note-a-bear: BWAH! Okay, so I keep meaning to look for this semi-rant I wrote about this cartoon ages ago. The main thing is: This is a cartoon in blackface, seriously By which I mean, it’s based on Al Jolson, famed jazz singer and blackface performer from the 30s (this character is named Owl Jolson) More specifically this cartoon is based on his film The Jazz Singer, in which his climactic reconciliation of his background as a Hasidic Jew and jazz/blackface performer comes about with him in blackface This whole narrative plays into a dual role of Jews as the “new Blacks” or the “N——- of Europe” at the turn of the last century (though European anti-Semitism has a long history) and their role in US minstrelsy/proliferation of white jazz performance in the first part of the 20th century. Don’t get me wrong, I love this cartoon, and I used to watch it all the time on the Tex Avery show and Toon Heads back when Cartoon Network played old cartoons all the time. It’s not a bad cartoon, and it’s one of the top examples of the role cartoons had in expanding the listenership of jazz. But it is a very interesting example of just how insidious blackface was and on how many levels it was applied.  Sheeyit, I never knew.

note-a-bear:

BWAH!

Okay, so I keep meaning to look for this semi-rant I wrote about this cartoon ages ago.

The main thing is:

  1. This is a cartoon in blackface, seriously
  2. By which I mean, it’s based on Al Jolson, famed jazz singer and blackface performer from the 30s (this character is named Owl Jolson)
  3. More specifically this cartoon is based on his film The Jazz Singer, in which his climactic reconciliation of his background as a Hasidic Jew and jazz/blackface performer comes about with him in blackface
  4. This whole narrative plays into a dual role of Jews as the “new Blacks” or the “N——- of Europe” at the turn of the last century (though European anti-Semitism has a long history) and their role in US minstrelsy/proliferation of white jazz performance in the first part of the 20th century.

Don’t get me wrong, I love this cartoon, and I used to watch it all the time on the Tex Avery show and Toon Heads back when Cartoon Network played old cartoons all the time. It’s not a bad cartoon, and it’s one of the top examples of the role cartoons had in expanding the listenership of jazz. But it is a very interesting example of just how insidious blackface was and on how many levels it was applied.

 Sheeyit, I never knew.