The stage was not the only place where caricatures of African Americans were on display. The graphic art on Minstrel Show sheet music and posters were also v…
Joshua Aaron
With a keen ear for detail, Joshua Aaron delves deep into the rhythms of the music industry. His insightful reviews of songs and their corresponding sheet music unravel the magic behind every composition. Journey with him through the symphony of sound.
When I was a kid there was a mother and father with a little girl about my
age, who came over to my house. I’m not that old, im only 28. But my dad is
slightly racist against blacks and asians, he’s always talking about how he
doesn’t really like them. He jokes about them but I know he doesn’t really
like them for real.
He says things about them that are mean and clearly racist and he thinks
the white race is better than them. When I was a kid, I had sort of learned
this from my dad and when I was a child I picked up on this from him, I‘m
not like that anymore though.
That little girl happened to be black. She had been in my bedroom and she
had picked up a doll of mine for whatever reason. Later when she and her
parents had left, I found out she had broken my doll because I came back
and the doll was broken. In my mind I connected the fact that she was black
with the fact that she had broken my doll. It made me mad. Anyway…..
The funny thing is back then people inaccurately pictured black people as
monkeys when in fact the human race as a whole is closely related to the
chimpanzee and has nothing to do with any one races outward appearance,
each particular races’ appearance has to do with what particular advantage
those physical traits gave us when we developed them.
All you have to do is go to a play ground and watch a group of kids play
with each other. Watch a new kid go into an established group and the
established group immediately starts picking on the strange new kid.
Adults act the same way–they utilize they same basic tactics in a more
complex manner, but it is still just as childish. Watch how countries treat
each other, they share only if they get a benefit out of it such as oil,
wealth, land, etc., and often pick on each other based on their culture,
race.
This could be anyone they could be talking about, not just black people,
and anyone can be mean not just white people, it just happens to be old,
white men. It is a part of human nature, sadly. Part of this trait is
partially built in to human nature because humans are animals–the human
species–and we got this trait from animals, if you watch primates they
have similar behavior although probably not as specific as and relentless
as humans.
a reflection upon humanitity’s struggle to treat others with respect, human
dignity, and maturity. others. Adults are often not any more mature than
children and the way people learn to treat others often starts in
childhood. We often learn our behavior from other people, from adults and
they learn it from others.
slavery worked because people learned they could get away with it at the
expense of others suffering and the system worked for a time. people love
to put others down and we still do, it’s just not as obvious. humans are
cruel and not as compassionate as we’d like to think of ourselves. we’re
fucking stupid. we use what works only even of it means using others.
A sad era in American music, I love your collection of sheet music, very
historical, Thankyou