Thread by @UT_Doc_C

There’s been a lot of attention given to some of our student athletes’ responses to UT’s fight song, “The Eyes of Texas” 1/

But many of us don’t know the full context, so I thought I would post a little thread about the legacy of minstrelsy, in general and re: EOT 2/

This isn’t my orig research…built on many others’ work, so there’s plenty more detail than I give here if you want it #libraries 3/

WARNING: some images may disturb, but meant for educational purposes…totally ok if you choose not to follow links to images, vids 4/

First off, for those from the outside wondering ??...this is the UT fight song we are talking about: 5/

It is performed at pretty much *every UT event you can imagine…but esp popular at the end of FB games...EVERYONE SINGS ALONG 🤘 6/

For many it stands for the 100+ year tradition of the school, but for others…not so much 7/

Recent discussions have sought to place it (and lots of other stuff) in the context of the school’s “complex” racial history: ugapress.org/book/978082034… 8/

So what is the issue? Read on… 9/

The song is based on the melody of a popular “children’s”(?) song, “I’ve Been Working On the Railroad/Levee": 10/

(Which itself satirizes the AFAM “work song” tradition, from the plantation to the penitentiary): 11/

…tagged with a part of a lesser-known song, “Someone’s in the Kitchen with Dinah” (slang for Black woman) 12/

But “Railroad” started its life as a minstrel song…sometimes called “coon songs” for reasons we’ll see…13/

…but for that we need to talk a bit about minstrelsy… 14/

…(as opposed to the popular notion of “minstrels” ppl associate with medieval times, ren faires, and GoT) 15/

BLACKFACE MINSTRELSY was a popular genre of music+theater that evolved in the 1830s in the US 16/

White performers would blacken their faces with shoe polish or burnt cork and perform as Black singers/dancers/comedians press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/… 17/

These characterizations were purposefully unflattering, often exaggerating--or outright making up--elements of blackness for comedic value, highlighting white anxieties about Blacks and the "peculiar institution" 18/

They caricatured visual elements like large, painted-on lips, whitened teeth, “nappy” hair, ratty clothing, etc 19/

But also actions: smiling, walking, dancing, speaking, etc 20/

And more importantly, IDEAS about Black people: lazy, sneaky, stupid, gullible, overly sexualized… 21/

…lacking in self-control, animalistic, “uppity,” etc.: 22/

And these performances were couched in discourses of AUTHENTICITY 23/

As in, performers would claim that their depictions were the *most accurate, and would be praised for them as such by a public… 24/

…whose *only sustained interaction with Black ppl were, in fact, these same *representations in minstrel shows 25/

Sry just realized the thread is broken...keep reading below

https://twitter.com/UT_Doc_C/status/1272216152614359052