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The Black & White Minstrel Show was terrible & seemed to go on for ever. I used to hate it as a kid - a Sunday evening festival of tedium. The inappropriateness didn't even enter my head.
It was interminable and brought greyness into my life.
 
It is notorious that Britain had a Black and White Minstrel Show on mainstream television well into the 1970s.

Not only that, but I sincerely believe that the superficially "wholesome" B&W Minstrel Show dangerously distorted many later discussions about "black face" and "minstrelsy".

This has long been a big discussion in the world of traditional English dance and traditional plays where there was some traditional basis for performers blackening their faces.

Proponents of the blackening of faces argue that it is a form of ritual disguise and has nothing to do with "blackface minstrelsy".

Opponents of the blackening of faces argue that it is either historically linked to blackface minstrelsy, or is so visually similar to it that it is no longer appropriate in the modern world.

Those who have studied the history dispassionately generally concur that there is sufficient historical link with blackface minstrelsy that blacking up for traditional performances cannot be defended as a practice now that we are more aware of the genuine offence it can cause.

The debate has been quite entrenched and at times bitter.

I have often felt that the image of the "Black and White Minstrel Show" gave the defenders of black face traditional performance the chance to suggest that the blackface minstrel was a fairly positive image. (I disagree with them!)

Generally the performers in the B&W MInstrel Show were portrayed as a suave, talented, and humorous: bow tie, straw boater, striped waistcoat, athletic dancing, crooning smoothly, always cheerful — almost to the point where the gross caricature of black features could be (dishonestly) reinterpreted as a tribute or homage to black people. The B&W Minstrel Show was largely seen as middle of the road, wholesome entertainment. It's passing was mourned by the sort of people who say, "You have to say 'Baa baa blue sheep now," and "It is political correctness gone mad."

However, when you read about real blackface minstrelsy from the era when it was a popular form of entertainment, it was terrible. It presented the worst possible caricature of black people as lazy, stupid and dishonest. Even black performers of the time were required to add extra black make up to exaggerate their features, and to perform to a white audience in a way that pandered to and reinforced existing prejudices against black people. The more I have read about it, the more I have understood how disgusting it was.

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Black and White Minstrel Show.
A superficially wholesome, suave, debonair and glamorous 'Saturday night TV" image that those with an agenda might feel able to defend.


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A more typical "blackface minstrel" which can only be interpreted as a grossly insulting stereotype.
 
Generally the performers in the B&W MInstrel Show were portrayed as a suave, talented, and humorous: bow tie, straw boater, striped waistcoat, athletic dancing, crooning smoothly, always cheerful —

Athletic dancing?.. That must've passed me by.
 
Ogdred Weary said:
I know that "nigger" was a common name for black pets of various species, editing it out of contemporary screenings of The Dambusters and other older films is fair enough and has been probably been happening for years, if not decades.

Indeed. One of my schoolfrends had such a pet, a black Labrador so named. But even by the mid 70's it was damn embarrassing calling its name in the park.
 
I think that's talking to the Voodoo religion rather than colour per se. I doubt they could have found a full dress Voodoo practitioner for the production. And anyway surely the whole point is that he is fake?

I find Papa Lazarou incredibly funny, despite the fact he was probably on screen for about 8 minutes total, so maybe biased.
 
In Israel, mayonnaise provides miracle for endangered turtles


https://wjactv.com/news/offbeat/in-israel-mayonnaise-provides-miracle-for-endangered-turtles

"Employees at Israel's National Sea Turtle Rescue Center are treating endangered green sea turtles affected by a devastating oil spill that has coated Israel's coast with thick black tar.
....
"They came to us full of tar. All their trachea from inside and outside was full of tar," he said.

Workers have been removing the toxic substance from the reptiles' airways and found a creative way to flush it out of their digestive tracks.

"We continue to feed them substances like mayonnaise, which practically clean the system and break down the tar," Ivgy said. The recovery process is expected to take a week or two, after which the turtles are expected to be released back into the wild."
 
In Israel, mayonnaise provides miracle for endangered turtles


https://wjactv.com/news/offbeat/in-israel-mayonnaise-provides-miracle-for-endangered-turtles

"Employees at Israel's National Sea Turtle Rescue Center are treating endangered green sea turtles affected by a devastating oil spill that has coated Israel's coast with thick black tar.
....
"They came to us full of tar. All their trachea from inside and outside was full of tar," he said.

Workers have been removing the toxic substance from the reptiles' airways and found a creative way to flush it out of their digestive tracks.
More evidence that this is the world's greatest sauce.
 
They take the abuse of kids quite seriously...

Police: Alabama woman face felony charge after stealing neighbor’s goat and painting it

BALDWIN COUNTY, AL (CNN) — A Gulf Shores woman was arrested on an animal cruelty charge after officials say she took her neighbors’ goat and painted it without permission.

Erica Marie Farmer, 34, was arrested for the crime. Farmer also faces a theft of property 2nd charge. According to officials, the theft of any livestock in the state of Alabama falls under the felony guideline.

Farmer’s bond was set at $6,000.
https://wsvn.com/news/us-world/poli...ealing-neighbors-goat-and-painting-it/?FBWSVN
 
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They take the abuse of kids quite seriously...

Police: Alabama woman face felony charge after stealing neighbor’s goat and painting it
BALDWIN COUNTY, AL (CNN) — A Gulf Shores woman was arrested on an animal cruelty charge after officials say she took her neighbors’ goat and painted it without permission.

Erica Marie Farmer, 34, was arrested for the crime. Farmer also faces a theft of property 2nd charge. According to officials, the theft of any livestock in the state of Alabama falls under the felony guideline.
I was going to ask if she'd gotten permission, would it have only been a misdemeanor, and then I saw that the felony charge was for stealing livestock. Then I noticed her last name . . .
 
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