Black Skins, Black Masks or “The Return of the White Negro”

Abstract

This article explores the meanings behind the public personae of two “White Negroes”—Dennis Rodman and RuPaul. It argues that they are examples of blackface minstrelsy in the post-Fordist age. The article draws the connection between minstrelsy of the nineteenth century and the performances of Rodman and RuPaul in the twentieth century by demonstrating that their performances, like minstrelsy, worked to help mask tensions within and between classes while managing desires for racial domination and the anxieties provoked by racial envy. The article concludes by exploring how both artists attempt to exert their agency rather than simply remaining the passive object of the white male gaze and the tensions that ensue.