Skip to main content

Some Indignities Persist

View
@ UC Santa Barbara, Library, Department of Special Research Collections

Greenfield, Mark Steven, Artist

Description

"Man in blackface holds up dress against wooden fence background with text over printed in the form of an eye chart reading "Some Indignities Persist". Images of people in blackface have been a source of both disturbance and fascination to me. These images are intensely powerful in both their literal statements and in their ability to allow the viewer to create a context through the bias of their associations. Generations of African Americans have suffered grievous injury at the hands of people whose livelihood was derived from creating and reinforcing stereotypes through blackface minstrelsy. The creation of a stereotype was an essential element in maintaining white America's illusion of superiority. It characterized us as buffoons and tricksters, as inherently lazy and immoral and perennial children who were dependent on the paternalism of our "masters" for survival. Slavery, even the post emancipation more subliminal variety, was contingent on making its victims appear to be less than human. The images I've used are taken from late nineteenth century photographs of vaudeville and minstrel show performers. Ironically, blackface minstrelsy, through its wholesale appropriation of African American culture, is recognized as the "America;s first indigenous musical-theater genre." Manifestations exist to this day in everything from black stand-up comedy to the "crews" and "posses" of hip-hop. My work entreats the viewer to look at these images, while at the same time looking through them, to discover an alternate context. It is my hope that the work might offer a glimpse into the origins of some...
Type:
Image
Contributors:
Greenfield, Mark Steven, Artist
Rights:
Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.Consult repository for copyright holder informationCalifornia Ethnic and Multicultural Archives, Dept of Special Collections, Donald Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010; cema@library.ucsb.edu (805) 893-8563
View Original At:

Record Contributed By

UC Santa Barbara, Library, Department of Special Research Collections

Record Harvested From

California Digital Library