What visual parallels, though? Minstrels didn't wear tatter coats

Of course they did. Never heard of JIM CROW? He was THE original minstrel character, of TD Rice.

"Zip Coon" was the fancy dandy character, by contrast.

TD Rice brought his wildly popular "Jim Crow" to England in the 1830s. It was one of the most globally enjoyed pieces of popular culture of the first half of the 19th century…possibly even the "ground zero" for the development of most of American-style popular music up to today.

The argument could be (and has been) made that Daddy Rice's "Jim Crow" was not *intended* as racist, per se. In fact, much of early American minstrel music was not INTENDING (if that's the line of argument) to cause offense or to "be racist"…and yet it *was*. And ultimately it didn't just "offend" but created and reinforced oppressive racist views.

The effect in USA was so damaging that "we" can't even do seemingly justifiable things like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f7HTTll0KA
And here some African-Americans weigh in on the above…in a presentational mode that itself is VERY similar to minstrelsy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NavLEbmEj5Q

Their last "point" (if you can call it that!) might as well be aimed at the perpetually denying blackface Morris men.