What best describes a minstrel show?

Answer 1

Minstrels was the term for musicians - singers, dancers, comedians and instrumentalists, frequently all the same person - who traveled singly or in groups and performed publicly in medieval Europe. Their shows were popular because their songs told stories of unfamiliar places, or of events in other places; the availability of public entertainment in the Middle Ages, in Europe, was comparatively limited and wandering minstrels not only provided entertainment but also brought news and, sometimes, goods, from places they'd visited. So the arrival in town of wandering minstrels was warmly welcomed as a great source of fun as well as of information.

American minstrel shows, in the 1800s and the early part of the 1900s, featured white musicians wearing blackface makeup in order to imitate black people; the performances were usually derogatory of black people, and though they did celebrate the popular concept that black people were, generally, excellent musicians, they also presented a false picture of the life lived by black people in those times. These shows were popular because of their happy, infectious music and dancing, and also because they gave audiences the opportunity to laugh at jokes made at the expense of another group of people; this is historically the basis for a great deal of public entertainment, and the American minstrel shows took their name from medieval minstrels because of the similarity of their performances.

Answer 2

Whites painted their faces black to impersonate blacks