Culturally appropriate?
It is entirely fascinating to me that people seem to think racism is dead or an antiquated notion. This assertion is usually made by people who, while being affected by it on a daily basis, are rarely ever on the recieving end. I was recently made aware of a fellow burlesque performer's support of a drag performer who wears blackface. I have been aware of this particular drag queen's act for quite some time and the brouhaha that usually follows her. Most disheartening to me was not the existence of this performer, but my fellow burlesque performer's assertion that this gross caricature is not blackface and is one born of "love and wit". I am also disheartened by the pictures of this performer with and the endorsements of other black people as if their misguided stamp of approval validates her depiction. There is a long history of performers of color performing blackface. These performers, as in the case of Williams and Walker, were often either deliberately subversive or if not, undertook it a means to put bread on the table. This doesn't make minstrelry in all its forms any less racist. It just adds the complexities of our history.
While I'm sure this performer is a good person and most likely sweet as pie, it doesn't make her act any less racist. My previous response to this performer's act and the rise of blackface depictions that "don't mean any harm" was the decision to develop my own blackface act responding to what I felt was a hearty pendulum swing in the wrong direction. You see, I hold onto the wildly naive hope that racism is born of a marriage of ignorance and fear. I hold this hope because it would mean that racism is taught and if it can be taught, it can be unlearned. I desperately need that hope. It makes some things bearable, for the time being,keeping my disappointment and anger at bay. This hope leads me to believe if my voice is heard, it can change things and bring us to deeper connections and greater understanding across this manufactured divide.
I need that hope.
As a southern raised black woman, I am all too familiar with the racist dysfunction of the South. It is of this dysfunction that this performer's act is born. It is this dysfunction that allows her to think her painting her face brown, assuming a bastardized ebonics and depicting black women as welfare queens with countless, untameable, illegitmate children is loving. After all, we ALL know someone like this, don't we? Oh,those silly, sassy black ladies! It is this dysfunction that enables a well known Black drag performer to endorse this act and deem anyone who finds it humorless as idiots. It is this dysfunction that allows a quiet,poisonous validation of white supremacy. This dysfunction enables white liberals living in Northern states to point fingers at their Southern brothers while ignoring their own issues with racism.
While as a performer, I wholeheartedly believe in depicting your "truth", I fear that this particular performer's "truth" is being accepted as THE truth. We assume that the audience will immediately recognize it as satire instead of the reinforcement of a racist iconography and stereotype. It would be one thing if this performer's truth didn't validate a legacy of racism that can be found in our entertainment today. Blackface contributed to the formation of the entertainment industry in this country. An industry with a legacy of ripping off performers to the point where many of them don't own the rights to their work today or often aren't credited with originating the work at all. They have no control over their image and no control in whether or not it is included in the current iconography. It is not lost on me that minstrelsy is widely considered the "first distinctly American theatre form" or that we soon took it to stages in other countries. It would seem perfecting and exporting racism is as all-american as censorship is anti-american.
While I'm against censoring this performer in her "truth", I will actively and repeatedly question any system or person who aligns with this----"Why is this okay?" As a burlesque performer, I've witnessed all sorts of cultural appropriation by performers I admire. Cultural appropriation that's allowed because neo-burlesque has been predominately lily-white with the presence of women of color in a tokenized context. I think we've just gotten to the point where you can count the women of color in neo-burlesque and run out of fingers and toes. It is much easier to play at fantasy when your fantasies are never called into question. It's also easier to continue at appropriation when you're taught you're entitled to it. I find it ironic that we've been up in arms about blatant theft and plagarism in our community when cultural appropriation is part of our burlesque legacy and continues today. If this particular drag performer's act is "a reflection of our times" then we are once again slow travelers on the road to evolving.
I am often asked by other performers why there aren't more women of color in this scene. While I don't deign to speak for women of color everywhere, I will say that, personally, I am aware of the inadvertent role you end up playing when you're "the only one". You become an ambassador and it is assumed that your views and means of expression are representative. It is a role you play daily and whether or not you've intentionally assumed the mantle of responsibility. It is a frustrating and tiring position to be in. I am not interested in or obligated to educating you. I owe you nothing and most definitely not a pat on the back for confronting your prejudice and racism.
You are responsible for your own enlightenment.
I decided to perform burlesque to provide an alternative to the iconography and legacy being constructed. This is something that has drawn women of all colors, shapes and sizes to burlesque. The ability to create new mythology, a mythology encompassing and celebrating the ideals and people that the current omits. I refuse to merely look at our past with rose tinted glasses , especially when the present has ample proof that we have not learned from our missteps. I find most performers' knowledge of the contribution of performers of color to this artform and American theatre in general is limited to Josephine Baker and a handful of others. It is this ignorance that allows a form of blackface to take root and be deemed something other than what it is. This is not acceptable.
Get yourselves an education.
*edited to add*
You can find other responses by burlesquers of color here and here
Labels: blackface, burlesque, Exotic World, racism in burlesque
posted by -h* @ 8:05 AM,
1 Comments:
- At 10:43 PM, said...
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I saw your comments on the Miss Exotic World list. As a long time fan of neo-burlesque, and a woman of color I was really taken aback to see neo burlesque performers comment in support of Charles Knipp. I am thrilled to see your eloquent comments!
I wrote to you through yahoo telling you so, but I'm never sure if things go through on yahoo.:( So I thought I'd stop in on your site and let you know how much I appreciate your words and those that you linked to (ie. chicaboom, highyella's blog, etc.).
