History Main / Blackface

* Alluded to in the music video for "Say Say Say" by Music/PaulMcCartney and a pre-vitiligo Music/MichaelJackson. The video, a satire of race relations in America, feature the two donning identical clown makeup and doing a vaudeville act in a parody of {{minstrel shows}}. Neither actually appear in blackface, but Jackson's white-painted lips against his dark skin deliberately reference it.

* Episode 8 of ''Manga/LoveLab'' features a scene where the main characters pay tribute to American black celebrities by wearing brown makeup and imitating black culture. While intended as an AffectionateParody, with the girls complimenting black women as strong and beautiful, the scene drew backlash from Western audiences due to its resemblance to a MinstrelShow.

* Pops up in ''Film/CSATheConfederateStatesOfAmerica'', where in the AlternateUniverse in which the South won the Civil War it never becomes taboo. Also, Abraham Lincoln used blackface to disguise himself as a black man to try to escape to Canada with Harriet Tubman. (They were caught by the Confederate forces.) There was also a clip from an in-universe film depicting Jefferson Davis' scheme to enforce slavery throughout the country in which a house slave also present at the event is clearly being depicted by a white actor in blackface, surely as a bit of commentary on the whole convention of blackface.

** The reccurring character "the Spirit of Jazz" is played by Noel Fielding, with black and white face makeup to resemble [[BorrowinSamedi Baron Samedi]]. In spite of the inhuman nature of the character, his dreadlocks and jive accent make it clear that the character is supposed to be black.

* Parodied by ''Series/SpittingImage'' in "The White & White Minstrel Show" that features the [[InvertedTrope polar opposite]] of this trope: black people wearing whitefaces. The sketch itself is a biting satire of the apartheid in South Africa where they think "that blackfaces don't belong with black".

** Chang dresses up as his ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' Drow character, which includes jet black skin. Both Shirley, a black woman, and Pierce, a white man with antiquated social views, think he's in blackface. The episode was taken off of Creator/{{Netflix}}.

* Parodied in the first series of ''Series/LittleBritain'' in a recurring sketch featuring minstrels facing discrimination in a similar manner to minorities, with the joke being that they'd be accepted if they just stopped wearing blackface. It's also played straight as there are a number of black, Asian and Arabic characters played by the white leads.

* ''WesternAnimation/SmilingFriends:'' The Halloween Episode has the Forest Demon, a horrible creature from a haunted forest that also has to repeatedly insist it actually ''looks'' like that, and that it's not wearing blackface. After chasing Pim into the Halloween party, it's forced to repeat this same spiel to partygoers that don't believe an ounce of it, and ''beat it to death before eating its corpse'' over its assumed offense.

* Ralph Northam's own blackface incident was part of a series of political scandals that rocked the Virginia state government in February 2019. Northam was discovered to have dressed in blackface as a college student in 1984. He was not helped by his initially evasive and constantly shifting answers about whether he was actually the man in blackface in the photo. Nor did it help that the photo in question showed a white man in blackface posing with another white man in a UsefulNotes/KuKluxKlan hood and robe, leading to speculation about which one was actually Northam. And then he admitted that on another occasion he had worn blackface while dressing as Music/MichaelJackson for Halloween. On top of this, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (second in line to become governor had Northam resigned as was widely being demanded) in the same week admitted that he had ''also'' worn blackface as a college student, while the (black) Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax was accused of rape. Ironically, the scandal growing to encompass his potential successors probably saved Northam's political career, since few wanted to see the entire state government resign. It also helped that he wasn't allowed to run for re-election anyways.

-->-- '''Party Man''', ''WesternAnimation/SmilingFriends''

The trope remains a sensitive subject to this day, partially because of its close association with UncleTomfoolery, and causes [[DudeNotFunny quite a]] [[ValuesDissonance backlash]] whenever it shows up in mainstream American culture. Even depictions that criticize the trope or people who engage in it can cause a work to become embroiled in controversy. In UsefulNotes/TheNewTwenties, many animated works in Western countries also began to curtail the practice of having white voice actors portray black characters on shows like ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' and ''WesternAnimation/CentralPark'', due to concerns over comparisons to blackface; the roles were subsequently recast with black voice actors.

The trope remains a sensitive subject to this day, partially because of its close association with UncleTomfoolery, and causes [[DudeNotFunny quite a]] [[ValuesDissonance backlash]] whenever it shows up in mainstream American culture. Even depictions that criticize the trope or people who engage in it can cause a work to become embroiled in controversy.

* Satirized by WebVideo/{{Jreg}}. One of the ideologies featured in Centricide 6 that join Nazi's "International Union of Nationalists" is Pan-Africanism, which is depicted by Greg Guevara himself wearing a paper with the word "BLACKFACE" attached to his face.

* A number of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' episodes were altered or pulled from rotation as a result of the controversy surrounding this trope: An episode where Ash disguises as a Passimian was skipped over in international releases of the ''Sun and Moon'' arc, as the makeup Lillie puts on him could be mistaken for this trope.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* [[MemeticMutation The "Firing mah Lazer" meme,]] edited from a screenshot of [[Anime/DragonBallZ Semi-Perfect Cell]] screaming. Complete with a whole "Lazer Song" on [=YouTube=], and whatever. Shoop-da-whoop.
[[/folder]]

* Mr. Popo in ''Franchise/DragonBall'' features jet-black skin, beady eyes, and thick red lips. His design has repeatedly drawn criticism from black scholars for its resemblance to blackface, and consequently some international releases of the anime and manga change elements of his appearance to appear less stereotypical (e.g. removing his prominent lips or changing his skin to bright blue).
* The Galoot Sect assassins from ''Anime/{{Flag}}'' invoke this aesthetic with their creepy, golliwog-like masks, possibly meant to represent the black goddess Kali.

* A number of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' episodes were altered or pulled from rotation as a result of the controversy surrounding this trope:
** The episode "Holiday Hi-Jynx" drew criticism from black writer Carol Boston Weatherford for the title mon's resemblance to blackface, directly contributing to the character's redesign in later games. Japanese re-airings recolor Jynx's skin purple to match her redesign, and later episodes with her original look were either edited to remove her scenes or banned from international airings entirely.
** An episode where Ash disguises as a Passimian was skipped over in international releases of the ''Sun and Moon'' arc, as the makeup Lillie puts on him could be mistaken for this trope.

* The original design of the VideoGame/{{Pokemon}} [[HuMons Jynx]], based on both the ''Franchise/UltraSeries'' character Woo and Main/{{Gyaru Girl}}s, showed her large white eyes and red lips floating in front of an indistinct black head shape. After the anime episode "Holiday Hi-Jynx" drew criticism from black scholars for Jynx's resemblance to blackface, the character was redesigned in the international release of ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' to have purple skin and smaller facial features. This carried over to the Japanese games starting with ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'', and it's stuck since, with re-releases of earlier games altering Jynx to match.

Instances of FakeNationality involving a lighter-skinned actors playing darker-skinned characters will often raise eyebrows due to straying too close to the trope.

{{Yellowface}} is a similar practice involving Asian characters, while {{Brownface}} is for characters of various "brown" races.

* Morris dancing in England is sometimes performed in blackface. The name is thought to derive from "Moorish dance," though it's unclear whether the dance actually derives from Moorish traditions or just refers to its exotic flavor. The origin of the blackface is also unclear. It could be in imitation of dark Moorish faces, but there are other theories as well, including being part of a disguise or in imitation of coal miners' faces. The tradition is particularly popular along the Welsh border, where coal mining was a common profession.
** One Morris team in Cornwall, castigated for its supposed racism, responded by replacing the controversial black facepaint with a very dark blue, this maintaining the tradition and making any future allegations look very silly indeed.

* British comedian and social commentator [[Series/BaddielAndSkinnerUnplanned David Baddiel]] attracted similar reaction when he joined in the controversy concerning anti-semitism in British politics. Footage was unearthed of a long-ago TV show where he and [[Series/BaddielAndSkinnerUnplanned Frank Skinner]] provided football punditry and comment. Baddiel regularly blacked up to parody black footballers, and this led to people asking if he was only selectively anti-racist or if racism only mattered if it was aimed at Jewish people.

* British comedian and social commentator [[Series/BaddielAndSkinnerUnplanned DavidBaddiel]] attracted similar reaction when he joined in the controversy concerning anti-semitism in British politics. Footage was unearthed of a long-ago TV show where he and [[Series/BaddielAndSkinnerUnplanned FrankSkinner]] provided football punditry and comment. Baddiel regularly blacked up to parody black footballers, and this led to people asking if he was only selectively anti-racist or if racism only mattered if it was aimed at Jewish people.

* British comedian and social commentator Creator/DavidBaddiel attracted similar reaction when he joined in the controversy concerning anti-semitism in British politics. Footage was unearthed of a long-ago TV show where he and Creator/FrankSkinner provided football punditry and comment. Baddiel regularly blacked up to parody black footballers, and this led to people asking if he was only selectively anti-racist or if racism only mattered if it was aimed at Jewish people.

Blackface is the tradition of a performer putting on stylized black makeup to appear as a stereotyped character of African descent. The usual version includes dark or pitch-black makeup and bulging red or white lips. Blackface was often used in MinstrelShows. The image became associated with negative stereotypical depictions of black people in the Western world and became shorthand for anti-black racism. As much as some people would like to forget it, blackface performances were mainstream American entertainment for almost 100 years until racial backlash ultimately capsized it.

Because of their pervasiveness in the US, blackface minstrel shows travelled widely throughout Europe and Australia, where they were imitated by local actors. This led to domestic blackface traditions to spring up throughout the West and even in many non-Western countries. Lesser cultural stigma outside the US ironically allowed mainstream blackface to survive for far longer than in its country of origin. While most European countries nowadays do not consider the trope as mind-blowingly offensive as the Anglosphere, a mix of EaglelandOsmosis and a greater awareness about racism has led to it becoming increasingly socially unacceptable and controversial. Blackface characters still pop up in Japanese culture and media from time to time, often causing [[ValuesDissonance massive headaches for exporters]].

The trope remains a sensitive subject to this day, partially because of its close association with UncleTomfoolery, and causes [[DudeNotFunny quite a]] [[ValuesDissonance backlash]] whenever it shows up in mainstream American culture. Even making jokes that criticize the trope or people who engage in it can cause a work to become embroiled in controversy.

Instances of FakeNationality involving a lighter-skinned actors playing darker skinned characters will often raise eyebrows due to straying too close to the trope as well as ButNotTooBlack implications.

The inversion, [[WhiteLikeMe black actors playing white people]], is rarely done straight. When this happens, it's almost always in-universe and [[PlayedForLaughs for comic effect]]. Compare and contrast BlackLikeMe. Both involve using makeup to make a white person look black. However, BlackLikeMe is usually done to teach a moral about [[PrejudiceAesop tolerance]] to the audience. Doesn't mean, however, that it can't have UnfortunateImplications.

* [[MemeticMutation The "Firing mah Lazer" meme.]] (Complete with a whole "Lazer Song" on Youtube, and whatever. Shoop-da-whoop.)

[[quoteright:298:[[Film/TheJazzSinger https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blackface_3910.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:298:[[Creator/AlJolson Not an actual black person.]]]]

** Chang dresses up as his ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' Drow character, which includes jet black skin. Both Shirley, a black woman, and Pierce, a white man with antiquated social views, think he's in blackface. The episode was taken off of Netflix.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Appears rather shockingly in the video for Music/CultureClub's "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?" as Boy George is convicted by a jury of jazz-handing minstrels.

* Alluded to in the music video for "Say Say Say" by Music/PaulMcCartney and a pre-vitiligo Music/MichaelJackson. The video, a satire of race relations in America, feature the two donning identical clown makeup and doing a vaudeville act in a parody of {{minstrel show}}s. Neither actually appear in blackface, but Jackson's white-painted lips against his dark skin deliberately reference it.

* JustForFun/TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples: The eponymous role in ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' was traditionally played by a white actor in blackface, and this remained the case long after blackface had become unacceptable in most media, though it's just as common for theatre companies and film producers to simply hire a black actor for the part. Some "concept" productions have gone for a PersecutionFlip by casting a white actor without make-up as Othello and black actors as most of the other characters. Othello himself is of course canonically a Moor, a vague group (not actually an ethnicity) encompassing a wide range of skintones that today would probably be coded as AmbiguouslyBrown. See the work page for more details.

* The [[TheEighties 80's]] comedy ''SoulMan'' features a Harvard Law student who darkens his skin with tanning pills to get a scholarship for black students. The film caused some controversy during its release.

* JustForFun/TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples: The eponymous role in ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' was traditionally played by a white actor in blackface, and this remained the case long after blackface had become unacceptable in most media, though it's just as common for theatre companies and film producers to simply hire a black actor for the part. Some "concept" productions have gone for a PersecutionFlip by casting a white actor without make-up as Othello and black actors as most of the other characters. (Othello himself is of course canonically a Moor, a vague group encompassing a wide range of skintones that today would probably be coded as AmbiguouslyBrown. See the work page for more details.)

* JustForFun/TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples: The eponymous role in ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' was traditionally played by a white actor in blackface, and this remained the case long after blackface had become unacceptable in most media, though it's just as common for theatre companies and film producers to simply hire a black actor for the part. Some "concept" productions have gone for a PersecutionFlip by casting a white actor without make-up as Othello and black actors as most of the other characters.

** Chang dresses up as his ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' Drow character, which includes jet black skin. Both Shirley (played by Creator/YvetteNicoleBrown) and Pierce (played by Creator/DonaldGlover) think he's in blackface. The episode was taken off of Netflix.

** Jenna Maroney has appeared in blackface twice. The first time, not unlike the ''The Sarah Silverman Show'' example, arose from an argument with Tracy Jordan about whether it is harder to be black or a woman. The second occurred when Jenna dressed as Pittsburgh Steeler Lynn Swann while her [[{{Crossdresser}} crossdressing boyfriend]] dressed as Creator/NataliePortman in ''Film/BlackSwan'' making them ...two black swans.
** A live episode, where Kenneth defends live television, has a flashback to an Series/AmosAndAndy expy show - Tracy Jordan plays one half of the team, and Creator/JonHamm plays the other, in poorly applied blackface and horribly over-the-top mannerisms that finally got on Jordan's last nerve. Kenneth explains that the network thought [[MonoChromeCasting two black people on the same show would make the audience nervous]] - "...[[BitingTheHandHumor a rule NBC still uses today]]!"

* It's implied Barney once used this on ''Series/HowIMetYourMother''. He mentions that the worst lie he ever told to get a woman into bed (and that is a ''very'' competitive category) was when he used a seduction technique called "The Soul Man". We're not told the details of what it involved, but he used it to hook up with a woman who would only date black guys, and he did it while going by the alias "[[GhettoName Barnell]]".

* Chris Liley blakced up for the character S'Mouse in ''Series/AngryBoys''. The immediate reaction was one of disgust and made people leery of his most recent comedy series ''Lunatics'', which featured a South African character who wears lots of fake tan.

* Music/DavidByrne put on dark makeup and a curly wig to play a black reporter in the "Self-Interview" used to promote ''Film/StopMakingSense''. He would eventually apologize for the bit on a Twitter thread and on his blog in 2020, describing it as "a horrible mistake in judgement" and clarifying that the reason why he took so long to apologize is that he forgot about the bit's existence.

* Alluded to in the music video for "Say Say Say" by Music/PaulMcCartney and a pre-vitiligo Music/MichaelJackson. The video, a satire of race relations in America, feature the two donning identical clown makeup and doing a vaudeville act in a parody of {{minstrel show}}s (neither actually appear in blackface, but Jackson's white-painted lips against his dark skin deliberately reference it).

* Music/FrankZappa uses this trope as a plot point in his RockOpera ''Music/ThingFish'', where a bigoted prince mutates black and gay people into exaggerated blackface-esque minstrel performers and forces them to put on a play. One of these performers is depicted on the front cover, his lips oversized to the point of looking more like a duck's beak.

* After a rather infamous bootleg production of the show in Italy which utilized this trope, Marc Shaiman banned the useage of blackface in all productions of ''Theatre/{{Hairspray}}''. As a a result, if a production of the show has actors of a different race in the roles of the African Americans, the following message was put into the program of each show:

* Referenced in ''Theatre/TheMikado'' with NWordPrivileges that are [[{{Bowdlerise}} generally reworded]] these days. "The n- serenader and the others of his race" shows up on the original version of [[ListingTheFormsOfDegenerates "I've Got a Little List"]] of [[TakeThat "society offenders who might well be underground"]], showing what Sir William S. Gilbert thought of the practise.

* The original design of the VideoGame/{{Pokemon}} [[HuMons Jynx]], based partly on [[Main/GyaruGirl ganguro fashion]], showed her large white eyes and red lips floating in front of an indistinct black head shape. After the anime episode "Holiday Hi-Jynx" drew criticism from black scholars for Jynx's resemblance to blackface, the character was redesigned in the international release of ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' to have purple skin and smaller facial features. This carried over to the Japanese games starting with ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'', and it's stuck since.

** Chang dresses up as his ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' Drow character, which includes jet black skin. Both Shirley (played by Creator/YvetteNicoleBrown) and Pierce (played by Music/ChildishGambino) think he's in blackface. The episode was taken off of Netflix.

* The Galoot Sect assassins from ''Anime/{{Flag}}'' invoke this aesthetic with their creepy, golliwog-like masks, possibly meant to represent the black goddess Kali.

* Episode 8 of ''Manga/LoveLab'' has a ''very'' uncomfortable gag featuring the use of blackface, which caused some backlash from Western viewers. In what is truly a bizarre [[ValuesDissonance cultural difference]], it's made clear the girls are actually ''[[ComplimentBackfire trying to compliment black women]]'', even noting how strong and beautiful they are.
* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': controversy over this trope lead to an episode where Ash disguises as a Passimian getting banned during the ''Sun and Moon'' arc, as the makeup Lillie puts on him could be mistaken for this trope.

* Creator/SpikeLee's ''Film/{{Bamboozled}}'': A modern African-American filmmaker creates a television minstrel show in which black actors perform in classic blackface. He's trying to make a point, [[SpringtimeForHitler but to his horror, the show becomes successful]]. Real-life audiences didn't respond well to the use of blackface in making a [[AudienceAlienatingPremise heavy-handed point about a minstrel show featuring dancers in blackface]].

* ''Film/GangsOfNewYork'' features a propogandized performance of ''Literature/UncleTomsCabin'', in which actors playing parts of slaves wear blackface.

* The otherwise squeaky-clean classic ''Film/HolidayInn'' shows for Lincoln's Birthday a full minstrel show featuring dancers in blackface.

* The [[TheEighties Eighties]] comedy ''SoulMan'' features a Harvard Law student who darkens his skin to get a scholarship for black students. The film caused some controversy during its release.

** Chang dresses up as his ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' Drow character, which includes jet black skin. Both Shirley and Pierce think he's in blackface. The episode was taken off of Netflix.

* In the arcade version of ''VideoGame/SunsetRiders'', a character caught in fire got a blackface look before he collapsed. The SNES version censors that, with the standard death drop animation instead.

* The original design of the VideoGame/{{Pokemon}} [[HuMons Jynx]], based partly on [[Main/GyaruGirl ganguro fashion]], showed her white eyes and red lips floating in front of an indistinct black head shape. When it was pointed out that this design looked way too much like Blackface to American audiences, she was promptly changed to have visible purple skin instead.

* Satirized by {{WebVideo/Jreg}}. One of the ideologies featured in Centricide 6 that join Nazi's "International Union of Nationalists" is Pan-Africanism, which is depicted by Greg Guevara himself wearing a paper with the word "BLACKFACE" attached to his face.