Compared to the ancient, time honored art of minstrelsy, the American "minstrel show," with performers in "blackface," started as a sort of "entre-acte" feature in longer entertainments around the time of the Civil War and, happily, faded out in the early Twentieth Century. They were basically lampoons. And generally pretty tasteless and totally "politically incorrect."

Best to simply ignore. It's just an unfortunate anomaly amounting to little more than a "blip" on the history of the art of minstrelsy. If someone brings it up, use that as an opportunity to educate.

Don Firth

P. S. Would you let some hypersensitive person who considers Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" anti-Semitic because the villain, Shylock, was Jewish, influence you to toss all of Shakespeare's works into the dustbin?