Tag: blackface

Cultural appropriation? Blackface once was an entertainment industry trope. Al Jolson’s Jazz Singer is the most notable example.  Not that many decades after the old minstrel shows, Fred Astaire (in Swing Time), Shirley Temple, and Judy Garland went black, too. Some critics regard their performances as being culturally respectful. Laurence Olivier did Othello in blackface, although…