Ishmael in Blackface

Only read this post if you are a true melville scholar and then email me if you think I am crazy, if I read too much into the scene, or if I am fucking right-on. I've read as much Melville scholarship as anyone and I can't seem to find any reference to this anywhere. This is going to be a controversial post - I don't think Melville was being an asshole like many of the whites of his day, but he did include a coy usage of Ishmael in blackface in his novel, Moby-Dick. Not in a minstrel way but in an attempt to say that Ishmael 'passed' or at least communed with his fellow humanity for a few minutes. Let me know what you think.