A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance

Abdurraqib considers both conventional blackface and its modern evolutions.

The logistics of historical blackface performance involved putting on a thick, paste-like makeup that did not mimic the actual brown tones of Black skin, but was instead intended to sharply contrast with white skin, creating a "horrifying look" (84). This caricature objectified and flattened Black people, contributed to the invisibility of Black performers, erased individuality, and reduced Blackness to a costume put on for the enjoyment of white people. White people's inability to understand why blackface is inappropriate for costumes makes Abdurraqib worry that blackface is how white people truly see Black people.

Abdurraqib positions white people appropriating Black language—especially the n-word—as a sort of modern blackface. After the 2016 election, digital blackface, or instances of white internet users pretending to be Black, became common. These performances were similarly reductive, collapsing the multitudes of Blackness into a single understanding.

Initially a linguistic term, code-switching describes the adjustment of a person’s speech, behavior, appearance, and expression for the benefit and comfort of others. Abdurraqib largely uses this term to describe the ways Black Americans adjust their behavior to disprove racial stereotypes or to match the expectations of other Black people. Abdurraqib considers both the benefits and costs of such code switching and its effects on a person’s self-fashioning and identity. Abdurraqib’s writing code switches throughout the collection to support and illustrate his argument.