: Re: Limited 3rd Person: How to reveal character's black skin? I have a scene that I'm working on. The character in the scene is an actor who's black wearing a black face. At the end of the scene

@Angie602

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You're sort of tricking the reader, inasmuch as you're subverting their assumption about the character. Whether or not it works lies entirely in the reveal, which could be as simple as merely stating at the end that he is a black man working in a minstrel show, perhaps after saying "the black gave way to brown" (or similar phrasing) as he removed his makeup.

However, be sure of your historical context here. Black actors did commonly perform in blackface minstrel shows without conflict. And minstrel show performers (white and black) used burnt cork to color their faces until greasepaint makeup was popularized in the early 1900s. A quick newspaper search turned up plenty of contemporary and later references. A black former minstrel interviewed in old age described wearing blackface--for whites as well as blacks--as "pure showmanship" and compared it to circus clown makeup.

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