This is a wonderful presentation on a difficult subject. However, rather than shy away from it, the presenter shared facts to not only tell the ugly side, but also of the strength, resiliency, and brilliance of black people to change the narrative and begin to tell their own stories. Again, well done.

The more I delve into our history, I am then compelled to ask the question: Have we ever been "Good Loving Christians" or "Good Satanic Hypocrites"??😔😢

Super interesting and well done video on the subject. Really puts things in context, and made me go "man, that was horrible, but I get why it happened." Dismissing uglier parts of history as random acts of human cruelty teaches us nothing. The early history of black theater was super neat as well, great to see how it all ties together. Do wish public reaction to it was covered a bit though, rather curious about that.

This is so shocking to me how so many jokes that are popular comes from minstrels (and I say this as someone who had little to no knowledge on that subject since we weren’t thought that in school, had to do my own researches). Thank you for talking about this!!

Thank you! I'm a high school teacher looking for materials that tell the truth. I will be showing this to my students. I can't wait for more!

This goes deep and this is disgusting. It’s crazy how normal it was. I don’t even know what to say

What an incredibly moving, thoughtful and well researched piece! Everyone should watch this - by being more informed of where we came from we can more successfully navigate the implications our past has in our current moment and moving forward to a more equitable and just future for all of us. Thank you so much for making this!

This video is so thoroughly researched and well presented. Kudos. I normally don't comment on KZfaq videos, but I was truly struck by how engaging the presenter has made this uncomfortable yet important material. And the production too! How do you not have more subscribers? If all your videos are of a similar quality, I am happy to add one!

I just saw your Tweet were you tagged me saying that you do a Premiere again 🥰 I was on when you did the Martin Luther king video ... LOVED IT .... and today im here again too ! It’s again a HUGE time difference but ... Im on vacation so .... IM EXCITED

Thanks so much! Will be directing students this wonderful presentation.

Why doesn't this video have 8 million views by now?

This was EXCELLENT! And all I have to say is that I didn’t learn nearly this much about Minstrelsy during my three years of required theatre history class during college for my BFA in Performance. I hope undergrad theatre programs are teaching students this. It’s so important. The whitewashed version is not acceptable. Janeece, you are just extraordinary!

Wonderful exploration of minstrel roots in our popular culture

Keep up the good work SIS thank you for the understanding !

Thank you Janeece for this very interesting, informative, and important video!

Extremely constructive information. Thank you for taking the time to produce this content.

Thank you for this video. It was quite interesting. I just wish it were longer! I could listen to this lady talk about theatre history for _hours!_ lol.

The Jamaican reggae group “The Abyssinian’s” have a song very similar to the Abyssinia song played here. It’s amazing how African Americans were able to take such a sick minded tradition based in mimicry and mockery and flip it into a tradition of empowerment.

I'm extremely grateful for your teaching and knowledge on this humiliating subject.🙏🏽💯

I am currently writing a blog and podcast episode about the Australian use of the words wog and coon and this was so incredibly helpful and informative. The podcast is coming out soon and it's called The Strength of Us and I will be linking this video in the show notes because I think that it so incredibly educational and important. Thank you so much for sharing this freely. Lisa.

I learned alot from this video. Thank you. I also appreciate how you didnt make it end in a sad or negative manner. You're teaching us anout black face and other things race involved without shame or anger. Its history.

I love that she’s being educational but also throwing shade in some parts

Shirley Verrett recorded Three Song by Thomas Pasatieri! Her recording of the Lullaby has been a huge inspiration for me for decades.

Excelente video!! saludos desde México !!

Wonderful presentation! 🙋🏾‍♀️🙋🏾‍♀️❤️🖤💚

Great doc, thanks for this from Italy

Thank you for this long form look at this history. People have no idea how important this entertainment tradition is to the way American comedy and entertainment developed. Not just theater but popular music, movies TV all have their roots in performance styles and tropes in minstrel shows. It's usually glossed over as "vaudeville". Bminstrel

i've recently been listening to old blues music, a type of music i haven't really given much of a try, at least the 20's and 30's stuff. I hear "glee" in blues for some reason

Loved this video!

You're fun to listen to, fun to watch ❤️❤️❤️

Who's looking back? I saw all of this in 1980's in Alabama but I had to sneak around as I was raised in the IBLP (duggar cult) where we were not allowed to see TV, film, radio, listen to music with a beat (it was too black), cut my hair, wear pants, speak in a church......

Great presentation!

Robert Downey Jr and Jimmy kimmel, and jesse lee peterson impersonate african Americans, damn well I might add..

What is so racist about Uncle Ben’s? He practically invented par cooked rice, he shouldn’t be cancelled.

Extremely informative, thank you!

Interesting historical perspective. Blackface performers simply adapted many of the techniques of the Commedia del'Arte. The dumb puns, jokes and slapstick antics were popular long, in fact centuries, before the minstrel show. The characters of Pulcinella, Pantalone and Pierrot are definite parallels to Mr. Bones, Tambo and Mr. Interlocutor. In Europe the comedy was based upon the aristocrats, magistrates and other members of the educated elites being made fun of and gotten the best of by ordinary simple folk. "Punch and Judy" puppet shows are another derivation of this early form of theater. Minstrel Shows like the Commedia del'Arte used exaggerated farce and satire to poke fun of the "masters". Clowns come from the same theatrical tradition. By the early 1800s the British stage had adopted many of the lame humor and slapstick to stage performance and a type of variety show including solo performers and small troupes. Blackface minstrelsy begins to dominate as an American comedic form in the mid to late 1850s. Often the Minstrel Show was many times a part of of a larger and varied bill of performers often including classical music and dramatic readings as well as, what we would now term "Circus Acts" of juggling and acrobatics. Vaudeville was the next derivative, using similar comedic techniques.

This is wonderful information and engagingly presented. Thank you so much.

So much information!

In college (1969) I had a girl friend who studied theater. She told me about one of the unintended positive results of mistral shows, namely that a black face could speak unpopular political ideas when white face could not.

It is hard to understand why African American actors would further the stereotypes but bear in mind it was still a job and it was money albeit they were not paid but a fraction of White actors. So while actors like Hattie McDaniel and Bill Robinson may have furthered the stereotype it was still a job and today we appreciate their performances even though they were under extreme social pressure

Much love to you :)

I agree they never should have gotten rid of Uncle Ben's wild rice, Aunt Jemima's syrup. That is part of American history.

Blackface in theatre existed in Europe hundreds of years before Jim Crow.

Great video

4:54 can someone explain that photo please?

Thank you much much. Ok peace & thanks 🙏🤠

I've always thought that it was poetic justice that Thomas Rice ended up destitute at the end of his life.

I long for a world where we have multicolored faces in plays.

I dont quite know what to type, however i can write that this helped me explain to others about this topic. Many white people still are so blinded by the blatiant level of this kind of thinking and then to use it as the entertainment, burdens my thoughts. Thank you to the set of this channel to let us understand the effects our behavior is detestable....in this direction and unfortunately history. I am humbled to be able to share my words and thinking, Please find my words one of admiration and deep respect for Anyone whom has experienced or has had loved ones effected.

Thank you, thank you,thank you!!!

Can someone explain me, why the Jim Crow law exisisted next to the law that made everyone equal? Doesn't made the JC law illigal?

In the UK there was a TV show called **the black and white minstrel show**......it ran from 1958-1978....it was bizarre......

Fantastic video Don't know if its right to comment as I'm white british however I just want to say I really hate those old black face cartoons and Jim crow stand up shows as black people look nothing like those portrayals and aren't dumb at all I also feel really ashamed of my ancestors as black face is legit dehumanising judgemental and stupid the history from what I see minstral shows ' show how ignorant and dumb society can truly be to other cultures though I'm sure there are other cultures than white culture what poke fun of other cultures as well. I also think that we should learn from the past but never censor history in movies or cartoons as I don't want history to repeat itself and admitedly I grew up with movies like song of the South and watched those old Tom and jerry shorts and loved uncle remus and mammy two shoes and the crows from dumbo as characters. I never knew as a kid that they were apparently racist portrayals I also never hated black people growing up as all I saw were people of different skin color. blackface jokes should definitely not exist today and to be honest I'm quite shocked that its still around blind malicious and ignorant Racism of any culture should NOT be practiced to this day.

Entertaining 👏 👏👏

That guy in the taste mask isn't in black face, it's legit black man Jerry Rice, LOL! 4:40

Wow great video. I’m white, live in America but I was born in Ireland. I seem like I’m from here so no one really ever asks. I am always shocked to learn how racist America was or is. Sometimes I see things in culture and I feel like it’s anti-white… but if you just look at how prevalent this stuff is. I mean aunt jemima! It’s wild. America is for sure racist still at a corporate level

Black actors did black face as a hustle also a way to make fun of white people. The only door that would open for us. We wonder why people use the n word so much but we brought all the products that were shown in this video lived by them. And sang the songs

Excellent

You forgot the great comedy show Amos and Andy. Now that was a funny show.

Mrs Butterworth was English.

Absolutely wonderful, thank you!!!

I see the same thing today in music.

10:17 😂😂😂😂 “I sure is” That sh’t is funny

What about in the highways in Pennsylvania and Virginia a company called Sheetz is still doing that go check it out

Much of rap is a modern day minstrel show. It’s black performers in blackface.

Great video! Lot facts

I was very interested in the claim made about the underlying context of Oh Susanna. The best I could get was from ChatGPT, which wrote this: The interpretation of "Oh! Susanna" as a song about a black slave desperately trying to get back to their loved ones is not widely supported by historical evidence or scholarly consensus. Stephen Foster's "Oh! Susanna" was written in 1847, and while it does reflect some elements of the minstrel tradition, its lyrics do not explicitly mention slavery or the experiences of enslaved individuals. ChatGPT was concerned at the nature of my question, and, having quoted a few lines of the song wrote: This content may violate our Terms of Use or usage policies. Did we get it wrong? Please tell us by giving this response a thumbs down.

I'm very interested in the productions centering on Ray Charles and Jelly Roll Morton pictured in the flyers behind the narrator. This video and those are a great introduction to VTC's existence for me. Minstrel shows were a symptom of a genuine American love for (American) black music that has just gotten stronger through the years. They also allowed countless ex slaves and their offspring to be able to travel and earn livings that improved their lots from farm work days. Vanguard deserves credit in a time when this history is often being buried (grotesque as it may seem today)

I just listened to the actual "Jim Crow" song. Something like "I wheel about and turn about and jump Jim Crow". It was interesting from a cultural perspective. That this terrible song was so popular that it was culturally significant for over 150 years. It seemed to be about wanting to get married for the most part. But yeah, there was probably a lot in it that went over my head, but the rest, was pretty obviously horrible. As a song though, it was rubbish. It went back to the chorus way to often, and musically wasn't catchy. There was no hook to it. Very low effort, but it was racist, and I guess that was just enough back then.

This ended on a positive high note.

I hope that they will start to teach this history in schools all across America to better understand their country's past.

America cannot help if the stereotypes were true of that time.

We’re born a victim ✊🏾😭 & it pays 💰

"not so fun" side note. ; )

honestly i'd rather frolic than think lol

As an Art form - zhondra - and is as Classic as Emit the Clown.

Well said! Can’t wait for this beloved art form to return with a bang!

I apply 'blackface' twice a month, to entertain senior citizens at a lunch club. I'm a professionally trained pianist and Banjo player, a member of the 'Somalian Serenaders'. I usually sing Al Jolson numbers, and some more obscure French Creole tunes. I perform with the full support of my local Baptist Church Minister. The highly esteemed, Reverend Cleotus Jamesbody.

Thank you Queen ❤️💚💚

The music in minstrel shows is really cool. It's a shame that they took something beautiful and used it for evil. Oh wait I take that back. That Jim Crow song sucks hard core.

imagine making products today and not including black people on them, we would be called racist's , so why are we taking off aunt jemina off the maple syrup ?

Not going to lie this shit is pretty good. They should bring this back. 👴🏻

#DisneyDiva ❤

Wheel about and turn about and do just so. Every time I wheel about, I jump Jim Crow.

happy,musical, people

Minstrel shows was/is brought to you by j.j.w

I love it . Same as when the Wayans brothers did White Chicks . It's funny .

Delve into stereotypes. The definition, examples, false exaggerations with common underlying truths...

Who supported Jim Crow laws? DEMOCRATS

Black face is a dead god Erebus, Proteus ⚘🌚👍Rest in the good news ⚘ Okay bye

Black face only represented blacks not browns that true there's no equivalent Hispanic suntjermima

As a white person, I want to announce that I am a fervent connoisseur of the art of “whiteface.” I absolutely love to see black people put white makeup on and try to stereotype Europeans. Everyone should watch Eddie Murphy’s SNL rendition of putting on white-face in “White like me.” I would pay money to see Steve Harvey do whiteface. It would be friggin’ hilarious 😆

Black face is peak comedy

Outside of the fascinating story of the Hyer sisters this is a highly bigoted, a revisionist video. It's view of minstrelsy is myopic.

What trigger? "Black and Brown people?" Why diminish your black skin to Brown? Brown is closer to White. Oh yeah

Victim consciousness should be avoided at all costs.

Wow, you are really good at cherry-picking the worst possible examples and utterly ignoring the black performers of the era! Thanks so much for keeping racism alive and well, it seems that is actually your goal.

Bring back the MINSTREL SHOWS!!

blackface is very good. Blackface is very nice and is not a problem. Welcomme blackface ! Out woke and wokisme !!!

I can understand why black people get upset by the stereotype that has been portrayed in America down the ages. This is a very important video that should be shown in schools. But, and it's a very big but, in order to resist the danger of being hypocritical, you have to put all sides of the story of slavery into context and included ALL racism in order to have an accurate account. Not all slaves were black. In the two previous centuries, Latin American, Mexican, Costa Rican, Chinese and also white people were entombed by the slave trade. It didn't only happen to black people. There is ample evidence of white and ethnic people being kept as slaves even today. However, the blacking up of faces by white entertainers was an inherent insult to the black race and should never have been allowed to happen. Today there would, no doubt, be an absolute outrage if white people did this kind of thing now. There would be protests screaming racism if that happened now. But NOT ONE person, including those that would be up in arms at the racism of the "blacked up" white, has uttered a single word against the "whitening" up of a black person. It screams hypocrisy on the part of the black people. I'm talking about the black Wayans Brother's portrayal of white people in the movie, "White Chicks". Is this not the same racism the black people have endured through the years? Of course it is, but no one mentions anything about that. Racism from black people against white people is, apparently, an acceptable trait to everyone and no one says a word. Shout honky or white trash and no one says a word but if a white person says N*****R or C**N and that white person is arrested for racism and causing racial tension. How many times have black people used the "race card" to enhance their agenda? I have seen a lot of that but no one says anything against it and it is used to their advantage, and they know it. It's not fair and it stokes the bitterness felt by the white community against the black people getting away with using the race card with impunity. The danger here is, white people fighting back against that unfairness and people from all sides, will get hurt. You can only kick a dog so much before he turns around and bites you. I would be the first to welcome and embrace the end of racism against anyone, no matter what the colour or creed, but be careful you don't end up a hypocrite through the lack of research. Don't cry racism and then go and do the same thing yourself. P.S. I wonder how many will reply to this. It wouldn't surprise me if it was brushed under the carpet like a lot of things that challenge the rhetoric that is making the rounds of public opinion.