Whiteface is a type of performance in which a person wears theatrical makeup in order to make themselves look like a white person, usually for comical purposes. The term is a reversal of the more common form of performance known as blackface, in which performers use makeup in order to make themselves look like a black person. Whiteface performances originated in the 19th century but have no origin in dehumanization or racism, and today still occasionally appear in films. Modern usages of whiteface can be contrasted with blackface in contemporary art.
History
Overview
Whiteface rose to prominence with the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This allowed the expression of whiteface performance to seep into popular culture. By the late twentieth century, black actors performing whiteface in plays and films was not unusual as a humorous device. The satire grew in popularity as time went on. By the 2000s, however, some experts began to condemn the art form as racist and therefore socially unacceptable. A timeline of key events detailing this summary is available below.
Timeline
The earliest use of the term noted by the Oxford English Dictionary is from the New York Dramatic News in 1895, and refers to the Americanvaudeville actor Lew Dockstader "in his new white-face act". Dockstader was already well-known as a blackface minstrel show performer.
The 1970 filmWatermelon Man begins with Godfrey Cambridge playing a whiteface character, who then wakes up one morning to find himself to be black.
Eddie Murphy performed in whiteface on Saturday Night Live in the 1980s, and appeared in whiteface for minor characters in the films Coming to America and The Nutty Professor.
The 2006 FX reality television showBlack. White. had two families realistically portrayed via makeup as another race: One as blackface, the other whiteface.
Whiteface and blackface
Blackface is racist, based upon a traceable racial link to slavery and racial segregation. For this reason, blackface is all but extinct in modern art forms. In contrast, whiteface is occasionally employed in modern times, usually in a comedic context. Those who defend it as art aim to differentiate it from blackface, often arguing that whiteface does not draw on a legacy of racism in the way that blackface does, and that the art is a wholesome satire of white lifestyles.
