To conjure the performance of blackface, whites had to engage in a magical trick that involved profound self-deception. White theatrical spaces of blackface performance were forged to confirm the “truth” that white gazes beheld. White audiences, through their attendance and their laughter, helped to “validate” the white racist distortions as true. Imagine whites in blackface on the stage: The actor “throws forth” all of the lies and distortions onto the black body. They deny that they have created these lies and that denial sustains their white “purity” and “innocence.”Black people are not the horrible and derogatory racist myths that so many white people have depicted, whether through blackface or other white American pastimes.

Source: New York Times March 04, 2019 11:00 UTC