Michael Jackson and the Blackface Mask

Harriet Manning argues that the nineteenth-century blackface minstrelsy’s legacy is nowhere more evident than with Michael Jackson, in whom minstrelsy’s gestures and tropes are embedded. The author further contends that minstrelsy’s assumptions and uses have been fundamental to the troubles and controversies with which Jackson was beset. Blackface minstrelsy continues to permeate contemporary popular music and its audience. The body of contradiction behind the blackface mask provides an effective approach to try to understand Jackson, a cultural figure about whom more questions than answers have been generated.