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.
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.
A more typical "blackface minstrel" which can only be interpreted as a grossly insulting stereotype.