Blackface by Ayanna Thompson is a short book about - you guessed it - blackface. I am very thankful for getting to read this ARC. My country, the Netherlands, has its own blackface tradition in the shape of Zwarte Piet/Black Pete that is still very much present in the twenty-first century.

Thompson explains blackface's origin in old Shakespearean plays in England and how that evolved into minstrel shows. Then with older and more modern examples, she explains how Black bodies have been and are portrayed in movies and on television. She also explains how white innocence is used as an excuse when it turns out that celebrities and/or political figures have done blackface. "I did not know better." or "I did it because I love/feel inspired by him/her/them." etc. See this following quote:

"Up until this current moment, white people have believed that performing blackness was a white property that could -- if done with the proper intent -- demonstrate, physically, one's love of black identity and culture. Of course, this assumption rests on the white supremacist belief that white innocence trumps all, including a violently racist history."

Thompson was clear in her chapters and wrote in an easily understandable language. I would love for her work to be translated into Dutch so there will be more understanding about why our tradition of Black Pete has to stop. I truly recommend Blackface to my fellow Dutchies and others who are still ignorant about it.