The Minstrel Show

Most of us are too young to remember real minstrel shows but, we know that folks parading around in blackface is a no-no.

So, what makes white college students think that it’s cool to show up at parties, emulating black stereotypes, complete with blackface? Earlier this week, I shared a story about party thrown on MLK day at Tarleton University in which people came dressed in their favorite black stereotypes. One white student attending the party came as Aunt Jemima, complete with a red/white checkered “mammy” dress. The same web site that broke this story also brought another story out about a similar party held by University of Connecticut Law Students (let that soak in) a few days later. Those attending this party came dressed as gang members with do-rags, gold teeth, gang signs and fake guns.

Well, completing the trifecta was a party held by Clemson University students a couple of weeks ago. The party was held on the eve of Martin Luther King Day and its theme was “Living the Dream”. Like the other two parties, the pictures got out because they were posted on Facebook.com (when will people learn?).

This one is probably the most disgusting of the three because it included at least one person in blackface, women who put padding in the back of their pants to make their butts look bigger (mocking black women) and attendants with 40 oz. bottles duct-taped to their hands.

According to the the students involved, they threw the party “to show unity.” (Okay, now we’re supposed to be stupid enough to believe this?)

For its part, the Clemson University is working to stem the tide of negative reaction (i.e. “bad press”) that this party has generated and is hoping to act as a mediator between the partygoers and the folks they offended.

Well, since parties like this seem to go on all over the place, I’m sure we being seeing this incident play out again at another school in the near future. Remember, Black History Month is beginning tomorrow. That gives somebody 28 days to come up with something really offensive.

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3 comments for “The Minstrel Show”

SprigganNYC , on the 31 of January, 2007 at 10:09 pm said:
Love the site bro. I’ve added a feed of your site to my blog. You should check it out sometime. spriggannyc.blogspot.com

To comment on this post: It just really confues me how people can do something this reprehensible and then think we are all going to buy the “it wasnt meant to offend it was meant to celebrate. my best friend is black” excuse.
Often times you will hear white people say things like “If a black person throws a white trash party no one would care” Which is also very ignorant and is an empty statement with no relevance. firstly, black people dont find it necessary to do something like this. Not even in jest. Also, black poeple dont have the history of oppressing white people for 600 years and implementing laws after slavery was abolished that wouldnt allow us to vote, marry, work, etc…
So even if black people DID have a party like that it would not have as much significance or “teeth” as when our white counterparts do such things. It’s the same reasoning applied when they ask why we use the N word with eachother when thay cant. It’s cause history has proven that we cant trust them…
University Update , on the 1 of February, 2007 at 12:09 am said:
The Minstrel Show…

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black…MYstory » Racist Parties Don’t Just Mock Black Folks , on the 19 of February, 2007 at 11:22 am said:
[...] you will know that I have posted stories about racist college parties mocking black folks (see here and here). However, we are not the exclusive targets of these [...]

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SprigganNYC , on the 31 of January, 2007 at 10:09 pm said:

Love the site bro. I’ve added a feed of your site to my blog. You should check it out sometime. spriggannyc.blogspot.com

To comment on this post: It just really confues me how people can do something this reprehensible and then think we are all going to buy the “it wasnt meant to offend it was meant to celebrate. my best friend is black” excuse.
Often times you will hear white people say things like “If a black person throws a white trash party no one would care” Which is also very ignorant and is an empty statement with no relevance. firstly, black people dont find it necessary to do something like this. Not even in jest. Also, black poeple dont have the history of oppressing white people for 600 years and implementing laws after slavery was abolished that wouldnt allow us to vote, marry, work, etc…
So even if black people DID have a party like that it would not have as much significance or “teeth” as when our white counterparts do such things. It’s the same reasoning applied when they ask why we use the N word with eachother when thay cant. It’s cause history has proven that we cant trust them…

University Update , on the 1 of February, 2007 at 12:09 am said:

The Minstrel Show…

…

black…MYstory » Racist Parties Don’t Just Mock Black Folks , on the 19 of February, 2007 at 11:22 am said:

[...] you will know that I have posted stories about racist college parties mocking black folks (see here and here). However, we are not the exclusive targets of these [...]