Position: From Coon to Cool

Abstract

Having stated that the question of the color line was the question for the twentieth century, what would W. E. B. Du Bois say about the twenty-first? How far have we traveled from coon to cool? Has any substantive change occurred in the perception/reception of the black dancing body since minstrelsy? If so, where and how?

I had this stunning moment when my brother brought this great black athlete to the house for dinner. … I had never seen a black person close. This was when I was in high school, real early ’50s. … And I was embarrassed to look right at him, and I wanted to look at him a lot, you know? But I did-n’t dare do that. There was a mirror and there was a bouquet on top of the mirror on the dining room table with white linens. God—and I could see him by looking down, I could see him in the mirror. So you know, that was the first step.

—Trisha Brown