The mild controversy surrounding Robert Downey, Jr.’s portrayal of a white actor dressed in blackface to play a role originally intended for an African American actor in Ben Stiller’s film, Tropic Thunder, has ruffled new feathers regarding whether (and in what context) it is appropriate for European American people to “act” as African American people on the screen. My friend first sent me the link to the movie weeks ago. Initially, I shrugged it off, finding the whole premise a bit silly and unnecessary. After all, it is a Ben Stiller comedy, and so not exactly a body of work designed to invoke critical thought…or is it? Over the past several weeks, I’ve noticed an increase in the notes and text messages I’m receiving regarding this movie–everything from “Monique, what do you think of Robert Downey, Jr. as a Black man?” or “Here we go again!”
I’ve realized that while none of the messages appear to show outrage, they do suggest a discomfort with the idea that Black identity can be usurped by anyone who dresses the part and changes his or her ennunciation to “sound Black.” According to previews, there is a scene in the film in which Downey’s character tries to bond with a real African American castmate by singing the theme song to The Jeffersons….another not-so-brilliant reflection of mainstream America’s cultural incompetence toward African Americans. Still, Downey claims that his interpretation of the character is a far cry from C. Thomas Howell’s characterization of “blackness” in the 1986 film, Soul Man…maybe. Maybe not.
The discomfort lies in the fact that every now and again, Hollywood tests the waters to see whether people are paying attention…or whether they’ve mastered make-up so well that we cannot tell the difference. Well, the fact is, we always know and we care, because the wounds are still open from a discriminating image of people of color that prevents us from full participation in the world of entertainment. We knew that Angelina Jolie (no matter how much she poked out her semi-full lips) was not a woman of color in A Mighty Heart, and we cared because women of color still have to fight for leading, meaningful roles in Hollywood. We certainly knew that Anthony Hopkins was not African American in The Human Stain, and we cared because the whole premise was ludicrous. There is nothing about Anthony Hopkins that is African American. We try to suspend our disbelief and enjoy the plot, even if David Carradine isn’t really Chinese American or Robert Downey, Jr. really African American. But that’s hard to do.
It might be possible to suspend disbelief if America were really over its racial divide and if the racialization of Hollywood films weren’t so obvious. If African American, Latino, and Asian entertainers had ample opportunities to play characters that represent the full spectrum of our lives, maybe our collective feathers wouldn’t rustle each time we see a white actor play the role of a person of color.
Maybe the whole intention of the Stiller movie is to get us to ask questions about how we see race in entertainment. Maybe he wants us to take a moment and think about how much our cultural divides continue to wedge Americans. Until we’ve seen the film (if we decide to support the film), all we can do is speculate. Of course, if America decided to walk through life with its collective eyes open, we wouldn’t need another film like this to tell us what’s up.
Resources:
Long Island University: African Americans in Motion Pictures
The Color of Film Collaborative
The Johns Hopkins University Press: Asian Americans in Film and Theater
Latino Images in Film: Stereotypes, Subversion and Resistance by Charles Ramirez Berg
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