Assignment Task: Based on the Film essay called Black Face, White noise by Gregg Rogin & The film "The Jazz Singer"
Based on "Black Face, White Noise," Rogin's central thesis: Singing in blackface enables "Jack Robin" to straddle a line between ethnic jewish (immigrant) identity and modern American culture.
Q1. How does Rogin supports this thesis?
Q2. How does the film "The Jazz Singer" seem to mirror the lives of the movie moguls that helped to create it?
Q3. How does the film "wish away" the prejudice directed toward Jewish immigrants?
Q4. How does the film present a form of "musical miscegenation"
Q5. How does this relate to the history of jazz as a collaboration between African Americans and Jewish Americans? How does blackface allow the jazz singer to gain social mobility while still honoring his cultural roots?