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Black Face, and Bamboozled
The perfect Spike Lee film, for the BLM generation.
I’ve been reading many trending news stories about black face and cancel culture.
Blackface is a term that is used to describe a form of theatrical make-up that is predominantly used by non-black performers in order to represent a caricature of a black person. Interestingly, in all the conversations concerning black face and cancel culture, no one has mentioned the film Bamboozled, if they even remember it.
Bamboozled is a 2000 American satirical comedy-drama film written and directed by Spike Lee about a modern televised minstrel show featuring black actors donning black face makeup and the resulting violent fallout from the show’s success. It features an all-star mostly black ensemble cast featuring Damon Wayans, Jada Pinkett Smith, and many others. Though critical reception was mixed, and the film was unsuccessful financially, becoming a box office bomb it may be one of Spike Lee’s most insightful, and important film, especially with the importance of the Back Lives Matter movement and the blowback against many politicians and white and black entertainers (including SNL's Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon) who while claiming “no evil intent” have been apologizing profusely for skits they did in the past featuring a white performer in black face.
