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Cree Dueker
Professor Carter
BST 426U
18 March 2015
Performance and Perpetuation
The following paper will explore satirical performances of blackness in relation to historical
stereotypes presented through films such as Bamboozled from 2000 and Dear White People from
2014. Both films look to explore the performance of blackness through their storylines as well as
confronting socially constructed ideas and implications of what it means to be black and confront
the racial stereotypes that perpetuate around blackness today. Because race is a social construct
the meanings and stereotypes that go along with race are always in flux and evolving alongside
society. The dominant culture is able to create a society in which race can be marketed and
distributed in order to create a racial performance which can be copied and distributed amongst
society for consumption. These films are able to show how easily race can be both constructed
and subverted through different means of performance. These films due to their satirical nature
are able to explore the issues and the history surrounding Black stereotypes as well as redefining
them to give them contemporary relevance.
Bamboozled is Spike Lees satirical take on the television industry. This film is centered
around and Ivy-League educated black writer who is working at a major television network.
After his pitch for a Cosby Show-esque show depiction of a black family has been rejected he
devises a way to get himself fired and shake some people up and writes a modern day minstrel
show. Instead of using white actors donning blackface the show is performed with black actors in
blackface. He recruits two homeless street performers to star in his new age minstrel show. The

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show to his initial dismay is a television hit and while he finds great success there are also many
repercussions for all involved.
The very first episode of this contemporary minstrel show incorporate Mantan and Sleep
N Eat, otherwise known by Mantan and Womack, the two main performers. This show features
black actors donning blackface and being introduced for the first time to their audience
embodying the old coon stereotype, Mantan specifically is embodying the Zip Coon dressed in a
suit indicating his attempted imitation of a white man. They offer to take the audience back to a
simpler time when men were men, when women were women, and when n***ers knew their
place (Lee, Bamboozled). They then contrast this simpler time by expressing how they are tired
of how things are now, with the crack babies, professional athletes, hip-hop, and welfare checks.
While dressed up as racial caricatures from the past they are drawing parallels to stereotypical
views of the current Black community. The conditions of these actors lives are drastically
improved by engaging in this show. Being a coon is a profitable Black identity which they play
out both purposefully and consciously.
Eventually Manray sees the error of his ways and refuses to perform in the same
degrading coon stereotype as before. Although his on stage identity has given him a better
quality of life he realizes that the perpetuation of this overt stereotype is not only draining on him
personally but is dangerous to the Black community as a whole. His last performance as Mantan
is when he comes onstage without his makeup and costume on and that alone stuns the audience
into silence. As a homage to the first episode he urges the audience to go to their windows and
call out, I am sick and tired of being a n***er and I am not going to take it anymore (Lee,
Bamboozled). He is then forcibly removed from the stage while dancing because it is clear that
he will no longer engage in any coon like behavior nor will he be providing them with the new-

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age minstrel show that they desire. An explanation given to the audience is that he has developed
a case of coonitis that will be whipped out of him so that he will come back and perform in the
way that is both expected and desired of him.
Simiens film Dear White People is a social satire piece that follows the stories of four
Black students attending an Ivy League college. It follows them through their daily lives filled
with microaggressions, humor, love, and everyday struggles. Our main character is Sam, a
biracial woman who is more than aware of the state of race relations on campus hosting a radio
show called Dear White People as well as a zine called Ebony and Ivy about being a Black face
in a White space. Controversy breaks out on-campus both during and after a Black themed party
is thrown at one of the houses on campus. This party brings to light the non-post-racial era that
we live in and the perspectives of the white students on what it means to be Black in America
today.
There is a somewhat tender scene in which Coco and Troy are in bed after having slept
together, they are sharing a joint and talking in their afterglow. She admits that she is trying to
distance herself from middle class parents she left back in the South Side of Chicago who gave
her a ghetto name which is Colandrea. Their tender moment is ruined when Troy reveals that
although they shared a physical connection he has no real interest in pursuing a relationship with
her. The jezebel while attractive, can never find love only lust. The discomfort in watching this
scene stems from the reality that Coco represents. She is able to distract from her insecurities by
using her beauty as a shield and her sexuality as a weapon in order to achieve what she wants. To
be seen in a better light Coco dilutes parts of her Black identity in order to find social acceptance
this dilution can be seen when she is distancing herself from Black signifiers such as her hair,
eye color, and affiliation with certain neighborhoods. Coco does not see the beauty in her own

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Blackness and thus constructs a more agreeable identity in order to construct a mainstream
version of herself which she can market.
At the end of the party which Coco herself had a hand in organizing you can see her
disgust when she is looking around at the people pretending to be her. When Sam comes in after
the party has been discovered by the Black Student Union she is filmed giving a mini speech,
they pay millions of dollars on their lips, their tans, jay-z tickets, because they want to be like
us, and they got to be for a night (Simien, Dear White People). She then goes outside clearly
upset and takes off the blond wig that she was wearing for the night. Coco embodies a modern
Jezebel because she used her feminine wiles in addition to her cunning in order to achieve
whatever she wants, in this case she wanted power and recognition. By throwing this party she
gained both and yet she was unable to find happiness in this. Coco is able to work within a racist
and classist system and manipulate it in her favor. Like Sam, Coco is constantly performing a
profitable idea of blackness and thus it is painful to see that idea and identity donned as a
costume at a party. She tries to downplay this pain by suggesting that white people want to be
black so badly but this desire to attain blackness translates to having everything except for the
pain and racism actually associated with being black. All the white girls at the party experiencing
their version of blackness for the night will never understand why Coco is constantly running
away from the pain of blackness, of being a dark skinned girl, being invisible, and of not being
the chosen girl to love.
Both of these movies explore popular culture and how the media informs us of both our
own identity and the identity of others. This party and this show gave people the opportunity to
perform as black while not living a black experience. The fact that blackness is something that
can be donned or performed so easily by people who are Black and by people who are White

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reinforces the idea that blackness is something that is socially constructed and influenced by
popular and political culture. Both films used different techniques to showcase how performance
reinforces or challenges ideas of race. In Bamboozleds new minstrel shows black actors put
blackface on and dress in stereotypical Sambo and Coon type outfits in order to go on stage and
make an audience laugh. Within Mantans performance and Cocos party the performance of
Blackness is reinforced through their dress, words, and actions. Race is a social construction
which can be performed by an individual or group to reflect and affirm societys ideas and
prejudices that belong to a specific group of people. Our society has been constructed so that the
dominant subcultures are able to perform within subcultures without being a part of that cultures
community. We are able to don a certain type of blackness and then take it off without being
affiliated with its negative connotations. The idea of blackface being used on black people vs. the
party where students are dressed in what it means to them to be black including donning
blackface. Dominant social groups are able to explore different performances without fear of
repercussion as well as being in change of what is standard or acceptable in the performances of
others.

Works Cited
Bamboozled. By Spike. Lee. Dir. Spike. Lee. New Line Cinema, 2000.
Dear White People. Dir. Justin Simien. Homegrown Pictures, 2014. DVD.