Was al jolson, the 1920s entertainer who performed in blackface a racist for doi

Question:I don't think so. It was a very different era, and a very different time in American History. I was just thinking about this the other day actually. You are too young to remember probably, but the old Tom and Jerry Cartoons, had a large black woman, and I'm sorry for saying this but dressed like Aunt Jamima, as one of the main characters in the story lines. I also remember Tom, trying to pick up a female kitty in one of the episodes, he's playing upright string bass and singing "Is you is or is you ain't my baby". Does that make William Hannah and Joseph Barbera racist? I don't think so, it was acceptable behavior 30 years ago. Al Jolson actually went "blackface" out of respect for the black performers of the 1920's (Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Scott Joplin, Duke Ellington, the writer Langston Hughes, the painter Jacob Lawrence, Ella Fitzgerald a little later, the list goes on. I think he admired all of the performers of his time, and it was one of the ways that a white man (or woman) could make a statement without being killed by members of the Klu Klux Klan. It's sad that it's the way American History was, but it was a harsh reality at the time. Just my opinion, I don't know if it's true or not.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I don't think so. It was a very different era, and a very different time in American History. I was just thinking about this the other day actually. You are too young to remember probably, but the old Tom and Jerry Cartoons, had a large black woman, and I'm sorry for saying this but dressed like Aunt Jamima, as one of the main characters in the story lines. I also remember Tom, trying to pick up a female kitty in one of the episodes, he's playing upright string bass and singing "Is you is or is you ain't my baby". Does that make William Hannah and Joseph Barbera racist? I don't think so, it was acceptable behavior 30 years ago. Al Jolson actually went "blackface" out of respect for the black performers of the 1920's (Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Scott Joplin, Duke Ellington, the writer Langston Hughes, the painter Jacob Lawrence, Ella Fitzgerald a little later, the list goes on. I think he admired all of the performers of his time, and it was one of the ways that a white man (or woman) could make a statement without being killed by members of the Klu Klux Klan. It's sad that it's the way American History was, but it was a harsh reality at the time. Just my opinion, I don't know if it's true or not.

Al Jolson was a performer. My dad, who was black, talked about Mr. Jolson a lot but never indicated a feeling of racism. Perhaps because in those days racism was entwined in the American fabric. But my father seemed to have liked him. I found this site and it does shed some light on Jolson's character. I think you might find it enlightening.

http://blackstarnews.com/?c=135&a=3343