V. Evers, DANC 163, Dance and Identity Politics in American Negro Vaudeville

The way in which the Whitman sisters were able to challenge gender and racial lines through claiming a traditionally derogatory form of entertainment is courageous and inspiring. The fact that four African American women, a marginalized and disenfranchised social demographic, were able to gain popularity, respect, and social leverage at the beginning of the twentieth century is a tribute to their innovative form of social movement. The women crossed several social boundaries and through this convert form of resistance, they challenged the validity of the social construction of race and gender.

One of the particularly illustrative examples of this resistance and “take-over” of the minstrelsy is the scene in the kitchen at evening with the Mammy cooking and the children singing. Although the role of Mammy is a stereotypical role that over-simplifies and type-casts African American women, the sisters were able to humanize this family scene through singing religious songs. Since they themselves were raised by a reverend and they gained popularity in churches across America, they created this scene not only because of their personal connection to the songs, but also in order to add texture and reality to this stereotypical scenario.

Another example of how the Whitman sisters used vaudeville to challenge social norms is through their manipulation of racial and gender roles. Because the sisters were fair-skinned enough to “pass” as white women, they played off these assumptions from the audience through acting in black face or dying their hair blonde. The resulting confusion in the audience was an important tool in highlighting the arbitrariness of race and the “idea that identity can be read on the body” (73). The women, particularly Alberta, also cross-dressed and thus challenged the audience’s notions about the gender binary and the limits of female capability. Ultimately, the Whitman sisters reached a "high-class" standard through beginning a subversive social movement that challenged the mainstream notions of race and gender.