Performing Race

In order to understand the act of performing race, we must look to the past and see its beginnings.  I am, of course, talking about black face minstrel shows that were popular at the turn of the century.  The minstrel show was a form of entertainment in America that featured white Americans in blackface performing comedic skits, singing and dancing.  Wikipedia.com defines minstrel shows as, "Minstrel shows portrayed and lampooned blacks in stereotypical and often disparaging ways as: ignorant, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, joyous and musical." Now while wikipedia.com might not be considered the most accurate of sited, this was the only site with a definition that states how these shows portrayed blacks.  This point in and of itself speaks as a sign as to what black performers have faced over the years, and the obstacles that they had to over come.  By the nineteenth century minstrel shows would rise up as the most popular form of entertainment in the United States, attracting many viewers, including its biggest fan, Abraham Lincoln (Coleman, Class lecture).  

      Out of these minstrel shows came the Jim Crow character.  A minstrel show entertain, Thomas Dartmouth Rise or "Daddy Rice,"  created the character Jim Crow as a caricature of a black person.  Crow was successful in devaluing black people.  As long as minstrel shows were entertaining to white people, Jim Crow  was looked at as inferior to white people and looked upon as a different 'breed' of human (Davis PhD, L.F.  Creating).  Jim Crow would later become synonymous with the segregation laws in America.  

   When thinking about the Jim Crow character we tend to think that it has long ago pasted us and is no longer in place in our everyday lives.  I, however, believe that this character can be seen today in different performances.  Jim Crow and other minstrel characters were seen as entertaining, but mostly entertaining to white people.  The reason for this is that this character was invented specifically to entertain the white scopophlic gaze.  This means to satisfy the white eye that is looking at the entertainment.  Meaning that the entertainment is strictly for the white audience, even if this is at the expense or disparaging to black people.  Now there are a lot of ways one can perform race, but I think that the most important way in which they perform race is when they perform their race in order to gain recognition.  This can cause serious problems because people no longer feel that being themselves is good enough, but they need to 'act' as someone else.  This is once again satisfying the white scopophlic gaze.