# Other Cringeworthy Blackface/Yellowface/Etc. movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [June 23, 2026, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135 "2026-06-23T15:04:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2026, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/121 "2026-06-24T23:39:04Z")
Monty Python’s contribution would be Unce Tom from the Atillia the Hun Show. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XYKW7UTmn1g/hqdefault.jpg "Monty Python'S Flying Circus - The Attila the Hun Show (vostfr)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYKW7UTmn1g&t=161) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2026, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/122 "2026-06-24T23:58:26Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > Rooney Mara as Tiger Lily in the recent Peter Pan remake > **[Alyssa Wapanatâhk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alyssa_Wapanat%C3%A2hk)** > > Alyssa Wapanatahk is a Canadian actress. She is best known for playing Tiger Lily in the fantasy film Peter Pan & Wendy and will play White Sun in the upcoming reboot Little House on the Prairie. > Wapanatahk was born in Fort McMurray, Alberta. She moved to Vancouver where she gained a diploma for acting from the New Image College. Growing up she had no interest in becoming an actress. It was only after her mothers friend, who is in the industry encouraged her to go for an audition. > Wapanatahk ... Unless you mean _Pan_? By Warner Brothers, which was a giant flop? But i was not asking about "Yellowface’ etc. i was asking about Blackface, i.e. white actors in black makeup. I was replying to > [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > There’s a wide range between “using blackface to denigrate them” and “we’re using blackface for satire purposes.” And most of the example fall into that range which is basically “we wanted a famous person in this role and most famous people are white, so…” > [@icon](#): > > I know this one gets a lot of hate, but the original character was supposed to be of North Indian Sikh origin but was instead portrayed by Ricardo Montalbán which makes that original portrayal to be problematic. The hate for the later use of Cumberbatch is mostly a reaction to him not being the same ethnicity as Montalbán rather than the fact he isn’t Indian. In the end, there is nothing really in either portrayal that relates to their supposed ethnic origin, so the switch does not make me cringe for that reason. And supposedly they were all a product of Eugenics- genetically engineered, so is any race right? > [@Loach](#): > > This one slightly annoys me. She was playing a character based on someone Cameron Crowe met. The person he met was part Asian, had an Asian last name, talked a lot about her Asian heritage but looked like a blonde white woman. In other words she looked like Emma Stone. Having someone who looked Asian would defeat the purpose. Emma Stone wasn’t doing yellowface because she was playing someone who was supposed to look like her. She wasn’t made up to look Asian. "I did not know that. " ---
**Author:** ![Disinfectus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/disinfectus/32/11085_2.png) [@Disinfectus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disinfectus)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/123 "2026-06-25T00:25:20Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Iron Eyes Cody, possibly most famous for playing the crying Indian in the i70s anti-pollution commercial, also played a Native American in a number of movies. > > He got so caught up in the habit of playing a Native American that he would claim IRL to be a member of several different tribes. But he was actually Italian American. Although, [according to Snopes](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/iron-eyes-cody/): “Even if Iron Eyes was not a true-born Native American, he certainly did a lot of good on behalf of the Native American community, and they generally accepted him as one of them without caring about his true ancestry. In 1995, Hollywood’s Native American community honored Iron Eyes for his longstanding contribution to Native American causes. Although he was no Indian, they pointed out, his charitable deeds were more important than his non-Indian heritage.” I’m not sure that could be said about the others mentioned here. According to AI (for whatever that is worth) "Cody was deeply involved in supporting Indigenous causes . He worked with Native consultants, helped other Native actors secure work, and was married to Bertha Parker, a recognized Native American archaeologist. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/124 "2026-06-25T00:27:07Z")
> [@Disinfectus](#): > > “Even if Iron Eyes was not a true-born Native American, he certainly did a lot of good on behalf of the Native American community, and they generally accepted him as one of them without caring about his true ancestry. In 1995, Hollywood’s Native American community honored Iron Eyes for his longstanding contribution to Native American causes. Although he was no Indian, they pointed out, his charitable deeds were more important than his non-Indian heritage.” > > I’m not sure that could be said about the others mentioned here. Yeah, based on that, I would give him a pass. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/125 "2026-06-25T00:41:46Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > Judy Garland did blackface in the movie “Everybody Sing”: And Garland and Mickey Rooney did a minstrel show complete with blackface in Babes in Arms [![](https://scalar.usc.edu/works/birthofanindustry/media/9%20Babes%20in%20Arms.jpg) ](https://scalar.usc.edu/works/birthofanindustry/media/9%20Babes%20in%20Arms.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/126 "2026-06-25T00:48:51Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > And Garland and Mickey Rooney did a minstrel show complete with blackface in Babes in Arms In 1937, FYI ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/127 "2026-06-25T01:42:53Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > There are no slaves in that film, and the Uncle Remus stories have nothing to do with the Lost cause CSA myth. Read it again, the quote was referring to the white wash the movie made of what took place in the plantations even if the movie was after the civil war. Again, the cringe also comes from what was omitted from the movie as others elsewhere noted. [https://www.mattblackwell.org/files/papers/slavery.pdf](https://www.mattblackwell.org/files/papers/slavery.pdf) > Since black populations and large-scale agricultural pro- > duction were greatest in former slaveholding counties, it was > in these counties that Southern elites exerted greater efforts > toward repression (Kousser 1974). These repressive tech- > niques are well documented in the economics and history > literatures (Alston and Ferrie 1993; Blackmon 2008; Lich- > tenstein 1996; Wiener 1978). For example, Wiener (1978, > 62) describes how “planters used [Ku Klux] Klan terror to > keep blacks from leaving the plantation regions, to get them > to work, and keep them at work, in the cotton field.” ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/128 "2026-06-25T02:41:15Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > > [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > > > And Garland and Mickey Rooney did a minstrel show complete with blackface in Babes in Arms Blackface like Soul Man or RDjr in Tropic Thunder is one thing. But this rubber tire black paint with enormous white lips! How can that be anything but racist. It’s painful to even look at. Thank goodness for chapters in DVDs - we always skip Lincoln’s Birthday in Holiday Inn. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/129 "2026-06-25T02:59:25Z")
One recent controversy was in _Yellowstone._ In general the show and surrounding spin offs have done a very good job of employing native actors as native characters. One slipped through. Kelsey Asbille claimed to have some Cherokee ancestry but it became clear she doesn’t. She is half white and half Chinese. She used to work under her real name Kelsey Chow until she began getting roles as a Native American. With the controversy being stirred up by people like Adam Beach I was expecting them to kill her off before the end of the series. When they spun off the character Kayce Dutton into his own series they killed off his wife real quick. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/130 "2026-06-25T03:11:25Z")
It doesn’t make the depiction better, but Alexandretta (now Iskenderun, Turkey) is/was in Hatay, right where the Levant meets Anatolia, a little north of Antioch. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/131 "2026-06-25T03:54:26Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Read it again, the quote was referring to the white wash the movie made of what took place in the plantations even if the movie was after the civil war. Sure, in the Reconstruction South both Black and White sharecroppers had it rough. So did Farmer in the Great Plains during the Dust Bowl, 1930s or so. That does NOT mean the farmers couldnt be happy at times. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/132 "2026-06-25T07:55:59Z")
Laurel and Hardy did blackface in at least one of their films - _Pardon Us_, I think. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/133 "2026-06-25T09:31:17Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > In general the show and surrounding spin offs have done a very good job of employing native actors as native characters. This is a worthy goal, considering showbusiness’s history of sidelining native actors. > [@Loach](#): > > One slipped through. Kelsey Asbille claimed to have some Cherokee ancestry but it became clear she doesn’t. She is half white and half Chinese. Here is the thing, though: an actor’s physical appearance, and the actor’s ethnic background, may be loosely connected, if at all. Here is a hypothetical: say I were making a movie about Malcolm X, and cast a Nigerian actor. Is that blackface? (I can think of multiple reasons why they very probably would not end up being be the best choice for the part, of course.) Or the other way around: once I was in a laundromat, and there was a woman who looked exactly like Nefertiti (we all know the bust). It transpired that she was, in fact, 100% Egyptian. But suppose she had turned out to be born and raised in Queens? Would hiring her be tantamount to screwing Egyptian/African actors? We all come from someplace, but how much should that limit your career? I don’t know… ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/134 "2026-06-25T10:04:14Z")
Acting is about saying things you don’t believe, and pretending to be things you aren’t. Only playing parts which are an extension of your own personality is not very interesting, or professionally challenging. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/135 "2026-06-25T12:59:51Z")
Would anyone consider Mandy Patinkin’s overly broad and stereotypical Hollywood Spanish accent as Inigo Montoya in _The Princess Bride_ cringeworthy? Most folks love his performance but I’m sure a Spaniard might not be as welcoming. I often have the same reaction to awful Boston accents used by actors who clearly have never been here. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/136 "2026-06-25T13:49:29Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Would anyone consider Mandy Patinkin’s overly broad and stereotypical Hollywood Spanish accent as Inigo Montoya in _The Princess Bride_ cringeworthy? Most folks love his performance but I’m sure a Spaniard might not be as welcoming. ¡Inconcebible! Fun fact, it was reported that in the Italian dub of The Princess Bride,[Inigo speaks with a better Spanish accent.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Xennials/comments/1h8vkvt/in_the_italian_dub_of_the_princess_bride_inigo/) As others noted, “The character is supposed to be from Spain so playing him with a Spanish accent isn’t really racist, the character isn’t even depicting the Spanish in a negative manner” So for many Spaniards I know, (yes I now their word is not good 😉 ) they see no issue here. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/137 "2026-06-25T15:15:49Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Would anyone consider Mandy Patinkin’s overly broad and stereotypical Hollywood Spanish accent as Inigo Montoya in _The Princess Bride_ cringeworthy? Most folks love his performance but I’m sure a Spaniard might not be as welcoming. I’d chalk that up to the generally accepted Hollywood convention of swarthy-ish “Mediterranean” actors of any ethnicity playing Greeks/Italians/Jews/Spaniards/Arabs. (See also the careers of John Turturro, Tony Shalhoub, etc….) ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/138 "2026-06-25T15:19:59Z")
Interesting, I hadn’t heard all that. I judged his co-opting of Native American ancestry to be cringeworthy based on the fact that he not only played Native Americans, he claimed in his personal life to be a member of several tribes. But it sounds like he was sort of adopted into the community based on his good works, so I guess… > [@DrDeth](#): > > Yeah, based on that, I would give him a pass. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/139 "2026-06-25T15:32:16Z")
Yesterday I saw, for the first time, a Bugs Bunny cartoon from the ‘30s or ‘40s where Elmer was a Canadian Mounty. No real problem until the very end when Bugs surrenders to Elmer and goes before a Canadian Mounty firing squad (😳). At the very last second, the firing squad becomes a blackface minstrel show along with Elmer _and BUGS_! They all sing a few seconds of some song — fade to black. Jeez! ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2026, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135/140 "2026-06-25T15:49:24Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > blackface minstrel show along with Elmer _and BUGS_! I had to look that one up! Wow, I think I saw that one on Saturday morning cartoons, (the list of Bugs’ offenses sound familiar) but I don’t remember the ending. Maybe I just didn’t know what it was, and just moved on and forgot about it.\* > **[Fresh Hare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresh_Hare)** > > Fresh Hare is a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, written by Michael Maltese, and produced by Leon Schlesinger. It was released to theatres on August 22, 1942. > In this short, the rotund early-1940s version of Elmer Fudd is portrayed as a Mountie, earnestly attempting to arrest Bugs Bunny, who is, according to several posters attached to forest trees, wanted dead or alive (preferably dead). After following the rabbit tracks to a burrow, Elmer tries to lure Bugs out... \*I do remember the unedited Yankee and Rebel Bugs and Yosemite Sam (Southern Fried Rabbit) with Bugs masquerading as a black slave, which gets edited out if they show it now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/other-cringeworthy-blackface-yellowface-etc-movies/1031135.md?page=8)