minstrel
noun
Note: The acts of minstrels, who typically performed in blackface, featured exaggerated and inaccurate representations of Black people in songs, dances, and comic dialogue. The popularity of minstrel shows in their heyday played a significant role in promoting negative racial stereotypes. Professional minstrel shows had fallen out of favor and effectively disappeared by the mid-20th century.
Synonyms
Examples of minstrel in a Sentence
Jesse David Fox, Vulture, 16 Mar. 2024
Though his English now follows textbook grammar, Snowball’s minstrel qualities remain.
—Walker Mimms, New York Times, 4 June 2024
The success of Boucher’s banjo business coincided with the rise of minstrel shows where white performers in blackface makeup played banjos before the instrument was associated with white bluegrass and folk players in the 20th century.
—Dillon Mullan, Baltimore Sun, 18 Apr. 2024
Among the departures from Twain’s text is a subplot involving Jim performing in a minstrel troupe and donning blackface alongside the white actors.
—Lauren Michele Jackson, The New Yorker, 26 Mar. 2024
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“Minstrel.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/minstrel. Accessed 4 Jul. 2024.
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minstrel
noun
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