Bamboozled and the History of Blackface

Highlighting specific examples (characters or symbols), critically discuss how Spike Lee's "Bamboozled" connects the history of blackface to contemporary images.

In Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled” there were many characters and symbols throughout the film that illustrated how the film connects to the history of blackface to contemporary images. Pierre (Damon Wayans) was the one who created the minstrel show Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show. This show that Pierre and his personal assistant Sloan produced was filled with blackface characters who told unbelievably racial jokes and puns.

Pierre’s boss in the film, Thomas Dunwitty (Michael Rapaport) who is an inconsiderate white man, was extremely thoughtless in his ways of speaking. He would talk as though he were a black man and felt that his use of the “N” word was perfectly fine do to the fact that he was married to a black lady. I fill in today’s society and what I have seen personally; this is still a thing that happens constantly. One would be surprised to know how many “Thomas Dunwitty’s” there are out there still today. The “N” word is used as slang (nigga) all the time. Even though most of the time this word is used, that I have noticed, is when a friend is referring to his other friend and often times referring to someone with anger. I feel there are no exceptions to this word and it’s very wrong.

Like the “N” word used in the film and how it is unnecessary and extremely degrading there are other things that stand out just as offensive. In the film, for instance, the two main characters Manray and Womack. These two black men, emphasis on the black, proceeded to paint their faces and other exposed skin charcoal black and used red lip sticks to draw in very huge lips. I feel like this is a large stereotype in today’s world and I feel is emphasized in images as well.

In the film after the first couple episodes, the audience which held a variety of different races, Hispanics, Asians, blacks, and even elderly white women began to show up in blackface. I feel this action that took place in the film really connects to contemporary images. I have actually encountered such events this year. The first experience was during Halloween when a friend, who is white, dressed up as the black rapper lil wayne. He painted his body a dark brown to add distinctness to the costume, a lot like the men in Mantan. My second experience was during during Michigan Mock Rock when the same exact idea came about, to paint a shorter white boy black to play a black singer. However, luckily not proceeding to do it, it was realized that that could have been extremely offensive like Pierre’s show Mantan in Spike Lee’s show “Bamboozled.”