Saturday, January 30, 2010

Hagenbeck-Wallace out front #2


SAVE0646, originally uploaded by bucklesw1.

Posted by Buckles at 1/30/2010 06:12:00 AM

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL, the lettering on that wagon made me think of the '08 election

30 January, 2010 09:04
Jack Ryan said...

First anonymous: ever think about your really racist views on life? It's a big world, dude. Learn to live in it.

30 January, 2010 22:05
Ken Laurence said...

I didn't take that comment as racist at all, but it did make me think a bit. I imagine that performer's stage name was chosen to highlight his race. It was probably very rare for a circus to hire black performers back then, as it is now.
Then, if a show hires an African-American performer, as with Ringling's ringmaster, then highlights the 'first African-American ringmaster ever' in it's publicity, did they hire that performer for the novelty of his race? No doubt he is as talented as the white applicants for the job, but why the need to use his race as publicity? With African Americans in high proffessional positions everywhere, is trumpeting a black performer for the uniqueness of his color in the circus actually some kind of racism too?
So did the Felds make a conscious decision to hire their ringmaster in an attempt to appeal to a greater audience demographic, as many believe the president was? Ringling has hired black performers such as the King Charles Troupe, the 'Chicago Kids' 'Satin', but always found the need to point out their race. Is it an outdated notion to even mention the first female, African American, Hispanic, etc. since it's obvious that everyone has an equal ability to be successful. I know it's impossible to have any sort of discussion like this without someone jumping in to cry "racist", but it's an interesting topic to think about. And, I wonder why the circus has never appealed to the larger black demograpic and so few have chosen to make it a career. So, no I don't think the topic is so sacred that humerous obsevations about the Blacaman wagon are intolerable. After all, we did hear the same thing for the last two years about candidate and now president Obama. Lighten up for goodness sake.

31 January, 2010 10:20

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