Black performers had to perform in blackface to enter the American stage.

Evidence

By the late 1860s and early 1870s, minstrelsy had become too big for any American performer to escape. In so many ways, it was the culture. If a Black performer wanted to be seen or heard, chances were good that he’d have to pretend to be a white person masquerading as a Black person. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1118

Categorization

• SHARE: For a colleague working on racial performance: the forced double-masquerade (Black performer pretending to be a white person pretending to be Black) is a great usable paradox.