Mark Steven Greenfield, currently the director for the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery for the Department of Cultural Affairs, uses nineteenth and twentieth century photos of vaudeville and minstrel show performers. Blackface, an act in which a person covers thier face with black paint as a mockery of "foolish" African Americans, was long ago accepted as a form of satire and comedy. Greenfield's images of such acts incorporated with text in the form of an eye examination chart, first make the viewer dechipher the sentence, then use those words as a guide to read the image. In this series of work cleverly titled Blackacha, Greenfield hopes the viewer will examine the images as not a thing of the past, but as an issue of today. The juxtapostion of the current day slang to the older images brings that issue forward, making the viewer aware of the existing consequences of racial stereotypes.
In his introduction to his website, (Markstevengreenfield.com), Mark Steven Greenfield states, "the creation of stereotype was essential in maintaining white America's illusion of superiority." This comment rings true to the idea that whites find it difficult to feel connected to or associated with a culture. White identity has been built on supressing other cultures and colors. Being white means to be privledged, superior, or always right.
Interestingly enough, in one of my readings, Whiteness, A Wayward Construction, Tyler Stalling writes that Blackface minstrelsy, "began with black slaves who danced in mocking imitation of thier masters. Whites missed the critique, however, and when they mimicked the dance of thier slaves, they highlighted THEIR buffoonery." This statement is kind of a big deal - instead of Blackface being a mockery of blacks, its a mockery of whites! Unforntunately, Blackface has too long been engrained as a racist stereotype of blacks for it to all of a sudden be seen as a mockery of whites. But the initial idea of it's history has now become more interesting to think about...
