Blackface
Object Lessons
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Blackface
Narrated by:
Rachel Handshaw
Buy Now for ₹497.01
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Narrated by:
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Rachel Handshaw
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Written by:
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Ayanna Thompson
A New Statesman essential non-fiction book of 2021
Featured in Book Riot's 12 best nonfiction books about Black identity and history
A Times Higher Education Book of the Week
2022 Finalist for the Prose Awards (Media and Cultural Studies category)
Why are there so many examples of public figures, entertainers, and normal, everyday people in blackface? And why aren’t there as many examples of people of color in whiteface? This book explains what blackface is, why it occurred, and what its legacies are in the 21st century. There is a filthy and vile thread—sometimes it’s tied into a noose—that connects the first performances of Blackness on English stages, the birth of blackface minstrelsy, contemporary performances of Blackness, and anti-Black racism. Blackface examines that history and provides hope for a future with new performance paradigms.
Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.©2021 Ayanna Thompson (P)2025 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
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Critic Reviews
Examines Hollywood’s painful, enduring ties to racist performances.
Sharp … In explicitly laying out the history and costs of blackface performance, [Ayanna Thompson] fully meets her stated aim of offering an accessible book that constitutes part of an ongoing "arc toward justice."
Blackface reveals a legacy of performance that is pointed and detrimental, known but purposely forgotten. Thompson’s analysis is exquisite and exact. A new entry for the historical record.
Essential! This is a lucid, engaging, and long overdue exorcism of American culture's greatest haunt.
A truly eye-opening, defiant, must-read.
Wide-ranging and hard-hitting… a passionate, well-informed, and gripping read… another triumph for Object Lessons.
This is great book, brave and clear, with excellent analyses and memorable arguments and examples.
For Ayanna Thompson, the Arizona-based author of a new book titled Blackface, understanding the present moment requires exploring the past, including ways systemic racism is rooted and reflected in blackface performance … Drawing examples from popular culture and performance history, Thompson expertly dismantles various defenses of blackface minstrelsy.
Crisp and clearly argued.
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