blackface
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.
Origin of blackface
1Words Nearby blackface
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use blackface in a sentence
In 2019, when Northam came under fire for a photo from his 1984 medical school yearbook page depicting one person in blackface and another in Klan robes, Herring was among the first to call for him to resign over the incident.
Northam endorses Norfolk delegate for Virginia attorney general, bypassing incumbent Herring | Gregory S. Schneider | March 4, 2021 | Washington PostShe addressed her use of blackface in a 2007 episode of her Comedy Central sitcom, “The Sarah Silverman Program,” even turning it into a penetrating bit.
Silverman, after telling the audience that blackface — under any circumstances — is wrong, invited actor Don Cheadle onstage to explain its history.
So it seems the racism of blackface has morphed into Blackfishing.
The group also referred to Northam as “the blackface governor” and said he was “destroying the Commonwealth.”
Conspicuous Confederate flag over I-95 in Stafford County removed | Michael Laris | October 29, 2020 | Washington Post
Was the blackface scene with Gene Wilder in Silver Streak an important step in how American audiences view minstrelsy?
How Richard Pryor Beat Bill Cosby and Transformed America | David Yaffe, Scott Saul | December 10, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWhite suburbanites getting dolled up in blackface for Ray Rice Halloween costumes.
‘Dear White People’: How An Ex-Publicist’s Twitter Became One of the Year’s Most Important Films | Marlow Stern | October 30, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTNone 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.
Paradise Garden | George GibbsIn 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.
The I.W.W. | Paul Frederick Brissenden
British Dictionary definitions for blackface
/ (ˈblækˌfeɪs) /
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
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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