Raising Cain

This is the story of an insubordinate, rebellious, popular culture stretching from Jim Crow to Hip hop. It is a look at how outcasts of official culture have made their own place in the world. Unearthing long-buried plays and songs, rethinking materials often deemed too troubling or lowly to handle, and overturning ideas about classics from "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to "The Jazz Singer", the author sets out a history of blackface dating back to the 1830s. He sees it as a cultural ritual that, for all its racist elements, was ultimately liberating. The book follows the forms of blackface which shows the modern social shifts produce disperse culture, as they project themselves into the rougher modes of postmodern life through such heirs of blackface as stand-up comedy, rock 'n' roll, talk TV, and Hip hop.