The Insider

VIDEO: A Little Slice Of Blackface History, Courtesy Of Spike Lee

By New Matilda

February 25, 2016

As yet another Australian blackface scandal dies a natural death, to be followed soon enough by the next Australian blackface scandal, we thought it timely to provide a video which, in one neat sequence, sums up what’s so wrong with blackface.

This clip is a montage from the film Bamboozled, a 2000 epic by black US director Spike Lee, which tackles the phenomenon of blackface through scathing satire.

If you watch this video and still can’t understand why blackface is offensive to people of colour… well, Cory Bernardi may soon have to launch his own political party, so don’t give up all hope just yet.