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blackface
[ blak-feys ]
noun
- Theater.
- an entertainer, especially in a minstrel or vaudeville show, made up in the role of a Black person. By the mid-20th century, these entertainers had declined in popularity because their comic portrayal of negative racial stereotypes was considered offensive.
- facial makeup, as burnt cork, used in this role:
They appeared in blackface.
- imitation of Black skin tone, speech, traditional dress, etc., by a person who is not Black:
White rappers are performing vocal blackface when they rap in a dialect they appropriated from the African American community.
- Printing. a heavy-faced type, usually darker than boldface.
blackface
/ ˈblækˌfeɪs /
noun
- a performer made up to imitate a Black person
- the make-up used by such a performer, usually consisting of burnt cork
- a breed of sheep having a dark face
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Word History and Origins
Origin of blackface1
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Example Sentences
Was the blackface scene with Gene Wilder in Silver Streak an important step in how American audiences view minstrelsy?
White suburbanites getting dolled up in blackface for Ray Rice Halloween costumes.
None have performed in blackface to my knowledge, but the decade is still young.
“In my race for the U.S. Senate, I was painted in blackface with big red lips and called an Uncle Tom,” Steele told the Beast.
In the 1840s, blackface was the most popular “art form” in America.
Jerry was laughing immoderately, though I admit such blackface pleasantry appealed little to my sense of humor.
In the upper valleys of the Alps there are many local varieties, one of which at Ossola is like the Scottish blackface.
They whisper it in a footnote, as it were, to their strident blackface statements about method.
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