re: #39 KGxvi

Robert Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder was actually making fun of blackface. He was playing a white (non-American, I believe Australian) actor who used blackface for the role. There was an entire subplot to the movie about the actual black actor character being pissed off about it and Downey’s character not getting it.

And I’d point out that Wilder and Aykroyd are shown in scenes with two of the greatest comedians (that happen to be black)… I’m guessing if Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor weren’t in on whatever the joke was, it probably wasn’t going to happen.

(I don’t have a defense for the rest)

Nuance is dead. Context is tedious. This is some rather refined and well-timed political ratfucking and I have to very grudgingly give the GOP some credit for pulling it off as they did (not that it is the least admirable except from the point of view of political manipulation of public opinion)

We start throwing about absolutes like blackface = racist and it blows up in people’s faces (bringing to mind the aftermath of a typical explosion in a Looney Tunes cartoon)