i love theater history honestly but one thing that becomes really apparent when reading about entertainment as an art and industry in the us is that minstrel shows have been HUGELY influential to white american theater/comedy and you cant really.. ignore that
like we've seen discussion of antiblackness and clown tropes and i dont think its accurate to say that Everything about american clowns is based in antiblackness (since theres also influence from european clowning) but it's still something that needs to be considered in modern Clown Appreciation esp for white people i think, because we're so capable of hurting ppl with those tropes