Darkest America: Black Minstrelsy from Slavery to Hip-Hop

Starting in the mid-nineteenth century, African American performers began acting as blackface fools to entertain audiences. Minstrelsy is now considered an embarrassing anachronism, but it remains relevant to popular black entertainment. Authors Yuval Taylor and Jake Austen argue that minstrelsy lives on in the work of Dave Chappelle, Flavor Flav, Spike Lee, and Lil Wayne. Darkest America begins with the origins of minstrelsy and travels through to the present-day, arguing against the myth that it was foisted on blacks by whites, and that such performances can be liberating.

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