And then this most amazing, disturbing, sad, and revelatory strip that Herriman did when he was 22 years old called Musical Mose. So Mose is a minstrel character that showed up on stage, as well as showed up in newspaper comics. Herriman created Musical Mose, a musician.
The third reason for thinking about the cat's minstrel ancestry is that borrowing from American iconography, the Cat in the Hat and the minstrel both dramatize the moral contradictions at the heart of the United States, a country founded both on slavery and, paradoxically, on the idea of freedom.
A source for the cat's red bow tie is Krazy Kat, the ambiguously gendered creation of biracial cartoonist George Herriman. Seuss also draws on the traditions of minstrelsy, an influence that emerges first in a minstrel show that he wrote and performed in in blackface while in high school. In fact, blackface minstrelsy recurs in Seuss's early cartoons, in 20th century popular culture, and its traces linger on in many other icons
Strookoo Cuckoos. Dr. Seuss's work is both racist and opposes racism and does both in the same decade. These characters and the cat's minstrel ancestry reveal Seuss's racial unconscious, indicating how his imagination resuscitated and revised early 20th century and 19th century stereotypes. His career also reminds us that you don't need to be a Klansman or, say, Donald Trump, to participate in white supremacy.
This became a national news story at the time. The third reason for thinking about the cat's minstrel ancestry is that borrowing from American iconography, the Cat in the Hat and the minstrel both dramatize the moral contradictions at the heart of the United States, a country founded both on slavery and, paradoxically,
And he either makes it into a pipe or he makes it into a harp from her breastbone. And then he goes to play, this minstrel . This shepherd who's made this instrument for himself goes to the King's hall, and starts trying to play,
I'm going to be showing a lot of comics, including a lot of comics from the-- some from the late 1800s and early 1900s. And it's worth noting right now that the roots of comic strips and the roots of vaudeville and minstrel shows are one and the same. So some of the comics, just to let people know, are going to reflect some of the ethnic stereotypes that were on stage at minstrel shows and on the page
Then you have people that are storytellers. And storytellers are these narrators, and orators, and minstrels . These are the people-- whether it's through writing, or whether it's through painting, or whether it's through video, or whether it's through dance,
Seuss also draws on the traditions of minstrelsy, an influence that emerges first in a minstrel show that he wrote and performed in in blackface while in high school. In fact, blackface minstrelsy recurs in Seuss's early cartoons, in 20th century popular culture, and its traces linger on in many other icons of children's literature. As Robin Bernstein says-- I'm going to quote her here at length-- "Children's culture has a special ability to preserve even as it distorts and transmit
My inspiration was always my teacher who used to teach me. And Salam and Ali Khan who started concept, all these minstrels of classical music and my mom. I had several teachers in Mumbai as well.
And it's worth noting right now that the roots of comic strips and the roots of vaudeville and minstrel shows are one and the same. So some of the comics, just to let people know, are going to reflect some of the ethnic stereotypes that were on stage at minstrel shows and on the page in American newspapers, and still exist now, but submerged in characters, like Cat in the Hat, and Mickey Mouse, and Krazy Kat.
He did about four or five strips. It ran across several different newspapers, using, as you see, the visual cues for a minstrel character. They're very common in his newspapers of that time.
helping students see the ways in which the books reinforce racism and engaging in painful, but I think necessary, conversations. And this is why, just as popular characters like the Cat in the Hat, Mickey Mouse, and Bugs Bunny naturalize their own minstrel origins, so bowdlerized versions of classic books normalize the racism that revisionists aspire to expunge.
together made the pages bleed into one another. If I had done that immediately, I never would have handed it in that way. Unfortunately, it waited until I had handed it in to bleed. And last year, I was absolutely sure that I was going to win the Junior Class Thespian Award for my portrayal of the wandering minstrel Nanki Poo until the costume mistress who has always behaved toward me in an antagonistic manner for some reason she had never inform me of, switched my wooden sandals with those of Coco, the lord high executioner. And as
And if it cannot, at least my mind will be occupied and my hands busy. As for fables about good and evil and songs about glass slippers, I shall leave those to the minstrels . They can invent their own tales about Cinderella." So that's the prologue, which I think sort of sets up the book in that she's going to tell
And if I saw the woman from Minnesota, I would think, "What are you thinking?" And vice versa. members. But social media and technology are platforms. They're like sky writing or traveling minstrels