racechange: blackface & yellowface

Racechange: blackface & yellowface

These are makeups where the character is intended to be seen as a white person in blackface or yellowface: the minstrel show or vaudeville, or a character in fancy-dress would be typical examples.

But they are not only non-realistic makeups – most of them are demeaning caricatures.Thankfully, their day is pretty well past, and where they have turned up recently it is mostly either in movies with a period setting (eg the ‘Moor’ at a 1930s Spanish fiesta in Belle Epoque) or to make a deliberate statement (eg Manderlay).

Even black actresses and singers have appeared in blackface (eg Josephine Baker).

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