A form of American entertainment performed by whites in blackface before the Civil War and by blacks after the Civil War. Minstrel shows usually involved dancing and singing. The shows portrayed blacks as ignorant, lazy, buffoonish, joyful, and musical. For several decades, it provided the lens for how white America saw blacks. Today, rap music and hip-hop culture is nothing more than a latter-day minstrel show, in which rappers try to put themselves and the rest of black America down by encouraging violence, being promiscuous, dropping out of school, and excessivly wasting money on trivial things such as "bling bling" and gold plated toilet seats. All the while, giving white America a view of blacks.