Essay 7

Casey Petett
Essay 7

During the 1920’s, Europe was fascinated by aspects of black culture like music, dance, and athletics. France, in particular, embraced black culture from Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States. Dance and music was especially exotic for the bourgeoisie in France during this time. The French were able to escape from the social constraints of their class through their experiences with black culture. The celebrated trends of black culture were created using accepted racial stereotypes. Popular images helped reinforced longstanding myths held by the Europeans of their supremacy over all other races. Black culture thus served two purposes for the French—to provide an outlet from their lives and proof of their race’s status in the established racial hierarchy.
The Paris clubs that featured Antillais music allowed the French to escape their bourgeois world and experience something more primal. The music clubs created an exotic environment where many of society’s taboos could be challenged. The white European could even interact with black people from foreign countries. The dancing allowed the French to “transcend the bourgeois world and enter a fantastic Edenic paradise of primal enjoyments and sexual delights” (Archer-Straw). The French used the primitive stereotype of the African to escape to a less constricting time. These ideas of race contributed to the European perception that Western culture was advanced, while other cultures were primal.
The representation of Africans allowed the French to engage black culture without being “intimate with it.” Popular entertainment, such as minstrelsy, gave an inaccurate portrayal of African Americans in order to reinforce black caricatures of the time (Berliner). Minstrelsy allowed Europeans and Americans to view black culture on their own terms. Europe used minstrelsy as a way to help define the perception of black culture on the continent. The portrayal of Africans in minstrelsy was already familiar to the French, which allowed the medium to be more accessible to a larger audience. Minstrelsy allowed the French to escape their societal norms, but did not accurately represent black culture.
The popular images of Africans in Europe catered to racial attitudes of the time. The French were able to experience the black culture that they constructed. Black people were often portrayed through racist terms, which helped support the superiority of white culture. The French could engage Africans and imitate their behavior, but still hold on to their status in Europe and the world.