On Monday, NBC announced that episodes of the popular sitcom 30 Rock would pull episodes that featured characters in blackface from Hulu and Amazon after its creator, Tina Fey, requested that the episodes be taken down.
Just one day later, there were calls to #CancelJimmyKimmel for similar reasons. Known for his late night talk show on ABC, Kimmel previously appeared in sketches on Comedy Central where he used blackface to portray NBA player Karl Malone and Oprah Winfrey. This still begs the question: why did the white comedians still think that Blackface was funny?
Blackface was popularized in the late 1800s after the Civil War. White actors would darken their skin with shoe polish and paint on exaggerated features. These Blackface performers were prominent at minstrel shows and included characters like “Jim Crow” and “Zip Coon”. Blackface actors would use stereotypical African-American vernacular and perform comical songs and dances. Blackface was meant to belittle and dehumanize, enforcing racists stereotypes that portrayed African-Americans as foolish, cowardly, and criminal.
White actors in blackface perpetuated painful stereotypes of Black people as unintelligent and subservient
While celebrities sometimes get caught performing blackface as a costume, blackface is more likely to appear in comedic settings. White comedians often use blackface to perform impressions of black celebrities, with the intended joke being that the audience knows that the actor is actually a white person.
As the Black Lives Matter movement continues to surge, more actors find themselves apologizing for performing Blackface in the past. In Tina Fey’s statement regarding the use of Blackface on her show, she said, “I understand now that ‘intent’ is not a free pass for white people to use these images. I apologize for the pain they have caused. Going forward, no comedy-loving kid needs to stumble on these tropes and be stung by their ugliness.”
Actors shouldn’t have to apologize for performing blackface, because they shouldn’t have used it in the first place.
