Blackness was on the move before my ancestors were legally free to be. It was on the move before my ancestors even knew what they had. It was on the move because white people were moving it. And the white person most frequently identified as its prime mover is Thomas Dartmouth Rice, a New Yorker who performed as T.D. Rice and, in acclaim, was lusted after as “Daddy” Rice, “the negro par excellence.” Rice was a minstrel, which by the 1830s, when his stardom was at its most refulgent, meant he painted his face with burned cork to approximate those of the enslaved black people he was imitating.
Similar to the Minstrel podcast, which spoke of the "white culture" during Slave America and what it meant to be black during this time period, this part talks about the inaccurate "blackness" that moved "before my ancestors were legally free". This just reminds me that although despised, African Americans really have shaped parts of the "American Culture" which is still seen in full affect today.