Minstrelsy beyond the ‘West’: deflections, continuities and the un/knowing of race in Singapore

Abstract

The blackface minstrel reflects Black histories of slavery, repression and dehumanisation that further devolved into a ‘mess of entertainment and politics, love and hate, attraction and repulsion, class and race consciousness, sincere imitation and cruel mockery’ (Strausbaugh, J., 2006. Black Like You: Blackface, Whiteface, Insult & Imitation in American Popular Culture. New York: Penguin: 92). The racist origins of blackface hail from minstrel shows from the nineteenth century in the US, derogatorily mimicking Black slavery through the use of greasepaint or burnt cork, reproducing tropes of unruliness, slovenliness, hypersexuality and laziness. This portrayal was seen in theatre, film and animation, stretching across genres from the dramatic to comedy and vaudeville entertainment. While the origins of blackface vary from other forms of racial impersonation, they meet at the intersection of misrecognition and racism. Practices of racial impersonation beyond the ‘west’ raise questions of relevance, if for instance racial impersonation should be subject to criticisms of racism, given the latter’s ‘western’ provenance. Moving beyond this argument, this article asks what justifies the perpetuation of racial impersonation when blackface is no longer condoned elsewhere, and how themes such as racial inferiorisation and discrimination travel. With a brownface advertisement in Singapore as its case study, this article considers how racialised groups in other contexts are ‘minstrelised,’ and their implications.