Beyond Blackface: Can Hollywood’s Reckoning on Race Lead to Substantive Change?
The racial reckoning spreading across America has driven Hollywood to reexamine longstanding storylines and symbols rooted in racist ideology as the entertainment industry adjusts to a radically altered cultural landscape. In the last two weeks, celebrities and studios have rushed to recast Black characters with nonwhite actors, remove offensive TV episodes featuring blackface and reimagine at least one popular theme park ride. But longtime cultural observers ask if the latest moves are planting the seeds for real change or merely slapping Band-Aids on long-festering wounds. “Remember in ‘War of the Worlds,’ when the aliens come and people are running away before they get zapped?” said Christine Birch, former top studio executive and CEO of the entertainment marketing firm ROYGBIV Collective, referring to the 2005 Tom Cruise action thriller. “Well right now Hollywood is running, and they’re trying not to get zapped.” In recent weeks, streaming services and producers have pulled TV episodes featuring characters in blackface from shows like “Scrubs,” “Community,” “30 Rock” and “The Golden Girls.” An episode of “The Office” has been re-edited to remove a scene with blackface that had once played for laughs, and Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel both apologized for using blackface in old...
Read original story Beyond Blackface: Can Hollywood’s Reckoning on Race Lead to Substantive Change? At TheWrap
