• FishFace@piefed.social
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      7 hours ago

      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.

    • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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      9 hours ago

      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.

      • f314@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        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!