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Darkest America

  • ISBN: 0393070980

Highlights

Similarly, the less educated the master, the less intelligent the slave had to appear, so as to remain the master’s inferior while keeping him amused; and since American slave owners were usually less educated than Europeans, the kind of comedy that arose in American life featured a more dim-witted fool than had ever been seen on stage before. Every idiocy had to be exaggerated for effect, from misuse of language to physical ineptitude. ^ref-23001

1865, ^ref-4097

Again and again, critics noted that black minstrelsy was not a show; it was a display of natural impulses. ^ref-39356

appellation in its most pejorative sense. ^ref-61623

, upped the ante with an ^ref-3942

By 1954 criticism of the Zulus as minstrels had grown. Manuel Wilson, Zulu king that year, announced: “Zulu is going to be modern from the word go. Some of our folks have been kicking about how the parade . . . is a disgrace to the Negroes. So . . . we’re going to be a comic strip right on.” The next year a new king appeared wearing silk clothes and no blackface; as soon as more traditional members saw this, they hurriedly painted his face, and did so again when he wiped it off. ^ref-17710

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