would be seen as racist, the girls of Japan do it in admiration of the look black females in media portray today.
1163342 Thanks. I mean it.
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Can't forget about racism in Pokemon!
i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/3244036096/hC43FA394/
1163399 Don't make me bust out all 3 episodes of Game Theory on that.
I read that the Swahili word for zebra mean "striped donkey."
Dude, seriously. Stop doing whatever you're doing and write this story. It contains a lesson I feel needs to be taught. There need to be more fanfics that teach life lessons a grownup could use. Honestly, I'd be more than a little terrified to write something of this magnitude, but you? You got the chops for it.
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Makes me wish we could see these kinds of stories on the actual series.
The comics tend to skew a little older... maybe we could see some more mature topics handled in that medium.
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1163456 Don't forget Popo.
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(whew) Racism averted!
1163473 Not enough they shrunk his lips.
4Kids made him a smurf with scurvy.
I'm in a college, studying film to become a cinematographer.
This shit is fucking relative to my interests.
~Skeeter The Lurker
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Actually, it has nothing to do with black women. It's a rejection of the classic ideals of Japanese beauty: complete and total whiteness (thus the makeup that maiko wear).
Also, it's old as fuck and has pretty much died out (sure, you'll find some people still doing it, but that's true of pretty much everything.)
You could give it an additional twist by including antiasite sentiment. As both a donkey and a zebra he is considered an unpleasant oddity, something only fit for the stage, and when the stage no longer allows his stripe-face routine he is left completely without a place.
A lot of famous blackface performers (and cartoonists, reference Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarves) had friends and associates within the black communities, so having Zecora know Cranky might also be a fun touch.
static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blackface_3910.jpg
Always wanted to know where this picture originated from. Thanks for the insight.
WHERE DO YOU GET THESE PICS?!
You set that up so well... I actually wasn't even looking at it in any offensive manner since those days people were just that ignorant. And racist. But the story of Al Johnson was a pretty legitimate story imo. To make that into a pony fanfiction? Honestly, I think you could pull it off!
Do write it someday, because I doubt anyone else will =(
Every time I figure the place is going back to 4chan shenanigans and cheap toilet bowl comedy, something like this... this comes out of nowhere and smashes me upside the brainbox like a piece of 2 by 4 lumber, linking what is essentially a kids cartoon show to some deep sociological or economic issue that's been plaguing us for decades-- and it makes utterly perfect sense with crystal clear clarity. It's frightening almost.
I sometimes wonder if Laura Faust ever had an inkling, the slightest peek into what she instigated when she came up with this reboot to that saccharine tripe designed to sell toys from the 80's called "My Little Pony". Did she know this in advance, placing the chess pieces on the board, knowing how they'll play out years in advance like her alter ego, Celestia?
Augh! I need a new tinfoil hat, mine's all worn out and shredded.
It's funny how the animation in my country (Cuba), what would be considered "racially insensitive" is seen as completely acceptable:
planb.com.co/upload/images/2012/7/16/54117_84355_2.jpg
Groups of kids running around the neighborhood are generally mixed and it would not be out of the question for them to all sit around the TV and look at the various racial-stereotype-characters and laugh, cause it's fucking funny.
It is rather common for one white Cuban to call to a black Cuban with a "Oye negro/negra" (hey negro/blackie) or a black Cuban to call to light skinned one "Oye rubio/rubia" (hey blondie), or either one to holler at an Asian one regardless of heritage "Oye chino" (hey chinese/chink) it really doesn't feel like there is any racial tension at all. The words are not loaded in any way, because we simply don't see/use them as derogatory in any way. They are simply descriptive of the color of one's skin or in the case of chino: slanted eyes, and these are just some major examples, racism in Cuba? I never felt disrespected/discriminated against till I came to the U.S. The first time I was called nigger was in N.H. I can't think of an equivalent word used in my country.
I also find ridiculous how stereotypes are OK when they are referenced to white people. Watch any black comedy show.
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Thank you so much for the feedback! I greatly appreciate having your perspective on this issue.
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I'm drawn to the race angle because the original Zecora episode was the first one I watched of the series. When I learned that there was an episode of My Little Pony which dealt with racial prejudice and fear-mongering, my interest was piqued.
The rest, as they say, was history.
Thanks for the feedback.
static.tapastic.com/cartoons/b8/6c/fa/29/deb0dece6c714091b7ed863040ab0e9c.jpg
This may sound weird, but am I the only person who finds young Matilda attractive with that cute ponytail?
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Well done sir. You have succeeded in opening up a new avenue of thought and intellectual pursuit in my mind. The joy that this spindle of ideation brings me is quite brilliant, and I do so wish to see it come to fruition. I believe that this story has a remarkable potential, and should be pursued. It's greatness boils down to it's core theme, which is, as you mentioned, how over-sensitivity can be harmful rather than productive. Also contributing would be the idea's correlation with Cranky's storyline, and it's equivalence with a great theatrical performance of which you have also spurred me onto. I shall indeed have to watch that film at some point in the near future.
For you I award five Big Macs and five moustaches.
Also as a side note, if you might want some assistance in writing this fiction, I would be glad to oblige.
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Thank you for the offer to assist i writing this fic. I may take you up on it at some point, as I'm unfortunately too busy with other projects at the moment to tackle anything new.
Perhaps I just... don't get this, but from a different perspective. I can never get the "it's offensive but stop being offended" thing. I think my position as a minority, though not a local minority, affects this somewhat.
Some part of me, perhaps my general dislike for a lot of the postmodernist and relativist rhetoric, feels that this is all a semi-conscious joke. It all has the feel of people getting amused by a childish, tittering desire to be "transgressive" as it shocks and scandalizes the sensibilities. When i see something that I can interpret like that it just makes me disdain the perpetrators because I can see they're just being childish dicks, which makes society worse simply because they pollute it. I can see "commentary" arguments, and perhaps historical arguments, so there are a lot of gray areas (I have disdain for things like cultural relativism, I do not deny that ambiguity exists.)
Thing is, I'm not as happy and positive over this like you are. I can't just smile and cheer because someone wants to make a "statement." I feel disgusted and uncomfortable. I'd feel the same if some guy painted themselves brown, threw on a sombrero and serape and started slouching about and singing bullshit Spanish or mushmouthing through talk about tacos and tequila.
But it might be me. I might be the outsider freak that is not suited for this modern world where being offended is a cultural crime.
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One thing regarding blackface. It wasn't just for Caucasians. There were African-Americans who performed in minstrel shows and donned black face. One such entertainer was Bert Williams, a Stanford graduate who starred in the Ziegfeld Follies from 1910 through 1919. Booker T. Washington once said that Williams "has done more for our race than I have. He has smiled his way into people's hearts."
It helps to think of minstrelsy in general and blackface in particular as a mask, one that rightly or wrongly allowed a performer to say things about black culture that wouldn't be accepted otherwise.
At first, only whites were allowed to wear the mask. Then African-American artists began to put it on because it was the only mask available. The difference is that they were able to represent their ethnicity in a more genuine was than white performers. They were also earning a living in front of black and white audiences - American audiences. They were being heard.
Blackface was a mask anyone could wear and thereby earn entry to America's cultural banquet. An immigrant Jew, for instance, couldn't expect Yiddish songs of comedy and suffering to be heard very far from Manhattan's Lower East Side, but in burnt cork, the pain could be understood by everyone.
I don't support those who don blackface today for shock value, nor do I appreciate the hurtful stereotypes of the past. I just think that if one completely dismisses blackface, we might forget the influence it played in allowing minorities to be heard in the early days of cinema; even if it was behind a mask.
Thanks for your input.
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Oh I understand in the abstract. You are right about it being a mask, and a sometimes-necessary one. My favorite examples are (of course) from Shakespeare such as the titular Othello or Aaron in "Titus Andronicus." Then it gets into the really, really sticky and thorny territory that a lot of critical theorists get into, that is could a non-member of an ethnic group ever write about or in the persona of a member of that group and be accurate or authentic? In the main I don't think about this. As a fiction writer I mostly focus on entertainment and sometimes edification. Ethnicities are used for certain purposes rather than for authenticity. When I write Romani Trixie I am not trying to claim understanding of or inclusion in Romani culture but I am creating a character that tries to be somewhat genuine and has a purpose as that ethnicity. This is also true of Irish Gilda, and (hopefully) lapsed-Amish Pinkie. At that point it gets murky and I stop being able to say things concretely.
The morale ought to be that black/stripe face doesn't always have racial offensive intentions, and that we should peel back the layers and history of what we find offensive (as you often do in these blog posts), as opposed to "don't get your underwear in a bunch". Otherwise, the message you could be sending is that just because one member of a minority finds an action acceptable, it's okay to practice it with a sense of justification without fear of criticism. One person cannot speak for a society or people; not even Jesse Jackson.
To attribute absolute truth behind one individual and project their mindset is another form of stereotyping.