Thoughts on Blackface

I was in the gym this morning, and it suddenly hit me: blackface might be making fun of black people. That simply hadn't occurred to me. I've always just thought it was some weird-ass kind of theater, or some lame attempt at (non-malicious) humor...but somehow it didn't strike me as an attempt to poke fun. So that is a very different kettle of fish. I mean, I don't think that necessarily means that that's what people are intending it to be--Northam and Herring might easily have been as clueless as I was about it when they did it. Obviously something can still be racist even if not everyone who does it realizes that...but that's not the point. The point is that the trope could have an origin in bad intentions. I'm not even sure that the bad intentions are necessary. Actually, I suppose maybe the idea is that blackface is like a racist caricature.
   Anyway...maybe all that's obvious...but it wasn't....and isn't...obvious to me. It's the kind of thing it might be good for people to articulate better and more frequently in the public discussion.