Looking at the video "Ethnic Notations," it really shed some light on the origin of stereotypes on African American peoples, and can also be applied to other racial groups. One of the things in the movie that they talked about that could be looked more into is some of the reasons they gave for Whites playing in black-face. They gave one reason that was "the release themselves by playing blacks in black-face," basically saying that because people used to believe that Blacks were happy when they were enslaved (because of singing and dancing that happened within), the Whites were most likely not able to do such things unless they were in black-face. I actually slightly disagree with this concept, and think that it was only done for entertainment purposes, to degrade and "force" other people to believe what is being said (or in this case, acted) on stage.
Another thing that I tried to do more research on was an example of a modern-day minstrel act. Really good examples of this that are actually still taken as a joke, are modern-day comedians. People like Daniel Tosh, Kevin Hart, Carlos Mencia all different races, however all make exaggerated jokes/skits about other races (and their own race). The only thing that is different between back then and now is the (somewhat) fact that most comedians will not be reprimanded for saying (most) racist things (and even sexist things, but that's another point).
Damian, I like what you say about how black facing was purely a form of degradation of another race, and I agree that it most likely wasn’t a release for white people to act ridiculous. If they wanted to do that they had specialty shows specifically for doing so. I do want to however make the comment that most comedians like Carlos Mencia, George Lopez, or Dave Chapelle can make racist jokes about not just their own race and other races because they are members of the “minority” racial groups so for some reason it is appropriate for them to say those things about themselves and other historically oppressed groups. However if a white comedian makes racist jokes it is for the most part considered inappropriate because of the history of white and minority relations. I personally have never seen a white comedian make a blatant racist joke (except for a few Jewish comedians but I guess they are considered a minority) because they know that it would not turn out well for them. They are allowed to comment on it, but not make fun of it.
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