The 2020 Blackface Post

In the wake of the recent protests and the gains made by the Black Lives Matter movement, there's been a major reexamination of media content standards related to depictions of race.  It started with the retirement of Aunt Jemima, and quickly swept through other parts of the cultural landscape.  Several prominent pieces of media have been affected.  The most high profile one may have been the temporary removal of "Gone With the Wind" from various online platforms so that a notice about historically insensitive portrayals of black people could be tacked on to the beginning.  However, more under the radar has been the quiet removal of several television episodes with instances of blackface.  

Examples include episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," "30 Rock," "The Office," "Scrubs," "Community," and even an episode of "The Golden Girls," where the ill-timed application of a facial treatment causes an embarrassing misunderstanding.  The Brits have taken down episodes of "The League of Gentlemen," "Little Britain," and "Come Fly With Me," while Australian comic Chris Lilley has seen several of his specials pulled by Netflix.  From what I've been able to tell, none of the instances of blackface jokes in the American shows contain the traditional usage of blackface - generally understood to be using blackface to disparage and present a caricatured image of African Americans.  It looks like blackface, even if it's not punching down, and even if it's not technically blackface at all, is now totally verboten.

And, frankly, this is a little worrying.  The older, problematic forms of blackface mostly disappeared in the US by the end of the forties (a few unfortunate Shakespeare adaptations notwithstanding), but it was still considered okay in a satirical context as long as it followed certain rules.  First, the butt of the joke couldn't be African-Americans.  Usually, the target was either the deluded/desperate white person wearing the blackface, or ignorant white people who were somehow fooled by the ridiculous application of blackface.  The best example of the former is Robert Downey Jr.'s character in "Tropic Thunder," a pompous Australian method actor.  Examples of the latter include "Silver Streak," "Trading Places," and "Krippendorf's Tribe."  Second, just to be safe, you always want an African American actor in close proximity to emphasize that the blackface was absolutely not okay, and to drop lines like "What do *you* mean, 'you people'?"

The television episodes currently being benched mostly follow those rules.  The "Community" joke, for instance, involves a Chinese character who paints himself completely black to play a Dark Elf in a Dungeons and Dragons game.  Both an African American character, Shirley, and an old white guy character, Pierce, mistakenly think he's in blackface, and their reactions drive home the point that blackface in any situation is not okay.  The appearance of blackface in "The Office" was meant to criticize the  continued use of the blackface Zwarte Piet character in the Netherlands.  "Always Sunny" toes it closest to the line, having several episodes that feature outrageous ethnic stereotypes, and the blackface is used for their spoofs of the "Lethal Weapon" franchise.  The joke is that all the characters are horrible reprobates, and would be the type to argue in favor of blackface.       

And yet, while you can make plenty of defenses and excuses for the use of blackface in these shows, in the end I'm not convinced that it outweighs the potential harms.  There are always going to be those ignoramuses out there who don't understand the nuances or misinterpret the joke entirely.  From the reactions and discussions involving some of the talent that created these shows, clearly not everyone was comfortable with using blackface to begin with.   Most of these shows use blackface for shock value more than anything, and aren't great at addressing the race issues that they stir up.  Spike Lee's "Bamboozled" and a very unsubtle episode of "Gimme a Break" are the only pieces of media that I can remember that have taken the trouble to show the actual harm that blackface does.  And yes, in 2020 the harm is still very real.

I love "Community," and I'm not going to be bothered much if we lose the blackface joke.  A couple of edits should take care of most of the affected shows.  However, there are episodes of "Always Sunny" and "30 Rock" where the blackface is more central to the plots, and their loss will be harder on their fans - though you can still buy the episodes individually through the usual channels.  Maybe this will be temporary, and maybe it won't.  Maybe there will be more disclaimers.  I find it interesting that only sitcoms seem to be affected so far.  The "Mad Men" episode featuring Roger Sterling in blackface is still in circulation.  The deeply troubling '80s blackface comedy "Soul Man" is still available to rent on Amazon Prime.    

Clearly, though, this isn't the end of it.  We're already seeing backlash and push back, and I don't think the media reevaluations are anywhere near done yet.  Stay tuned.

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