In 19th-century America, a peculiar form of entertainment took the stage: white performers, faces smeared with dark makeup, grinning and dancing in exaggerated, hideous imitations of black people. What began as a grotesque spectacle would cross oceans, survive centuries, and embed itself into the fabric of popular culture around the world. Blackface, born from the toxic marriage of racism and entertainment, became not just a performance, but a reflection of society’s deeper racism.
How did something so dehumanizing manage to persist for so long, and what does its endurance to this day reveal about the deeper currents of racism that still run through our culture? Click through this gallery to find out.