00:00For more than a century, Hollywood had white actors play black characters in blackface.
00:07Today, we're going to talk about blackface.
00:09For the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and by now you know me, I'm going to make one
00:13week,
00:14Well, we're going to start with a big topic like blackface.
00:17And it goes back well before Hollywood.
00:20In the 17th century, in William Shakespeare's play Othello, which was written around 1603,
00:25The role of Othello was almost always played by white actors in makeup.
00:29Because at the time, English theaters practically forbade black actors from performing there.
00:34Some researchers refer to it as proto-blackface, although it is a term that is very rarely used.
00:39As a reminder, Othello is described as being a dead man.
00:43MOORISH.
00:44So they come from Mauritania.
00:45Blackface became systematic in the 19th century with the Mint Red Show in the United States.
00:51White actors blacken their faces with burnt cork to caricature African-American states.
00:57-unians.
00:57The most famous is Thomas D. Rice and his character Jim Crow.
01:01And his shows popularized racist stereotypes throughout the United States.
01:05When Hollywood emerged, its racist codes were immediately transferred to cinema.
01:09The most famous example is the film The Burst of a Nation by D.W. Griffiths.
01:14In this film, white actors play black characters in blackface.
01:18And the film even glorifies the cu-cu-clon.
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