The Enduring Power of Blackface

Gayle King interviewing embattled Democratic Virginia
Governor Ralph Northam on CBS  

Earlier this morning I watched excerpts of Gayle King's interview with Virginia Democratic Governor Ralph Northam on CBS' Face the Nation.

While the full version won't be broadcast until tomorrow morning on CBS This Morning, they did show a few interesting "teaser" clips.

A remarkably relaxed, and clearly well-prepared Northam opened the interview by pointing out the fact that they were only 90 miles from where the first enslaved African-Americans were brought to Virginia back in 1619.

It was nice to get a little history lesson but the fact that he called those slaves "indentured servants" offered some insight into the complex past of a southern Democratic politician who is facing calls to resign over the medical school yearbook photo in which he is shown wearing blackface while standing next to someone in a KKK outfit - if only irony could talk.

Interestingly, when King asked Northam whether he felt Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax should resign over allegations of sexual assault leveled against him by two different women, Northam claimed he hadn't spoken with Fairfax since the controversy blew up in the media last Monday.

Which struck me as a bit odd given what's at stake for him, Fairfax, Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring (who also admitted to wearing blackface while dressed as rapper Curtis Blow) and Republican State Senator Tommy Norment - who faced his own controversy after an article published in The Virginian Pilot on Thursday revealed that he edited the 1968 Virginia Military Institute yearbook which was strewn with students wearing blackface and a variety of racial slurs against African-American and Asian students.

Given the growing pressure over the blackface controversy, I decided to re-post a blog I wrote back in August, 2008 in the wake of some backlash over Robert Downey, Jr. wearing blackface in the Ben Stiller film Tropic Thunder - Now I don't normally re-post my blogs, but I was checking my stats and the blog has been getting quite a few hits in the last week so I re-edited some of the text and thought it offered some perspective (and links) on blackface that might offer a little insight.

"Actors in Blackface, An Enduring Hollywood Symbol" (originally posted 8/9/08)

Robert Downey, Jr. in the 2008
film Tropic Thunder

According to an LA Times interview by Chris Lee, actor Robert Downey Jr. was excited at the prospect of working with actor-director Ben Stiller on the comedy Tropic Thunder, but he looked at playing a role in black-face with trepidation.

Downey, (pictured left in character) plays the intense, self-absorbed Oscar-winning Australian Method actor Kirk Lazarus, who darkens his skin to completely immerse himself in the role of Sgt. Lincoln Osiris.

As far back as March, 2008 the images and promotional stills from the movie's trailer were fueling speculation about the possible backlash from a white actor in blackface in a comedy.

White actors portraying African-American characters in films, or performing in blackface isn't a new phenomenon by any means.

In 1927 entertainer Al Jolson performed in blackface in Hollywood's first feature-length musical, Warner Brother's hit The Jazz Singer.

If you've never seen it before, check out this brief clip of Jolson singing 'Mammy' in blackface that was typical of the period.

More recently, the decision to cast Angelina Jolie as Mariane Pearl, the mixed-race Cuban-American wife of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, in the 2007 movie Mighty at Heart stirred some controversy.

Particularly among critics who expressed confusion as to why an actual biracial actress like Thandie Newton, who'd demonstrated screen presence, range and ability in successful films like Crash and Mission Impossible II wasn't offered the role.

Especially given the lack of juicy parts that are available for an actress of color in mainstream Hollywood releases.

Angelina Jolie (right) as Mariane Pearl (left) 
in the 2007 film Mighty Heart

My take is that people who might be quick to react negatively towards Tropic Thunder because of Downey in blackface should step back and remember it is satire.

The entire point of having Downey's character choose to play Sgt. Lincoln Osiris in blackface is to lampoon the entertainment industry executives who routinely make the kinds of casting decisions that put white performers in roles that should arguably be played by an actors of color.

Downey is intelligent, socially responsible and hugely talented (If you haven't seen his performance in Chaplin put it on your Netflix queue right now) there's no way he'd take on a roll in blackface without knowing it was intelligently written, or that the black-face itself was an organic component of the story, character and script.

The film takes a comedic swipe at Hollywood actors and filmmakers who create war movies, in particular some of the over-the-top seriousness with which they prepare for fictional roles as soldiers and the assorted idiosyncrasies of the studio heads, producers and directors who bankroll and make these films.

Black-face is just one component of entertainment director/co-writer Ben Stiller lampoons in this film. I don't necessarily think it's inappropriate to use blackface in social satire, as Downey himself observed in an Entertainment Weekly interview:

“If it’s done right, it could be the type of role you called Peter Sellers to do 35 years ago. If you don’t do it right, we’re going to hell.”

Judy Garland performed in blackface
in Babes in Arms in 1939

This isn't the overtly racist minstrel-type of art of the late 19th and early 20th century. Minstrels were white performers who dressed up in black-face to lampoon the physical characteristics, dress, habits and lifestyles of African-Americans and more importantly; play upon and reinforce racial stereotypes.

But remember there were black minstrels too!

Black performers in blackface lampooning themselves to entertain audiences. What's wrong with that picture?

Director Spike Lee explored this question in his 2000 film, Bamboozled

What did blackface and minstrel imagery in entertainment and media look like?

Check out this montage of minstrel clips edited together by Spike Lee for his 2000 social satire, Bamboozle.

The speculative buzz about possible backlash in Tropic Thunder is just that.

Mostly from people who haven't even seen the movie.

It reflects the unhealed pain of this imagery - which was commonplace in America and other countries for years and has inflicted a lot of internal psychological damage to the psyche of black people.

Personally I think Downey's role is a positive thing, one of the ways we evolve culturally is to develop the capacity to look at ourselves, and view the past honestly.

Even when it's difficult to look at.