Blackface Minstrelsy

The issue of applying blackface started in the early 1800s. Face, painted with black cork, while playing minstrel shows, portrayed African-Americans in a negative way. That's how caucasians thought they are and how stereotypes were shaped and developed. Nowadays, people paint their faces black when it is Halloween, as a joke. However, the history left deep footprints, which cause a lot of different reactions.

"Disabled"

In "Reassigning Meaning", the reading claims that the "disabled" people in this culture received this name because they were medically diagnosed with a psychological or physical disease. These people are the ones who have to live with what you can call a "lack of" certain abilities. In this present day, many people claim they are "disabled" when applying for jobs, even though they are medically diagnosed as "functional". Some employees use this to bail themselves out of trouble or to receive compensation in different situations. This is something that can be labeled as "immoral" or "insulting" to people who are medically diagnosed as "disabled" and have to deal with it everyday. Do you feel these actions that employees go through with are "wrong"? Why or why not?

Racism from Minstrelsy to Vaudeville

A big change from Minstrelsy to the Vaudeville era was that black face was no longer involved in the shows. Did this change mean that there was no inherent racism in the Vaudeville performances, or was it simply toned down? Were the African American and Caucasian performers seen as equals at this time? I would find it hard to believe that all racism was eliminated in the transition from Minstrelsy to Vaudeville. If there were any other racist aspects of the Vaudeville shows, what were they?

The Jazz Age

In the previous lecture on Minstrelsy, the African American of the time was portrayed as a silly, ignorant, or humorous character. However, as Americans progressed into the Jazz Age, and they were publicly seen jazz performers of African American descent, were their obvious talents with instruments taken seriously by those who once viewed African Americans as a mere comic relief?

Speak-Easies and Jazz

Despite the popularity increase that playing at a speak-easy would bring a musician, did this mean they were payed less than musicians who played at other venues?

All wrapped up in JAZZZZZ!

After learning a bit more about the Jazz age and how African American people were discriminated against there are a few questions that stir in my mind. For starters Duke Ellington is probably known as one of the best Jazz musicians of all time, did he ever recieve full compensation for his work? Or did race still come between his music and chance for earning compensation? Also was there a group of people who boycotted jazz music due to so many African American Musicians?

The Role of Technology in Jazz

We discussed in class the effect that newly developed technologies, such as the phonograph and radio broadcasts, had on the spread of jazz music. These technologies allowed this music to be shared audibly instead of the traditonal channel of sheet music. What else is significant about these developments? Since people no longer had to know how to read/play music in order to enjoy these songs did this attract more people to jazz and other music? Why or why not?