Monday, October 15, 2007
The Gift of Laughter
Fauset's piece was an interesting change. Instead of reading literature written by an African American writer we read something more for the purpose of informing us about the plight of the African American. Most of the other works we have read have been narratives such as novels or poems so this was an interesting change. In this piece Fauset explores the use of the African American as a source of entertainment for the white American. For example, she talks a lot about the Georgia minstrels and how they "portray for us the typical Negro which the white world thinks is universal". She is basically saying that whites take advantage of the plight of the African American. They are easy to make fun of because they have historically been thought of as inferior. THey aren't going to fight back either. She also talks about how it is an "unwritten law" that whites make fun of blacks wheter it be through minstrel shows or by other means. She provides us with an interesting perspective on some of our forms of entertainment.
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3 comments:
I agree that this piece was a great change of pace from what we have read so far in class. I liked how Fauset was able to inform the reader of the struggles of blacks in entertainment. As you said, this piece gave the reader multiple perspectives about African Americans involved in entertainment.
This is a good point, Alyssa. I agree that many of the African American characters which were presented as comedic were aimed at entertaining white audiences. This does not, however, take away from the underlying purpose of the comedic black figure for white America. I feel that portraying the African American character was a way for whites to represent the African American in a way that dehumanized them. The black character did not have realistic feelings or thoughts. He was simply on stage to entertain audiences.
Fauset did do a good job of exposing certain aspects of the african american hardships. I agree. It was nice to have a change and to explore this realm as opposed to looking at just stories and poems. I think it good to look at opinions of the time as it is to guess on people opinions drawing on from what we believe they were thinking through their vocabulary and writing styles.
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