The views and beliefs of educated whites that were taught in schools and universities in the pre-1920 period, I believe, had more importance than the minstrel shows and other entertainments of both lower and lower middle class blacks and whites. The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, 1911, is still prized for the brilliance of many of its essays. The scholarship of the period is summarized. Some of the essays, however, perpetuated stereotypes.

Nowhere in the essay under NEGRO is black music or black-influenced white music mentioned. The subject we are discussing was scarcely noticed by the educators and elite of the time, except in black, racially separate schools. Minstrelsy was entertainment for the lower and lower middle class populace. The characterizations of Negroes in reference works and in upper level school classrooms had much more to do with negative stereotypes and discriminatory practices than the minstrel shows, dialect and coon songs. The characterizations provided a means for the "common people" to laugh at their own ignorance, shortcomings and failures through the antics of the blacks and blackface comedians of the minstrel circuits. The characterizations and the songs were regarded as humor by both blacks and whites.

To show the viewpoint of the educated classes, here are some quotes from the top English encyclopedia of the time, the Britannica (1911).
"For the rest, the mental constitution of the negro is very similar to that of a child, normally good-natured and cheerful, but subject to sudden fits of emotion and passion during which he is capable of performing acts of singular atrocity, impressionable, vain, but often exhibiting in the capacity of servant a dog-like fidelity which has stood the supreme test. Given suitable training, the negro is capable of becoming a craftsman of considerable skill, particularly in metal work, carpentry and carving." Another- "Mentally, the negro is inferior to the white. The research of F. Manetta, made after long study...."
These attitudes were taught and perpetuated. The folk music we enjoy, largely a development by both blacks and whites in the south, did not begin to widen its appeal until the 1920s and the population shifts from south to north as employment patterns changed. Ragtime and Jazz had paved the way, starting about 1900. The first impact was on the working class.

Speaking of conditions in 1908,the essay continues: "It was too early to say whether the negroes would be given an equal or fair opportunity to show that they could be as serviceable [in the new situation] as they had been in that which was passing away."
The last two paragraphs discuss writers and scholars who study the Negro, and at the end, two black authors are mentioned: "Among the southern negroes doubtless the most important writers are the two representatives of somewhat antagonistic views, Booker T. Washington" [Up From Slavery, Future of the American Negro] "and W. E. B. Dubois" [The Souls of Black Folk, Physique of the Negro American].

Is any of this pertinent to this discussion? I think so, because it reflects the views held by the educated English-speaking white in both North America and Great Britain in the post-slavery period and and almost to WW 2.