Talk:List of entertainers who performed in blackface

Joni Mitchell

Does this count as a "performance"? She appeared in that guise on the cover of the album Don Juan's Reckless Daughter. Ghmyrtle (talk) 13:19, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

• Yes. She was quite proud of pulling off the act, which she did repeatedly, and it's a good story. Andrew🐉(talk) 13:37, 29 March 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 18 July 2021

Laurence Olivier performed as Othello in film and stage. 136.32.24.232 (talk) 13:53, 18 July 2021 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Lemonaka (talk) 00:03, 14 December 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 5 August 2021

24.47.214.18 (talk) 00:18, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

Krysten Ritter in the 2012 film 'Vamps' does blackface. Here is a picture https://twitter.com/luna__poo/status/1423017216426061827.

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. To clarify, we need secondary sources stating that she did blackface, not a random tweet of an image with no context. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 00:28, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

Betty White

I think we'd need to have a pretty careful examination and weighting of sources before including Betty White. The cited source says Rose and Blanche happen to be giving each other mud facials - so when the couple walks through the door, the surprised Golden Girls are caught sporting a variation of blackface. Rose says, "This is mud on our faces. We're not really Black." Vulture goes with First, the “blackface” isn’t blackface at all. There are other sources all over the place that would need examination before we can proceed. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 14:54, 6 January 2022 (UTC)

• The article in Vulture is clearly an opinion piece, as the author continually gives us their personal views, and so that's a weak source. The plain fact is that the episode was pulled for this reason and this is quite notable, being covered by numerous sources such as CBC which describes this as "a variation of blackface". It's clear that a racial joke was being made and so the listing seems quite appropriate and similar to many others in the list. Andrew🐉(talk) 15:35, 6 January 2022 (UTC)

  Hulu has removed an episode of The Golden Girls that contains a scene in which Betty White and Rue McClanahan are mistaken for wearing blackface.[1] a 1988 episode of “The Golden Girls” in which two characters allude to blackface.[2] The controversial scene comes when two of Dorothy's friends — Rose, played by Betty White, and Blanche, played by Rue McClanahan — are trying out a mud face mask and meet Lorraine's family for the first time.[3]An episode of The Golden Girls has been removed from Hulu, for a blackface joke that features Rue McClanahan and Betty White wearing mud masks... The controversial moment in the episode features Blanche (McClanahan) and Rose (White) wearing mud masks that confuses Lorraine's mom Greta (Virginia Capers), who isn't wearing her glasses, into thinking those were Michael's parents — who, until that moment, she believes is Black. [4]

  The joke is, specifically, that they're not in blackface, but someone mistook them in blackface. Sources make it clear the performers were not in blackface. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 15:47, 6 January 2022 (UTC)

• Variety says plainly that this was "an episode of “The Golden Girls” containing a scene with characters in blackface." And, however, you deconstruct this joke, there were certainly relevant consequences – the episode was pulled and doesn't seem to have been reinstated. Andrew🐉(talk) 17:19, 6 January 2022 (UTC)

Julie Andrews

Does make up to look like a chimney sweep count as black face? Really? I'm all for exhaustive lists but that is really stretching. Can someone with some clout look at that? 120.152.11.210 (talk) 06:40, 31 January 2022 (UTC)

In the 1964 film, Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and the child actors pop up a chimney shaft and are seen covered with soot, grease and grime on their clothing and faces, as are everybody in the large chorus of chimney sweeps. As an additional gag. Mary Poppins (Julie) takes out a compact and busily powders her nose, making it even blacker, and even more outrageous. It's supposed to show some prim and proper people being superficially *dirty* for comic effect. Yes, it's quite a stretch to connect this to some racial issue. WHPratt (talk) 04:22, 12 March 2022 (UTC)

The entry already had a good citation and I have added another. Andrew🐉(talk) 11:37, 12 March 2022 (UTC)

The two sources cited for Andrews are objectively incorrect. Have a look at this one for example, which goes over why Andrews objectively did not wear blackface in Mary Poppins. NotAmberTurd (talk) 13:21, 27 August 2023 (UTC)— NotAmberTurd (talk • contribs) has made few or no other edits outside this topic.

Judy Garland

Judy Garland performs in blackface here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok5R9wDc44k. I am wondering if she has been considered in the past, but wasn't listed because she was a minor at the time, or other mitigating factors. DazzleNovak (talk) 23:57, 8 July 2022 (UTC)

Seems like a regular case and hasn't been considered before so I've added it. Andrew🐉(talk) 07:24, 9 July 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 27 November 2022

Add Robert Webb for blackface in Peep Show series 2 80.0.63.194 (talk) 18:19, 27 November 2022 (UTC)

References

 Done Lemonaka (talk) 00:02, 14 December 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 21 January 2023

Add Sarah Chalke for her use of blackface in the Scrubs episode My Jiggly Ball, season 5 episode 4. 2603:9004:6F0:470:B07B:8014:6F49:D5EF (talk) 03:27, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. ~ Eejit43 (talk) 15:08, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

Larry Parks

Larry Parks wore blackface in two films "The Jolson Story" (1946) and "Jolson Sings Again" (1949) 152.97.168.216 (talk) 11:35, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 19 November 2023

Please add Robert Pattinson as Constantine "Connie" Nikas robbing a bank in 2017's Good Time and Benny Safdie as Nikolas "Nick" Nikas robbing a bank in 2017's Good Time Zzigzagg (talk) 17:39, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. —TechnoSquirrel69 (sigh) 17:51, 19 November 2023 (UTC)

Here is a source from the production company that produced the film https://a24films.com/notes/2017/10/connies-fits-in-good-time Zzigzagg (talk) 12:40, 20 November 2023 (UTC)

 Not done: This seems to be a case of the actors using actual face masks, not blackface, which is a form of makeup usually used to perform caricatures of Black people. —TechnoSquirrel69 (sigh) 07:23, 22 November 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for clarifying! Here are a few other sources that specifically refer to it as a form of blackface - since the characters are using it as a form of disguise with the intended use of the mask to portray a different race, Black men, committing a crime.

https://mfknzine.com/2020/12/08/good-time-film-showcases-appalling-treatment-of-black-people/

https://www.thejc.com/culture/film/review-robert-pattinson-s-new-film-good-time-1.448316

https://www.wbur.org/news/2017/08/24/good-time-review Zzigzagg (talk) 19:24, 22 November 2023 (UTC)