File talk:Six Brown Bros. in pierrot costumes (LOC) line.jpg

Category errors

Wolfmann Please be more careful when categorizing images. The Six Brown Brothers were not from the United States, they were Canadian. They also were not blackface performers. They are wearing traditional clown costumes in the French tradition (pierrot) which is also part of their French-Canadian heritage. These costumes and makeups have nothing to do with blackface or minstrelsy.4meter4 (talk) 20:12, 4 June 2024 (UTC)

Thank you very much for the clarification and help! But still: how would you interpret the character on the far right? This performer has makeup and a costume in the Blackface tradition, hasn't he? Wolfmann (talk) 12:00, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

@Wolfmann Colored makeups don't show in black and white photos. It's highly probable that it's a dark red clown makeup. We would need to see a source connecting it to a blackface makeup to say otherwise, particularly given the context of the French clown costumes and the Six Brown Bros. background as French-Canadian circus performers. Remember minstrelsy was an American, not Canadian, art form (although American minstrel shows did tour to Canada and some Canadians came to America and performed in them). I've not been able to locate anything in newspaper archives connecting the brothers to minstrelsy or blackface, but I have found lots connecting them to French-style clowns. Best.4meter4 (talk) 15:12, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

@Wolfmann Well, just found this in the Canadian Encyclopedia https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/six-brown-brothers-emc . Looks like it is blackface.4meter4 (talk) 15:47, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

I am a contributor from Norway and unfortunately do not know Canadian or other national history well enough. However, old photographs show that black-painted white performers (as well as pierrot figures) were well-known in international show business and therefore appeared on stage and in films in other countries as well. These could occasionally be seen when entertainers, actors, and musicians aimed to imitate American traditions (or continental European ones). Here in Norway, for example, some blackface characters appeared in a Norwegian-produced musical TV show on state television in the 1960s without most people reacting negatively to it. At that time, there were few dark-skinned people in Norwegian society, and racism was likely considered a foreign problem. Wolfmann (talk) 02:58, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

According to this article in Norwegian Blackface was part of popular culture in Norway in the 1800s, introduced from the USA and featured in Norwegian entertainment for decades. It was common in theaters and even used for entertainment by polar explorers. The tradition included black-painted white performers and parodies of African American culture, which was seen as unproblematic at the time. However, this reflects a history of both fascination with and racism towards African American culture in Norway. Blackface is considered highly racist and offensive today.

And by the way, In Scandinavia Pierrot is still a living tradition in Copenhagen: https://alastairphilipwiper.com/blog/pierrot-tivoli-denmark

Thank you for contributing, correcting and helping! Wolfmann (talk) 03:19, 6 June 2024 (UTC)