Who invented Khan?

[Nerys Myk]

At least they used "brown people"

Sometimes

 

[somebuddyX]

Every time I see this post I always think it's about who created Khan in-universe.

 

[Christopher]

Give credit where credit is due, at least they used "brown people"

Only occasionally. Most of the time they slathered brown makeup on white actors. (Including Montalban, who was Mexican-born to Spanish immigrant parents.) And "Space Seed" claimed in dialogue that Khan's people were a multiethnic group, but that wasn't actually reflected in the casting.

One thing I found interesting about The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: They would often do episodes set in a non-Western country where all the characters were villains except for the sexy young female guest character who'd been educated in the West and was therefore morally superior to the traditionalists, and a lot of the time, the sexy young woman was the only cast member who actually belonged to the ethnic group being represented while all the others were white actors in brownface, which was often horribly unconvincing next to the one genuinely nonwhite guest star. (Though not always -- there was that time they cast Victoria Vetri as a Native American, for one.)

 

[Greg Cox]

It's funny. I recently watched an old episode of The Adventures of Superman, set in Haiti, where an evil voodoo priest is obviously being played by a white guy in blackface. At first, I was was rolling my eyes but then -- plot twist! -- it turned out that "voodoo priest" was actually a white guy in greasepaint! Whom Superman exposes by wiping the makeup off his face.

(Mind you, it's still a stretch that the bad guy's disguise was supposed to fool anyone, but at least the casting wasn't as egregious as it first appeared.)