DigitalCommons@C.O.D.

https://dc.cod.edu/marcom-studentlife-events/1906/thumbnail.jp

2013 Harlem Shake_06

https://dc.cod.edu/marcom-studentlife-events/1903/thumbnail.jp

2013 Harlem Shake_03

https://dc.cod.edu/marcom-studentlife-events/1897/thumbnail.jp

U.S. Bank Ribbon Cutting_06

https://dc.cod.edu/marcom-studentlife-events/1881/thumbnail.jp

2013 Special Spaces_07

https://dc.cod.edu/marcom-studentlife-events/1988/thumbnail.jp

2013 Celebration of Academic Excellence_39

https://dc.cod.edu/marcom-studentlife-events/1975/thumbnail.jp

2013 Celebration of Academic Excellence_26

https://dc.cod.edu/marcom-studentlife-events/1967/thumbnail.jp

2013 Celebration of Academic Excellence_19

Moses, Mary

ESSAI
Volume 14 Article 1
Spring 2016
Front Cover
Mary Moses
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: http://dc.cod.edu/essai
This Prefatory Note is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for
inclusion in ESSAI by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact koteles@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Moses, Mary (2016) "Front Cover," ESSAI: Vol. 14 , Article 1.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol14/iss1/1
College of Du Page •  Anthology of Academic Writing Across the Curriculum •  Volume XIV •  2015–
2016
Essai
COLLEGE OF DU PAGE 
Anthology of Academic Writing 
Across the Curriculum
Volume XIV • 2015–2016
What is Essai?
Created in 2002 by a cross-disciplinary faculty, ESSAI, 
College of DuPage’s Anthology of Academic Writing 
Across the Curriculum, is an annual academic journal 
that represents a unique but inclusive discourse 
community of student writers; it fosters student 
success through writing across the curriculum and in all 
levels of learning at College of Du Page.
It rests on our belief that writing empowers and 
prepares our students for meaningful careers and 
advanced academic pursuits and that, to realize such 
goals, the entire college community is responsible for 
incorporating writing into their courses as a vital part 
of the academic experience at our college.
That we practice the philosophy of student success 
through good writing will become even more apparent 
in the journal’s name. It harkens back and pays homage 
to Michel de Montaigne, whose seminal style of writing 
“essais” connoted one of trials and attempts.
The resulting published work is their expanded 
cultural and epistemological self-endowed with talent, 
sophistication, and fresh scholarship, all expressed with 
clarity, eloquence, and grace.
Join with us in honoring the exceptional talents of our 
student authors.
Essai
1
Moses: Front Cover
Published by DigitalCommons@COD, 2016


English

Front Cover

ESSAI
Volume 14 Article 2
Spring 2016
Title Page
Follow this and additional works at: http://dc.cod.edu/essai
This Prefatory Note is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for
inclusion in ESSAI by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact koteles@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
(2016) "Title Page," ESSAI: Vol. 14 , Article 2.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol14/iss1/2
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ESSAI 
 
The College of DuPage Anthology  
 
Of 
 
Academic Writing Across the Curriculum 
 
 
(Volume XIV 2015-2016) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Illinois 
 
 
The contents of this anthology copyright, 2016 
 
College of DuPage 
 
 
1
et al.: Title Page
Published by DigitalCommons@COD, 2016


Title Page

Ahmed, Aneela

ESSAI
Volume 14 Article 8
Spring 2016
African-American Comedians and Blackface:
Struggle against Racism
Aneela Ahmed
College of DuPage
Follow this and additional works at: http://dc.cod.edu/essai
This Selection is brought to you for free and open access by the College Publications at DigitalCommons@COD. It has been accepted for inclusion in
ESSAI by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@COD. For more information, please contact koteles@cod.edu.
Recommended Citation
Ahmed, Aneela (2016) "African-American Comedians and Blackface: Struggle against Racism," ESSAI: Vol. 14 , Article 8.
Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol14/iss1/8
1 
African-American Comedians and Blackface: Struggle against Racism 
 
by Aneela Ahmed 
 
(English 1102) 
 
 
 
acism is a prejudice or an animosity against a person or group of people who belong to a 
different race. It has been a major issue in the United States for centuries, and different races 
have been through this problem, including African-Americans. White Americans were given 
more privileges and rights than African-Americans. Most African-Americans are the descendants of 
black African slaves forcibly brought to and held captive in the United States. Those slaves were 
mocked by white Americans as foolish, lazy and illiterate people. During the course of the nineteenth 
century, a popular form of entertainment was developed based on cross-race impersonation: 
blackface “delineation,” or minstrelsy. Blackface minstrelsy,1 presented by white Americans, showed 
their discrimination against blacks. Later on, some black comedians entered into the blackface, and 
tried to change world’s perception about them. 
In any culture, comedians serve complicated functions as both entertainers and social critics. 
White people had a common belief that black people were “happier in slavery than they would be 
free” (Byrd 79). For African-American comedians, this has been further complicated by the burden 
of American racism and the historical legacy of racial comedy in this culture. Racially grounded 
humor has been both a means of denigrating black people, reinforcing their degradation and 
justifying their oppression by white society, and a repository of folk wisdom, a popular tradition of 
criticism and self-criticism, and a means by which black people could affirm and enjoy their own 
view of the world. Black comedians have derived much of their humor from the unstable balance 
between these two tendencies. 
 African-American comedy as a professional genre originated with blackface minstrelsy, 
which remained the province of white performers until around the time of the Civil War. The stock 
characters of blackface minstrelsy have played a significant role in disseminating racist images, 
attitudes and perceptions worldwide. Every immigrant group was stereotyped on the music hall stage 
during the nineteenth century, but the history of prejudice, hostility and ignorance toward black 
people has insured a unique longevity to the stereotypes. White Americans’ conceptions of black 
entertainers were shaped by minstrelsy’s mocking caricatures, and for over one hundred years the 
belief that blacks were racially and socially inferior was fostered by legions of white performers in 
blackface. Mel Watkins in his book, On The Real Side: Laughing, Lying, and Signifying—The 
Underground Tradition of African-American Humor That Transformed American Culture, from 
Slavery to Richard Pryor states that, “The Negro characters represented were most often portrayed as 
thieves, reprobates, servants, or amoral brutes; they were usually no more than incidental comic 
foils” (184). These shows featured a variety of jokes, songs, dances and skits that were based on the 
ugliest stereotypes of African American slaves. 
African-American comedians took their position when the mounting frustration over racial 
injustice finally came to a head with the mass organization of the civil rights struggle in the South 
and across the nation. Constance Bailey, in her article, “Fight the Power: African American Humor 
as a Discourse of Resistance,” states that “The history of Africans on stage is illustrative because it 
establishes the black comic as part of a trajectory of black performers who have historically been 
objectified. The television and theatre become the site where psychological violence against blacks 
continues to be enacted” (256). Those performances provoked a great deal of anger among African-
American audiences. 
R
1
Ahmed: African-American Comedians and Blackface
Published by DigitalCommons@COD, 2016
2 
Several black comedians came into prominence in the early nineteenth century. The main 
driving force for them was not just to entertain people or to earn money, but to show the world who 
blacks really were. Leon Rappoport in his book, Punchlines: The Case for Racial, Ethnic, & Gender 
Humor, confesses that “Jews and African-Americans have in common…centuries of oppression 
and…a more or less successful struggle against prejudice” (82). During the last quarter of the 
nineteenth century, there were a number of minstrel troupes made up entirely of African American 
performers. They also put on blackface makeup while performing in minstrelsy. As one of them put 
it, if they wanted to be popular, they had no choice but to imitate the white minstrels’ imitation of 
blacks. 
A few popular black performers of blackface were William Henry, Ernest Hogan, Billy 
Kersands, Bob Cole and Bert Williams (Watkins 168). William Henry Lane was born a free black 
man in Rhode Island in 1825, and began his career as a performer in minstrel shows. He played the 
banjo and the tambourine. Ernest Hogan was the first African-American entertainer to produce and 
star in blackface. Billy Kersands was a blackface minstrel and a vaudeville performer who was 
known for his comedy, dancing, singing, and musical performances. Bob Cole was an African-
American lyricist, composer and vaudeville performer. He was one of the first blacks to become part 
of white musical entertainment in blackface. Bert Williams is remembered today not only for his 
comic gifts, but also as a man whose life was a struggle against racial prejudice. 
Blackface minstrelsy originated in England, which then travelled to America (Rosset 424). 
This American representation of the Negro’s life had the purpose of enlightening the audience on the 
wider concern of slavery. Three men, Thomas Rice, Dan Emmett and E.P. Christy are generally 
recognized as founders of blackface minstrelsy. Blackface makeup was either a layer of burnt cork 
on a layer of coca butter or black grease paint. In the United States, white actors had the advantage of 
having seen actual black performer slaves. Later on, many black performers became an integral part 
of it; however, white audiences in the nineteenth century wouldn’t accept real black entertainers on 
stage unless they performed in blackface makeup. Blackface performers were to depict a true copy of 
the ups and downs of the Negro’s life. They not only played a significant role in cementing and 
proliferating racist images, attitudes, and perceptions worldwide, but also in popularizing black 
culture. It was through blackface minstrelsy that African American performers first entered the 
mainstream of American show business. 
 
 
 
  
 
Note 
 
1The minstrel show or minstrelsy, commonly known as blackface, was an American form of 
entertainment developed in the nineteenth century of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, 
performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the U.S. Civil War, by black people. 
Minstrel shows lampooned black people as foolish, lazy, ridiculous, superstitious, happy-go-lucky 
and musical. The minstrel show began in the early 1830s and emerged as a full-fledged form in the 
next decade. By 1848, blackface minstrel shows were the national art form, translating formal art 
such as opera into popular terms for a general audience. The minstrel show was at its peak from 1850 
to 1870, but passed with the coming of vaudeville, motion pictures, and radio. 
 
2
ESSAI, Vol. 14 [2016], Art. 8
http://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol14/iss1/8
3 
  
 
Works Cited 
 
Bailey, Constance. “Fight the Power: African American Humor As a Discourse of Resistance.” 
Western Journal of Black Studies 36.4 (2012): 253-63. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 
Dec. 2015. 
Byrd, Joseph. “Whitewashing Blackface Minstrelsy in American College Textbooks.” Popular Music 
& Society 32.1 (2009): 77-86. Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 Dec. 2015.  
Rappoport, Leon. Punchlines: The Case for Racial, Ethnic, & Gender Humor. Westport, CT: 
Praeger, 2005. Print. 
Rosset, Nathalie. “The Birth of the ‘African Glen’: Blackface Minstrelsy between Presentation and 
Representation.” Rethinking History 9.4 (2005): 415-28. Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 
Dec. 2015 
Watkins, Mel. On the Real Side: Laughing, Lying, and Satisfying—The Underground Tradition of 
African-American Humor That Transformed American Culture from Slavery to Richard 
Pryor. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994. Print. 
 
 
3
Ahmed: African-American Comedians and Blackface
Published by DigitalCommons@COD, 2016


College of DuPage

Not a member yet