Early radio’s biggest hit rested on minstrel-show racial caricature

Evidence

We have yet to ask an obvious question: Just what, exactly, was so enrapturing about Amos ‘n’ Andy? It was not necessarily the patter and gags. Despite The New Yorker’s enthusiasm, another early critic panned the show’s national debut in the New York Sun: “Their lines are not good and there is no pretense of whatever to carry out the illusion of comedy. It is a straight dialogue between two common-place ‘darkies’ and is without even the saving asset of a well thought-out situation…on first acquaintance they hardly attract a second glance.” Indeed, there were other regional radio minstrel shows in the 1920s, not much funnier, and none reached an audience anything close to that of Amos ‘n’ Andy. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 319

Categorization

• XREF: Documentation of racism embedded in mainstream attention industries — connects to the reader’s historical grounding on platform and media history. — connects to: Radio’s racial stereotypes reinforced blacks’ second-class status — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 320; Radio won white Protestant attention through stereotypes of blacks and Jews — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 325
• SEED: The founding blockbuster of US broadcast entertainment being a minstrel show underscores how racism built the attention economy — an article angle.

Broader Connections

• Radio won white Protestant attention through stereotypes of blacks and Jews #corroborates (0.78) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 325
• Radio’s racial stereotypes reinforced blacks’ second-class status #expands (0.75) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 320