blackface

Thân thiện

Definition

Noun: 1. Theatrical Makeup for Imitation: A style of theatrical makeup, historically using burnt cork or greasepaint, applied by a non-Black performer to caricature and imitate a Black person. This practice is now widely condemned as racist and offensive. 2. The Performance Practice: The act or performance of wearing such makeup, typically as part of a minstrel show, which perpetuated harmful stereotypes.

Usage

• The term is used primarily in historical, critical, or academic discussions about race, performance history, and media representation.
• It describes a specific, historically significant practice. Using it to describe general dark makeup is incorrect and inappropriate.
• Due to its deeply offensive nature, the word is rarely used outside of condemning the practice.

Examples

• Noun:
  • The history of American entertainment includes the shameful practice of blackface.
  • Early 20th-century films sometimes featured actors in blackface, perpetuating racist caricatures.
  • Scholars study blackface minstrelsy to understand the construction of racial stereotypes.

Advanced Usage

• "in blackface": This prepositional phrase describes a performer who is wearing the makeup.
  • The actor appeared in blackface for the controversial skit.
• The concept is central to discussions about cultural appropriation and the harmful power dynamics in entertainment history.

Variants and Related Words

• Minstrelsy (n): A form of entertainment, popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries, featuring performers in blackface who performed songs, dances, and comic routines based on racist stereotypes.
• Brownface / Yellowface (n): Analogous offensive practices involving makeup to caricature other ethnic groups (e.g., Latino or Asian people).

Synonyms

• Racial caricature: (A more general term describing the outcome of such acts.)
• Theatrical blackface: (Used for specificity within performance studies.)

Note: There are no true synonyms that capture the specific historical and technical meaning of "blackface" as a defined performance tradition.

Important Note on Usage

"Blackface" is not a neutral term for dark makeup. It refers explicitly to a racist performance practice. Its use today is almost exclusively in a historical or critical context to analyze and condemn racism. Employing the practice or invoking it without critical context is considered highly offensive.

Học thuật

Noun

1. the makeup (usually burnt cork) used by a performer in order to imitate a Negro