the minstrel depicted today

Art 21 is a series on PBS documenting contemporary artists who describe and explain their work not only aesthetically, but theoretically. In one episode, artist Michael Ray Charles presents his art — paintings that very explicitly touch on notions of race and race relations by heavily using the minstrel and/or "sambo" image. What is especially interesting about Charles' work is his presentation of the minstrel or sambo in a contemporary, cultural context — the sambo as some sort of punk, the sambo enjoying a basketball as it were a watermelon.

The response to Charles work has unfortunately (and maybe expectedly) been...strange. In the documentary, Charles makes clear that he is often criticized for his depicted stereotypes, playing into them too much. His art and in turn, his race, is questioned.

"I've been called a sellout. People question my blackness," Charles says. "A lot of people accuse me of perpetuating a stereotype. I think there's a fine line between perpetuating something and questioning something. And I like to get as close to it as possible."

What his audience fails to realize is that Charles' intention is to be explicit — to make people uncomfortable, and more specifically, to make people question why they might feel uncomfortable. Charles wants his audience to question race relations, and by infusing two different time periods in one body of work (the punk-sambo, for example), he furthermore allows us to question racial issues today in comparison to those of yesterday.

It's saddening to me the inability to question these issues and more so, the inability to understand these issues are still relevant (this guy is a perfect example). The underlying problem seems to be a denial in recognizing that history continues to play an active role in today's race relations; that slavery has a direct correlation to today's constructs, whether they be political, social, economical, or cultural. There is a denial that white supremacy is still very much alive and it is because of its historical legitimization that it is still alive.

Like Charles, David Roediger also uses the minstrel image/stereotype to elaborate what has been mentioned above. Minstrel shows were a way for white viewers to legitimize their whiteness. In wearing black face, the white minstrel performer came to represent the "other" on stage — creating a new sense of whiteness by "creating a new sense of blackness," as Roediger explains. This helped to cover racial tensions between whites and blacks. This continues to cover racial tensions between whites and blacks.

It's also important to note that the minstrel show laid the foundation for the minstrel and sambo caricature. That years after, the black stereotype would grow to be included in advertisements for food, travel — whatever — romanticizing the black man and woman for exploitive purposes. This is something Charles also highlights in his work, many of his paintings resemble ad campaigns.

And while the minstrel images of the past worked to cover racial tensions between whites and blacks, I would argue Charles' work does the opposite. His art sets tension front and center, allowing for a deeper, more profound and nuanced reading. Unfortunately, much of his audience response has been inadvertently racist — the extent of their reading is the painfully obvious stereotype.

- Joel Escobedo

Watch Michael Ray Charles on Art 21 here.