Blackfacing

Blackfacing means making up a white person with black paint to give them the appearance of having a different skin color. This practice is widespread throughout Germany and is used, for example, in theater productions, carnival parades or carol singing groups. In addition to the visual change, blackfacing also has a political dimension that has caused intense discourse in recent years (cf. Voss 2014, 103).

Colonial tradition
„Blackfacing / Blackface is a theatrical and entertainment masquerade that originated in the 19th century United States, but was taken up in Europe at the beginning of European colonial rule.“ (Khabo Koepsell 2015, 48) In so-called ‚minstrel shows‘, white actors* made themselves up with black paint or charcoal and „portrayed racist stereotypes of the Black population. […] Black skin color, in the tradition of Blackfacing, always stood for primitiveness and mental limitation.“ (Khabo Koepsell 2015, 48) Contemporary blackfacing thus makes use of racist traditions and reproduces them.

Blackfacing in Germany
In recent years, cultural events in Germany in which blackfacing has been used have been highly criticized. For example, the theater production Ich bin nicht Rappaport by the Schlosspark Theater in Berlin on January 5, 2012, or the ZDF show Wetten, dass…? in December 2013, in which citizens of Augsburg dressed up as Jim Knopf and Lukas der Lokomotivführer. Even if blackfacing in Germany is not directly in the tradition of American minstrel shows and the intention of those responsible for the above-mentioned examples cannot be considered racist, blackfacing is based on stereotypes and racist ideas shaped by the colonial past.

Racism is independent of the intention

People of Color (e.g., activists of the Bühnenwatsch association) criticize „white people’s power to define racism“ (Ganz 2012, 127) and point out that racism is often structural and can be perpetrated regardless of intention. For example, Hylton observed that people in the audience at Serena Williams tennis matches blackfaced themselves, noting, „Some argue that face painting at motor racing, and other sport and leisure events is good natured and fun for all. For these people, blackfacing falls into the category of harmless and innocuous fun. However, another reading of it is that no performance of blackface can be neutral in terms of its impact on Black and mioritised ethnic communities. It is undeniable that Black and minoritised communities are sensitive, and therefore vulnerable, to the performance of blackface.“ (Hylton 2018, 11)