Minstrelsy Strikes Back?

Minstrelsy has long been a factor in the world. We have seen it throughout history in many different ways. For example, the much lauded French ballerinas, who became known as little more than high-class whores. Also, we can look at the black American minstrel shows in which they were forced to paint themselves with black-face in a humiliating and degrading fashion in order to compete with the whites who wore black-face in mockery of the original. And, perhaps, minstrelsy has sprung up again in the realms of black Americans and American women, both of whom seem to now be represented by gangster rappers and slutty looking women. It has been said that they are taking their cues not for themselves, but only for the desires and fantasies of a white middle class majority in order to make it big in the show industry.

Before we conclude that minstrelsy reigns again, we must look at the forerunners to today’s so-called minstrels. The concept of gangster rap and the slut-chic bot...