 Minstrel shows portrayed and lampooned blacks in stereotypical and often disparaging ways, as ignorant, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, joyous, and musical.Blackface is a style of theatrical makeup in the United States and Britain, used to effect the countenance of an iconic, racist American archetype—that of the "darky" or "coon" (both are racial slurs).White blackface performers in the past used burnt cork and later greasepaint or shoe polish to blacken their skin and exaggerate their lips, often wearing woolly wigs, gloves, tailcoats, or ragged clothes to complete the transformation.