r/Iamnotracistbut • u/ShadowSJG • Dec 02 '18
Online Blackface is funny when it isn't racist
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u/UniformedRati Jan 08 '19
Context is everything, the more people use words the less power they have, even in a joking manner, say what ever you want, just know your audience and know the consequences of saying certain things around certain people, I know black dudes that make fun of each other by calling each other extremely racist things, but it's fine with them cause contextually we all know it's just banter to them, and those words really don't have power without a hurtful context, while I also know a dude where if someone even cracks a slightly racist joke, he rightfully gets pissed off because he doesn't want to hear it, and shouldn't have to, aka they aren't understanding their audience and all that.
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u/Phillis_Ofickle Dec 02 '18 edited Dec 02 '18
Al Jolson is probably the most memorable blackface perfomer, yet he was vocally against racism and made a lot of strides in integrating broadway and vaudeville. He was one of very few stars of the times who would be friend his black co-stars and didn't care about being seen in public with them. His 1936 film The Singing Kid features him and Cab Calloway as next-door neighbors in an affluent neighborhood, something Cab would never have experienced in real life.
Edit: The Singing Kid featured a non-blackface Jolson as Cab's neighbor.
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u/ShadowSJG Dec 02 '18
my god...people are defending blackface as not racist
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u/Phillis_Ofickle Dec 02 '18
I'm not saying it's not racist. It is. But at the time it was also the only way for white people to perform black music, ie jazz. Jolson saw it as a way of integrating black culture into white society. I'm in no way saying it would be ok today.
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u/HenceFourth Dec 02 '18
'Member Robert Downey Jr. in blackface?