Blackface

Blackface and darky iconography

The darky icon itself—googly-eyed, with inky skin; exaggerated white, pink or red lips; and bright, white teeth—became a common motif first in the U.S., then worldwide, in entertainment, children's literature, mechanical banks and other toys and games of all sorts, cartoons and comic strips, advertisements, jewelry, textiles, postcards, sheet music, food branding and packaging, and other consumer goods.

Related Topics:
Googly-eyed - Cartoons - Comic strips - Branding

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In 1895, the Golliwogg surfaced in Great Britain, the product of American-born children's book illustrator Florence Kate Upton, who modelled her ragdoll character Golliwogg after a minstrel doll she had in the U.S. as a child. "Golly", as he later affectionately came to be called, had a typically jet-black face; wild, wooly hair; bright, red lips; and sported formal minstrel attire. The generic, British golliwog later made its way back across the Atlantic as dolls, toy tea sets, ladies' perfume and in a myriad of other forms; and, it is believed, contributed the ethnic slur wog to the English lexicon.

Related Topics:
1895 - Golliwogg - Great Britain - Florence Kate Upton - Atlantic - Ethnic slur - Wog - English - Lexicon

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American darky images and Upton's minstrel-doll-inspired Golliwogg had a profound influence on the way blacks were depicted worldwide. Black and white minstrel troupes toured Europe and were somewhat successful for a time. As in the U.S., there was a history of involvement in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and an ongoing European colonial presence in Africa and the Caribbean, as well. Shared notions of white supremacy contributed to the popularity of darky iconography, which proliferated on both sides of the Atlantic.

Related Topics:
Trans-Atlantic slave trade - Colonial - Africa - Caribbean - White supremacy

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Unlike in the United States, however, in Europe and Asia, scant resident populations of people of black African descent posed little challenge to the racist attitudes of the day. As a result, blackface and darky iconography and the stereotypes they perpetuated prompted no notable objections and, consequently, sensibilities regarding them often have been very different from those in America. For Europeans and Asians, many of whom had never seen a black person in the flesh before World War II, the racist iconography of the blackface darky — grotesque caricatures born of whites ridiculing blacks — as in the United States, became '. Internationally, darky icons proliferated far beyond the minstrel stage and, for many nonblacks, became reified in the human beings they denigrated. The grinning, pop-eyed distortions acquired a life of their own. By the 1920s and '30s, for example, French posters advertising performances by even respected and beloved performers like Josephine Baker and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson routinely were in the darky mold. After the Second World War, Japan flooded the U.S. with darky and mammy kitchenware, ashtrays, toys, and ceramics.

Related Topics:
Asia - America - Asians - World War II - 1920s - '30s - French - Josephine Baker - Bill "Bojangles" Robinson - Japan - Mammy

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U.S. cartoons from the 1930s and 1940s often featured characters in blackface gags as well as other racial caricatures. Blackface was one of the influences in the development of characters like Mickey Mouse. The United Artists 1933 release "The Mellerdrammer" — the name a corruption of "melodrama" thought to harken back to the earliest minstrel shows — was a film short based on Uncle Tom's Cabin. Mickey, of course, was already black; but for this role he was depicted with exaggerated, orange lips; bushy, white sidewhiskers; and, of course, his now trademark white gloves.

Related Topics:
1930s - 1940s - Caricatures - Mickey Mouse - United Artists - 1933 - Melodrama

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In the U.S., by the 1950s, the NAACP had begun calling attention to such demeaning portrayals of African Americans and mounted a campaign to put an end to blackface performances and depictions. For decades, darky images had been ubiquitous, particularly in the branding of everyday products and commodities such as Picaninny Freeze ice cream, the Coon Chicken Inn restaurant chain and the like. With the eventual successes of the modern day Civil Rights Movement, such blatantly racist branding practices ended in the U.S., and blackface became an American taboo.

Related Topics:
1950s - NAACP - Picaninny - Ice cream - Chain - Civil Rights Movement - Taboo

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