Humanity Blackface Minstrel Show Paper Discussion Topic:
In “Jump, Jim Crow,” W.T. Lhamon, Jr. makes the case that “imitating perceived blackness is arguably
the central metaphor for what it is to be an American.
Insofar as blackface is racist, it deserves condemnation.

But insofar as it also gives evident form to such countertendencies
as cross-racial attraction or mutuality of class,
it requires commentary and explanation.”

Humanity Blackface Minstrel Show Discussion

Discuss the implications of such a claim, as well as what it says about the way we interact as a culture.
Talk about the validity of the statement, cite ways that it has played out in our music both in a historical sense, ways in which it continues to be the
case, and ways that you have personally experienced it to be true.
Support your thesis with at least 3 outside sources.
W.T. Lhamon and the author of the book you are reading may account for 2 of those 3 sources.
Also cite at least 2 recorded examples, one from prior to 1950, and the other from after 1950.

Humanity Blackface Minstrel Show Sources of Reference

– In the sources, these two quotes must be in the paper :
1. “The minstrel show was, on the one hand, a socially approved context of institutional control; and, on the other, it continually acknowledged and absorbed black culture even while defending white America against it” (Love & Theft by Eric Lott)
2. “imitating perceived blackness is arguably the central metaphor for what it is to be an American. Insofar as blackface is racist, it deserves condemnation.
But insofar as it also gives evident form to such countertendencies as cross-racial attraction or mutuality of class, it requires commentary and explanation.” (Jump, Jim Crow by W.T. Lhamon, Jr.)
– It has to have the footnotes and bibliography