Is blackface ever OK?

(No echocardiogram update. The results have yet to be read. My cardiologist is off until Wednesday. I refuse to fret. I keep myself busy. And today post something unrelated to sarcoidosis. It is a big world out there. Enjoy).

I wanted to slap an Australian when I saw the thoughtless blackface “ode” to The Jackson 5 from the Down Under variety show “Hey, Hey. It’s Saturday Night.”

However, I want to laugh ‘til I drop when I think about Saturday Night Live’s Fred Armisen or Darrell Hammond putting on blackface to play President Barack Obama, Jessie Jackson or Al Sharpton.

What’s the difference? Context and nuance.

Watch the clip of The Jackson Jive “tribute” to The Jackson 5 again. Do the “performers” look like Jackie, Tito, Marlon and Jermaine? I’m an artist so I can appreciate artistic license, but come on. This looks like white guys who smeared shoe polish on their faces. One of the Jive wore whiteface and an afro wig to portray Michael. No tribute there either.

Nothing about the sketch honors the Jacksons. The soot-colored prop used in the sketch is an archetype of American racism. Blackface hails from a time when people of African descent in America were at once loved and loathed by the dominant white power structure. Loved for their labor, loved for their culture, but dehumanized because…well, because one has to dehumanize their fellow man if they are going to enslave them and steal from them. Can’t do that to someone you see as your equal.

The blackface of Armisen and Hammond is very different. These are not shuffling, shucking and jiving performances. The performances are nuanced. There is a range of human complexity. Even the makeup the actors use reflect the hues of the humans they are poking fun of.

Saturday Night Live is one of my favorite shows. However, it bothers me that there have only been a handful of black performers among the scores of white performers. Eddie Murphy is probably the best-known and most famous SNL alum, "Pluto Nash" and a few other bad movies he made notwithstanding. One of the best Murphy and SNL moments ever was Murphy’s film White Like Me, about the secret world of white people. He dawns white face, a straight-hair wig and proceeds to get special treatment; free money from banks, white-only parties on public transit after black folks get off the bus.

It is keen satire and hilarious.

“They give things to each other,” Murphy muses after not having to pay for a newspaper

I live for the day when SNL producer Lorne Michaels and others in Hollywood cast more blacks in "white" roles. I'm talking about actually casting actors of color to play white icons.

Samuel E. Jackson IS George Dubya!

That will be real proof that we are overcoming.

Don’t laugh. In a world in which many white people still feel smearing ones face in a coal-black substance is a way of honoring people of African descent, anything is possible.