Modern Day Minstrelsy: A More Subtle Microaggression

On a nice evening in the 1830s, urban white families filled theatres to watch a new, exciting subgenre of entertainment premiere. The viewers sat comfortably in their seats while actors put on amusing shows that were sure to fill their audiences with joy. However, these were not simply performances that retold folktales or presented enlightening ideas, but ones that told a narrative of the degradation and humiliation of African Americans and the black experience as a whole—minstrel shows. 

Minstrelsy was a form of entertainment involving racist dance numbers, comedic skits, and music showcased through false depictions of African American people (mostly using blackface). They mocked black physical traits and presented black people as “lazy, ignorant, superstitious, hypersexual, and prone to thievery and cowardice,” according to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. 

Although something of the past, like many historical events the effects of the harmful cultural norms at the time are still seen today, usually taking different forms. In comparison to the current day, this lack of respect for black people is still prevalent, from mocking the way some black people speak to physical traits and culture in general. While these effects are not as intensely offensive as minstrel shows were in the 19th and 20th centuries, they are still inherently microaggressive and rooted in racism and colorism, leading to the overall trivialization of black Americans. 

AAVE

These microaggressions are seen in memes (usually in the form of reaction pictures and videos, forms of media used to portray specific emotions), but mostly in the form of speech with the (mostly incorrect) use of African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). Terms like “chile,” “period/purr,” “finna,” “lit,” deada**,” and replacing the ‘th’ in most articles like “doe”, “dat”, and “dis” (though, that, this) are all a part of AAVE. Not only do some non-black people tend to use these terms incorrectly, but it has instead been misnomered as “Tik-Tok language” or “Gen-Z language”.

People will use these terms in a certain accent popular with AAVE to add comedic value, but fail to understand that these are not just funny-sounding words, but vocabulary belonging to a distinguished dialect. While these videos of black people using this language sometimes happen to contain entertaining/comedic content, non-black tend to focus on the ‘absurdity’ of the language used as the ‘joke’.

One of the main problems with this is the hypocrisy, as this language was made fun of for being ‘ghetto’ and ‘improper’ before it got popular (which is sadly common for a lot of aspects of black culture). To many non-black people, AAVE was the language of the uneducated and synonymous with rowdy, rude, unkempt, and sluggish—the same way black people have been described for centuries. But when non-black people, specifically white people, speak this way, it isn’t seen in the same light. This correlation to the attitude of the crude nature of minstrelsy reflects the continuous lack of respect for African Americans by holding onto these stereotypes. 

“The whole idea of a stereotype is to simplify,” Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe said, and by actively participating in black stereotypes it reduces the African American experience to ‘funny’ facial features and actions; it insinuates that the purpose of blackness is to entertain and be utilized as a prop. African Americans have a formative impact on American culture, in the same way that black history is American history. 

Modern Examples

In the era of Vine, 2013-16,  black creators like KingBach and Marlon Web dominated the app through stereotypical racial rhetoric. There was a trend, “Black people be like vs White people be like”, which showcased the dichotomy between black people’s and white people’s reactions to certain situations. What was seen at first as content made to appreciate the differences, quickly became harmful as it portrayed white people as neat, orderly, and sophisticated and black people as watermelon/fried chicken-fiending, loud, and uneducated, creatures. Although black themselves, Kingbach and Webb profited off these stereotypes financially but normalized the microaggressive disposition of minstrelsy. This caused many of their non-black fellow creators to profit off these jokes as well, setting a narrative that those types of jokes were okay.

Today, although many have acknowledged the damage those stereotypical videos caused, African Americans, especially African American women are still looked down upon whether in real-life situations or the media. In TV there is the ‘black best friend’ stereotype usually played by plus-sized black women that are the side characters. They are only there to add ‘sassiness’ and ‘overconfidence’ through comic-relief or fashion advice—yet another stereotype for black women. On social media, this is seen through idolizing black female celebrities like Megan Thee Stallion, Nicki Minaj, etc., and finding videos of them talking about the most mundane things hilarious. In our day-to-day lives, it is switching to your version of AAVE when speaking to a black person to ‘appeal’ to them; it simply looks like mockery. 

If these points may have stressed or angered you, rather than seeing this as another grievance to add to a list of reasons why ‘comedy is dead’ or how “The world is too sensitive now; these people wouldn’t have stood a chance in ____,”, take this as a chance to reflect on why comedy was strictly racial/offensive jokes to you. Impactful entertainment takes genuine creativity, diversity, and passion—some things that certain jokes on current-day social media, content on Vine, and the wicked and vile nature of minstrelsy missed.

• Ashley Edwards
• BlackHistoryMonth
• dark humor
• hcgsu
• HCXO
• Minstrel
• Minstrelsy
• stereotypes