Dr. Tanya Jayani Fernando, PhD

BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator Dr. Tanya Jayani Fernando, PhD is an assistant professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is completing a book on the avant-garde concept of shock. She has written a play on dance, patronage, and race, called Dance, Salome! Dance! Click here to contact Dr. Fernando.

Guest Commentary

The New Millennium Minstrel Show

By Dr. Tanya Jayani Fernando, PhD Guest Commentator

In Spike Lee�s film Bamboozled (2000), we get a powerful close-up of a visibly distressed black performer applying blackface. The tears are unscripted. Lee said that the actors dreaded blacking up: they felt it was dehumanizing; it tore out their souls. Recently, as part of a performance at Danspace Project at St Mark�s Church, a…

In Spike Lee�s film Bamboozled (2000), we get a powerful close-up of a visibly distressed black performer applying blackface. The tears are unscripted. Lee said that…

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