minstrel show

(noun)

A variety show performed by white people in blackface that portrayed black men as stupid and lazy and black women as rotund and genial.

Related Terms

  • department store
  • blackface

(noun)

A variety show performed by white people in blackface. These shows portrayed black men as stupid and lazy and black women as rotund and genial.

Related Terms

  • department store
  • blackface

Examples of minstrel show in the following topics:

  • Minstrel Shows

    • Minstrel shows originated in the early 1830s as brief burlesques with comic interludes and evolved into a national theatrical art form within the next decade, superseding less accessible genres such as opera for the general populace.
    • Early American popular music consisted of sentimental parlor songs and minstrel-show music, some of which remains in rotation to this day.
    • Many minstrel songs and routines were depicted as authentically African American; however, this often was not the case.
    • By the turn of the twentieth century, the minstrel show enjoyed but a shadow of its former popularity, having been replaced for the most part by vaudeville.
    • An illustration from the playbill for a minstrel show, highlighting singing and dancing by actors in blackface.
  • Popular Culture

    • Minstrel shows were plays acted by white men wearing a black face (in imitation of African-Americans).
    • Rice was called the "Father of American Minstrelsy. " Characters played by these minstrels, such as Uncle Ned and Zip Coon, portrayed African-American males as stupid and lazy.
    • This reproduction of a 1900 minstrel show poster, originally published by the Strobridge Litho Co., shows the blackface transformation from white to "black. "
  • Conclusion: The State of Slavery before the War

    • White actors often performed minstrel shows while wearing "blackface," or exaggerated black makeup.
    • The shows portrayed black men as stupid and lazy and black women as rotund and genial.
    • For several decades, and despite their strong racist overtones, these shows provided the lens through which white Americans viewed black Americans.
  • Cheap Amusements

    • American Burlesque is a genre of variety show.
    • Derived from elements of Victorian burlesque, music hall and minstrel shows, burlesque shows in America became popular in the 1860s and evolved to feature ribald comedy such as lewd jokes and female striptease.
    • By the late 1930s, a social crackdown on burlesque shows began their gradual downfall.
    • Types of acts included popular and classical musicians, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, impersonators, acrobats, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels, and movies.
    • Poster of U.S. burlesque show, 1898, showing a woman in outfit with low neckline and short skirts holding a number of upper-class men "on the string."
  • The Harlem Renaissance

    • They rejected the stereotypes of the blackface and minstrel show traditions.
    • Musicians at the time including Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton, and Willie "The Lion" Smith showed great talent and competitiveness and were considered to have laid the foundation for future musicians of their genre.
  • Vaudeville

    • Types of acts included popular and classical musicians, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, impersonators, acrobats, illustrated songs, jugglers, one-act plays or scenes from plays, athletes, lecturing celebrities, minstrels, and movies.
    • Vaudeville had many influences, including the concert saloon, minstrelsy, freak shows, dime museums, and literary burlesque.
    • Called "the heart of American show business," vaudeville was one of the most popular types of entertainment in North America for several decades.
    • Hoping to draw a potential audience from female and family-based shopping traffic uptown, Pastor barred the sale of liquor in his theatres, eliminated bawdy material from his shows, and offered gifts of coal and hams to attendees.
    • He incorporated them in his shows as early as 1902.
  • Intellectual Life

    • This culture was expressed in the vernacular languages rather than Latin, and comprised poems, stories, legends, and popular songs spread by troubadours, or wandering minstrels.
  • The Armory Show

    • The Armory Show of 1913 displayed the work of European avant-garde artists alongside their American counterparts.
    • The Armory Show was the first exhibition organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors.
    • Criticism aside, civil authorities did not interfere with the show.
    • Gutzon Borglum, one of the early organizers of the show, labeled this piece "A staircase descending a nude," while J.
    • There have been many exhibitions throughout the 20th century that celebrated the show's legacy.
  • 3D Plots

    • Just as two-dimensional scatter plots show the data in two dimensions, 3D plots show data in three dimensions.
    • Figure 1 shows a 3D scatter plot of the fat, non-sugar carbohydrates, and calories from a variety of cereal types.
    • A 3D scatter plot showing fat, non-sugar carbohydrates, and calories from a variety of cereal types
    • An alternative 3D scatter plot showing fat, non-sugar carbohydrates, and calories.
  • Dot Plots

    • The dot plot in Figure 3 shows the number of people playing on a Sunday and on a Wednesday.
    • A dot plot showing the number of M & M's of various colors in a bag of M & M's.
    • A dot plot showing the number of people playing various card games on a Wednesday.
    • A dot plot showing the number of people playing various card games on a Sunday and on a Wednesday.
    • An alternate way of showing the number of people playing various card games on a Sunday and on a Wednesday.
Subjects
  • Accounting
  • Algebra
  • Art History
  • Biology
  • Business
  • Calculus
  • Chemistry
  • Communications
  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Microbiology
  • Physics
  • Physiology
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Statistics
  • U.S. History
  • World History
  • Writing

Except where noted, content and user contributions on this site are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 with attribution required.