Robert Downey Jr., Negro of the summer
I will state this up front, I have not seen Tropic Thunder and am not a fan of Ben Stiller’s comedies. I first heard about the movie when Slate had a video feature on one of the character. What I gathered from that short clip was Robert Downey Jr. played a black character. Downey is white and when a white man play a black man, he brings back a long history of bad memories.
Today, Salon opened up the topic, wondering why there is no backlash against Downey’s blackface work?
Being born outside the United States, as an Asian, I get it. There were many blatantly bad attempts of Hollywood using Cambodian, or Thai, or Chinese to play Vietnamese in war movies. I am not mad against the practice because I fundamentally understood that there aren’t many Vietnamese trustworthy of the Hollywood budget. Their money, their picks. But I find it incredibly irritating when those ethnic substitutes can’t speak the language they supposed to represent on screen. So those movies never received my second viewing.
One of the most recent TV show had a Chinese actor playing a Vietnamese father. He was stiffed because of his minimalist approach to assuming the role. It was minimalist because the actor could not sure what would a Vietnamese father do when his daughter slept with a white man. But I understand and fully accept the fact that there are not many Vietnamese who could assume that simple role anyway.
This is to say that I understand why there was no outrage against Downey Jr.’s act. Salon had a point:
During slavery, white Southerners began the entertainment tradition of dressing up in slave costumes and makeshift makeup and performing songs and skits that mimicked black musical styles while degrading their servants, portraying them as lazy, stupid and promiscuous.
Historically, blackfacing has the nasty intent of whitewashing the stories of the slaves.
But there is also a history of male actors playing women roles on stages. Tom Hanks had the Bosom Buddies. Robin Williams had Mrs. Doubtfire. Are these men sexists as Downey Jr. a white-washer? Did Downey Jr.’s act in Tropic Thunder egregious?
No. If the role was about an obsessive Method actor trying to act black, it would be on par with the Wayans brothers going White Chicks, right? Where was the outrage for that?
Stop throwing blanket accusations and start judging the actual product they make.
