this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2025
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Why was the black face genre so popular in the day? Did whites not think they could come up with their own stuff instead of disparraging blacks? (self.askhistorians)
submitted 3 days ago by Patnou to c/askhistorians
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[–] Pronell 7 points 3 days ago

You're clear enough, I think. You're asking in part why it was acceptable then but not now.

Some of it is also that the really good Vaudeville acts run by former slaves and immigrants made shitty white performers jealous, so they put on blackface to try that 'genre' of shows without being called out.

And it provided them a bit of a disguise to protect their 'normal' careers.