I mean let’s be real minstrel shows are explicitly a western concept, and were huge in the US. Go down another comment and I addressed the UK as well, but really that’s going to apply anywhere Americans were during WW2 as well.
Anywhere that minstrel shows were popular by the 1950s most of those people would have at least seen a black person. America or otherwise.
Idk maybe all the black Americans actively fighting in some of Europe’s most populous countries during WW2 and the following American presence after the war.
And that’s ignoring the interactions between European nations and their African colonies. I’ll ignore the human zoos as well
Black US troops (which were segregated from the white troops) did not exactly run around on vacation in the french countryside.
Most French, Dutch, Englishmen, (among others) did not go to any colony. They stayed home… working their normal jobs. Farming the land, making shoes, sewing clothes, building houses. Etc.
And while we’re just starting to grasp the concept of US not being the entire world. I have to inform you of the next class, which will cover the fact that France and Germany is not even close to “most of europe”.
The Black and White Minstrel Show is a British light entertainment show on BBC prime-time television that ran from 1958 to 1978. The weekly variety show presented traditional American minstrel and country songs, as well as show tunes and music hall numbers, lavish costuming and often with cast members in blackface.
With the war and influx of American GIs in Britain, not to mention their colonies, I stand by my statement for Britain as well.
What helps in the case of the UK is a larger percentage of their population lives in cities than the US too. Just by the math living in urban areas you’re just going to see more people and more people from outside your community will be come in.
True. A decade or two earlier might have been different: All the historical examples in this thread had my mind locked in to the twenties or thirties, not the fifties!
I can promise you that the vast majority of white Americans had seen a black person in the 1950s.
I know it’s difficult to grasp the idea that the world is larger than just the US. But you’ll just have to try.
I mean let’s be real minstrel shows are explicitly a western concept, and were huge in the US. Go down another comment and I addressed the UK as well, but really that’s going to apply anywhere Americans were during WW2 as well.
Anywhere that minstrel shows were popular by the 1950s most of those people would have at least seen a black person. America or otherwise.
The whole idea of minstrel shows was to mock africans. Seeing a white guy in blackface is not equivalent to seeing a black person.
What the fuck are you talking about?
My whole point was by 1950 most white people had seen a black person and that their only idea wasn’t a minstrel show
What makes you think “most white people” in Europe had seen a real black person in 1950?
Idk maybe all the black Americans actively fighting in some of Europe’s most populous countries during WW2 and the following American presence after the war.
And that’s ignoring the interactions between European nations and their African colonies. I’ll ignore the human zoos as well
Wow. I don’t even know where to begin.
Black US troops (which were segregated from the white troops) did not exactly run around on vacation in the french countryside.
Most French, Dutch, Englishmen, (among others) did not go to any colony. They stayed home… working their normal jobs. Farming the land, making shoes, sewing clothes, building houses. Etc.
And while we’re just starting to grasp the concept of US not being the entire world. I have to inform you of the next class, which will cover the fact that France and Germany is not even close to “most of europe”.
This is a British book, though
I don’t think minstrel shows with black face were common in Britain?
It’s more likely that white British people took it as “much darker than the skin we’re assuming for people” which is enough to make the simile work.
You’d be wrong on that I’m afraid:
:(
I’ll hope that it was still less common than in the US
What the fuck‽ Until '78‽
With the war and influx of American GIs in Britain, not to mention their colonies, I stand by my statement for Britain as well.
What helps in the case of the UK is a larger percentage of their population lives in cities than the US too. Just by the math living in urban areas you’re just going to see more people and more people from outside your community will be come in.
True. A decade or two earlier might have been different: All the historical examples in this thread had my mind locked in to the twenties or thirties, not the fifties!