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• f314@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  This is a British book, though

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  • arrow74@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    With the war and influx of American GIs and Britain, not to mention their colonies, I stand by my statement for Britain as well.

    What helps in the case of the UK is a larger percentage of their population lives in cities than the US too. Just by the math living in urban areas you’re just going to see more people and more people from outside your community will be come in.

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    • f314@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      True. A decade or two earlier might have been different: All the historical examples in this thread had my mind locked in to the thirties, not the fifties!

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  • FishFace@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I don’t think minstrel shows with black face were common in Britain?

    It’s more likely that white British people took it as “much darker than the skin we’re assuming for people” which is enough to make the simile work.

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    • undeadotter@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      You’d be wrong on that I’m afraid:

      The Black and White Minstrel Show is a British light entertainment show on BBC prime-time television that ran from 1958 to 1978. The weekly variety show presented traditional American minstrel and country songs, as well as show tunes and music hall numbers, lavish costuming and often with cast members in blackface.

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      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        What the fuck‽ Until '78‽

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      • ininewcrow@lemmy.ca ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        and that was the problem … the Brits loved the idea of a minstrel show in black face because it had everything they loved about it … presenting black people as comical caricatures to be made fun of while also being presented and performed by white people … because they never thought of hiring and paying for actual black people to do these things.

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      • FishFace@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        :(

        I’ll hope that it was still less common than in the US

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• Atomic@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I know it’s difficult to grasp the idea that the world is larger than just the US. But you’ll juat have to try.

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  • arrow74@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I mean let’s be real minstrel shows are explicitly a western concept. Go down another comment and I addressed the UK as well, but really that’s going to apply anywhere Americans were during WW2 as well.

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    • Atomic@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      The whole idea of minstrel shows was to mock africans. Seeing a white guy in blackface is not equivalent to seeing a black person.

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      • arrow74@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        What the fuck are you talking about?

        My whole point was by 1950 most white people had seen a black person and that their only idea wasn’t a minstrel show

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  • zjti8eit@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    lies, lies! foreign countries are just made up for the movies

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