America: Your Nothing but a Coon

One of the ugly truths of America's past is the enslavement of African Americans. African Americans were seen as inferior and were deemed to be nothing more than property by many Americans. Blackface Minstrelsy is considered America's first form of music. Minstrelsy portrayed African Americans as ignorant, lazy, and foolish.

The website below provides more information about minstrelsy, including the history and some of the minstrel characters.The images below illustrate components of Blackface Minstrelsy. The video below is from Spike Lee's (2000) Bamboozled, which is about the creation of a modern day minstrel show. Based on the depictions of African Americans portrayed by the pictures and videos, can you think of any modern day representation of minstrelsy.

http://black-face.com/