Discussion » Statements » Rosie's Corner » Jim Crow. Y'all know to what it refers, right? Repressive laws and customs used to restrict BLACK AMERICAN RIGHTS. Derivation?
RosieG

Jim Crow. Y'all know to what it refers, right? Repressive laws and customs used to restrict BLACK AMERICAN RIGHTS. Derivation?

Comes from a derogatory minstrel routine performed in the early 1830's by a white man named Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice who performed minstrel routines in black face as the fictional Jim Crow.

A caricature of a clumsy dimwitted BLACK enslaved man was the "heart" of the routine.

There was song called "jump Jim Crow" apparently. Rice saw a black man singing that tune in Louisville, Kentucky so he used that as his device, his SCHTICK, his GIMMICK to entertain white audiences in stereotypical dialect. He was a sensation!

Posted - April 8, 2021
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Responses


  • 3719
    Things like that lingered in Britain into the 1960s, when a blacked-up choir called The Black & White Minstrels was a very popular TV show until people finally realised just how old-fashioned and patronising it was.

    It was not intended as caricature, and the performers were talented, properly-trained singers; but it finally dawned on viewers and producers, just how basically wrong it was. 
      April 9, 2021 2:51 PM MDT
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  • 113301
    When I was a child I remember seeing a book titled "BLACK SAMBO" in the children's section of the library. On the cover was a small black child. I never checked it out so I don't know what it's about. Isn't it odd that I would remember that after so long? In movies when African Americans had roles they were usually at best a beloved servant and at worst a shufflin' mumbling not-too-bright character. Slowly things changed but NOT ENOUGH. It seems that hating "the other" comes naturally to homo saps. I wonder why so many take such delight in being that? The bigger the hate and the louder you state it the more swell you are among that ilk. It boggles the mind and saddens the soul. I do hope somewhere "out there" universal justice awaits all of us. Thank you for your reply Durdle! :)
      April 10, 2021 2:18 AM MDT
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