Captain Atkin wrote:
As for white men playing black men in movies, Robert Downey Jr. was nominated for the Academy Award in 2008 for his portrayal of "Lazarus" - a white man who dyed his skin to look black - in the comedy "Tropic Thunder".
|
Yes, I'm aware. But the point of that joke was that he was an actor "over playing" the role of a black man. He wasn't a caricature of a black man he was a caricature of a white man PLAYING a black man.
That's very, very, different than a minstrel show, which is what I was talking about where white men put on "black face" with exaggerated facial features (RDJ was made to look like an actual black person) and played extreme stereotypes of black people with the intent of the characters BEING BLACK.