This heads off of the stage...

But I think part of the problem behind even the interpretations in "Bamboozled!" is the inability to separate the actual music and performance quality from the images and lyrics. That's something that society as a whole usually has a problem with, for good or ill.

I would pay gladly to see a minstrel show performed by period standards. I wouldn't go to see it because I am racist in any form, or because I felt a need to see someone or some 'race' denegrated, I'd go because by and large the reports I've seen of minstrel shows (and the limited samplings of music) talk of very talented performers - many black - donning blackface and the characters and performing the material that they could achieve success with. To a degree, you can still hear elements that started with this kind of thing, travelled through the Vaudeville circuits, survived the transition into modern formats and wound up in "Amos & Andy" and Jack Benny (which also shows an element of Rochester in a servant's role getting the better of his 'boss', a theme often found in most of the documented slave culture folklore and music).

Minstrel shows, good or ill, were one of the only publicly acceptable outlets for not only the stereotype of black culture that is utterly offensive but also for elements taken directly from the slave culture that was in the process of transforming into modern society. For that alone, they're worth preserving and remembering. At the very least they're powerful relics showcasing the popular mindset of the time and allowing for (to me) a fascinating way to trace the evolution of a "niche" culture as it met and was absorbed into the overall popular culture.