Lee said while promoting his movie: “I acknowledge that we’re dealing with a very ugly part of American history.
Which is why it’s a disservice when creators and streaming services try to erase the evidence of their use of blackface from the internet, when what we should really be doing is trying to understand it: why it persists, and what, if anything, it’s trying to say. What a look back at these episodes shows us- and what “Bamboozled” teaches us - is that there are always layers to that burnt cork. There are always layers to that burnt cork. Shows us- and what “Bamboozled” teaches us- is that Considering the use of blackface within its distinct narrative context - and not just as a referential snippet or meme - reveals that the mere presence of it does not necessarily mean something offensive is taking place. It can do several of these things at once.
It can tell us how we’re supposed to perceive a character or make us question the creators’ judgment. As Racquel Gates, an associate professor of cinema and media studies at the College of Staten Island, CUNY, puts it, “It’s important to back up and ask, ‘What do we think blackface is, and what do we think that it does?’” Sometimes it’s self-aware sometimes it can be a scathing critique other times, an unnecessary provocation. While the origins of blackface as an American tradition are built on insidious stereotypes of Black people, it is too complex a tradition to ever mean and represent a single thing or idea. Because what a look back at these episodes shows us - and what “Bamboozled” teaches us - is that there are always layers to that burnt cork. The instinct to scrub away the shame of past blackface is understandable - but it’s not productive. As a result, several have scrubbed the evidence of these burnt cork episodes from the internet. In response to the national reckoning over Black Lives Matter, the internet dug up a number of TV shows and movies - from “30 Rock” to “Tropic Thunder” - that, over the last two decades, have employed blackface.
Lee’s charged, biting satire was released 20 years ago this fall this summer, we were reminded how right “Bamboozled” was.
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