BlackFace By White People
America in Blackface: Photos from the Farm Security Administration

Image: "Sheet music for a nineteenth-century minstrel song. Blackface minstrelsy was a global phenomenon. This song was published in England. The image is from the Life magazine photo."

Description with image: "Many aspects of blackface minstrelsy drew upon and reinforced attitudes that were deeply hostile to African-Americans. They and their culture were mimicked, lampooned, and held up to ridicule. The title of Lott's book, however, alerts us that blackface was a complex phenomenon. Yes, there was the theft, distortion, and denigration of African-American culture. But there was also love. Or, at least, the desire to appropriate elements of blackness which seemed to offer an alternative to the constraints of whiteness."