# Prince of Persia and "blackface" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 18, 2010, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851 "2010-05-18T02:11:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/21 "2010-05-18T07:33:18Z")
That’s all taken straight from the Prince of Persia series. Some scenes from Sands of Time seem to be reproduced pretty much directly. ---
**Author:** ![Abe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f1d935/32.png) [@Abe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abe)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/22 "2010-05-18T08:42:03Z")
Really? I played the Sands of Time a long time ago and for the life of me do not recall those visuals. I remember the game being a Tomb Raider meets parcours in abandoned temples and the like, and of course the whole rewind time mechanism. But those urban parcours scenes and the perching on the pigeon’s nest looked like they came out of Assassin’s Creed. Of course, both games are from the same company, using a similar engine, so it would not surprise me if you are right. ---
**Author:** ![LeeshaJoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@LeeshaJoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LeeshaJoy)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/23 "2010-05-18T12:35:58Z")
It should also, perhaps, be pointed out that Sands of Time predates Assassin’s Creed by a good four years, so if anything the latter was ripping off the former. ---
**Author:** ![Khaki\_Campbell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Khaki\_Campbell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khaki_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/24 "2010-05-18T12:50:29Z")
This thread is pointless as Persians share the same ethnic roots as Europeans (they are not a Semitic people). ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/25 "2010-05-18T12:58:38Z")
I do actually wish they had used a Persian actor for the role. Just like there should have been an Asian kid iin Avatar the Last Airbender. That doesn’t mean I won’t watch the movie and won’t enjoy it. I like JG a fair bit and am looking forward to seeing how he does. Also it’s not called blackface, it’s called [Yellowface](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowface). And of course it exists. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/26 "2010-05-18T13:48:31Z")
You want Persians and Blackface? Go watch **300**. I had no ideas there were so many guys with black ancestry living in Persia back in the times of Leonidas. Or that Xerxes was a smoothly deep-voiced bald giant. But that’s another issue entirely. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/27 "2010-05-18T13:58:05Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > I don’t think blackface is “prohibited” either. As has been said it’s rarely convincing. (Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder excepted–there’s no race that man can’t convincingly play, IMO!) _ **Kirk Lazarus:** I know what dude I am. I’m the dude playin’ the dude, disguised as another dude!_ When a real Prince of Persia complains about the portrayal, then I’ll listen. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/28 "2010-05-18T14:13:09Z")
Not that this has anything to do with the OP but I just wanted to date myself by saying that I finished the original (1989) Prince of Persia game on a Mac SE. ---
**Author:** ![Khaki\_Campbell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Khaki\_Campbell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khaki_Campbell)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/29 "2010-05-18T14:19:01Z")
Ah, those 2D PoP games, they ruled. The best being the Super NES port. Played with a 3D PoP (can’t be assed to remember the name), I gave up after 1 minute. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/30 "2010-05-18T14:29:29Z")
> [@Abe](#): > > Really? I played the Sands of Time a long time ago and for the life of me do not recall those visuals. I remember the game being a Tomb Raider meets parcours in abandoned temples and the like, and of course the whole rewind time mechanism. But those urban parcours scenes and the perching on the pigeon’s nest looked like they came out of Assassin’s Creed. Of course, both games are from the same company, using a similar engine, so it would not surprise me if you are right. There is a lot of outdoor climbing, although for the life of me I can’t remember if the bulk of it was in Sands of Time or Two Thrones, the third game (never played the second). I think Sands of Time had a lot of parkour on the outside of the palace, while Two Thrones had you running through the city proper. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/31 "2010-05-18T14:43:57Z")
> [@Electronic\_Chaos](#): > > What bugs me most about the trailers is the fact that the actors have British accents… and Jake Gyllenhaal obviously has an American accent. First rule of English-language historical or fantasy epics: All nobles and bad guys speak British. All underdog warriors and righteous usurpers speak American. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/32 "2010-05-18T15:00:23Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > First rule of English-language historical or fantasy epics: All nobles and bad guys speak British. All underdog warriors and righteous usurpers speak American. I remember a Mexican film classic starring the great Jorge Negrete. Set in Old Spain, he played a minor nobleman defending his true love from the evil forces of the Inquisition. He spoke in his own educated Mexican-style Spanish; the clerics used the lisping Castilian version. Was either the correct language spoken in that time & place? Doesn’t matter. He was the Good Guy, they were the Bad Guys. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/33 "2010-05-18T15:27:47Z")
Another thing to remember is that big popcorn projects like this won’t get off the ground without a name actor in the lead. Can anyone name the most bankable Iranian actor? How many people can name any Iranian actor at all? I think a more significant objection to the casting of Jake Gyllenhaal is that he’s not remotely convincing as a badass. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/34 "2010-05-18T15:35:20Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > I think a more significant objection to the casting of Jake Gyllenhaal is that he’s not remotely convincing as a badass. Neither is Tobey Maguire, but that whole Spider-Man thing seems to be working out. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/35 "2010-05-18T15:39:30Z")
> [@UncleRojelio](#): > > Neither is Tobey Maguire, but that whole Spider-Man thing seems to be working out. Yeah, but Peter Parker is supposed to look like a wuss, and superpowers are basically magic. The rules are different for the superhero genre. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/36 "2010-05-18T15:51:22Z")
> [@UncleRojelio](#): > > Not that this has anything to do with the OP but I just wanted to date myself by saying that I finished the original (1989) Prince of Persia game on a Mac SE. Tangentially, it does. In the original game, the “Prince” is specified as _not_ being Persian; he’s specifically foreign, and from the box cover art & game character, almost certainly European/Caucasian. You only become Prince because you’re going to marry the Princess. In _Sands of Time_ et seq. this wasn’t preserved, however. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/37 "2010-05-18T16:30:14Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > I came in to post this, plus I remember seeing Ricardo Montalban play a Japanese ganster on Hawaii 5-O And he also played a Punjabi or something, whatever KHAAAAAAAN!!! was supposed to be. > [@CalMeacham](#): > > You want Persians and Blackface? Go watch **300**. I had no ideas there were so many guys with black ancestry living in Persia back in the times of Leonidas. Or that Xerxes was a smoothly deep-voiced bald giant. But that’s another issue entirely. Didn’t you know that all Egyptians were black back then? Especially Cleopatra and the other Ptolemies, a family that was almost wholly Greek. And let’s not get into Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/38 "2010-05-18T17:09:22Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > And Darryl Hammond as Jesse Jackson. I was _really_ uncomfortable the first time I saw Hammond as Jackson on SNL. But no one made a peep about it, so I figured it was “ok”. That said, never really enjoyed his imitation except for the Green Eggs and Hams recitation. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/39 "2010-05-18T18:26:36Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > I was _really_ uncomfortable the first time I saw Hammond as Jackson on SNL. But no one made a peep about it, so I figured it was “ok”. That said, never really enjoyed his imitation except for the Green Eggs and Hams recitation. That wasn’t Darryl Hammond. That was the real Jesse Jackson. [Cite.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPy2alWEZ-U) ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851/40 "2010-05-18T18:45:13Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > That wasn’t Darryl Hammond. That was the real Jesse Jackson. [Cite.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPy2alWEZ-U) D’oh. Memory fail. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prince-of-persia-and-blackface/539851.md?page=3)