Posted on 08/23/2023 4:38:53 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A photo of Judy Garland in blackface has resurfaced on social media, with fans jumping to defend the late child star.
The image is a still from the movie Everybody Sing from 1938, and shows a teenage Garland painted to have darker skin, large white lips and dreadlocks. Garland played Judy Bellaire in the musical comedy, who joins a music show as a blackface singer to escape her dysfunctional family.
Although the film was released 85 years ago, many people learned of its existence for the first time after the still was shared by X user @browardbully on August 16. Pairing the image with a shot of Garland in the film musical The Wizard of Oz from the following year, @browardbully wrote: "two movies. a year apart. same b****. shoutout to Gen Z for teaching me this."
The post received over 36 million views and caused uproar online, but not due to the blackface. Fans leaped to the actor's defense, calling attention to Garland's infamous abuse at the hands of her parents and studio executives.
"She was a child forced to do this," posted X user Queen Minaj. "It wasn't 2023."
"You think she had any say as a minor or a woman back in the 30s? You think the abusive management she had and her parents would allow her to refuse the role?" wrote Alex Silva.
"A walk in her shoes might bring about some empathy," commented KJ-isms.
"Cancel someone who did it as an adult and is still living," wrote Hozonkai. "Not a former child actress who died 54 years ago."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Totally innocent photo of young Judy
It might have even been beneficial in those days, when majority audiences may not have been receptive to black characters and actors at once-black characters but white actors was the way.
King was a great man? King plagiarized most of his writings including his Doctoral thesis and he was a whore monger, a serial adulterer and enjoyed beating the white prostitutes he hired on top of being a marxist...
> King was a great man? <
Yes. Sure, King was a VERY flawed man. But here’s the bottom line. In those days, many blacks were advocating violence as a way to address racial problems. Malcolm X and his followers were in the forefront there.
King chose another path, one of non-violence. That was a bold and courageous thing to do. King gave blacks another option. As a nation, we are so much better off for that.
Don’t get me wrong. I see your point. But there are instances in history where a flawed person turns the tide. Lech Walesa in Poland is one of them. Martin Luther King in America is another.
Judy just gots a pair O nu shoos. Mickey played a banjo as Mr. Bones.
So what. much ado about nothing.
BTW Everybody Sings is a hilarious film. Great cast. First saw it in the 90’s on a blockbuster vhs rental, and own it on Laserdisc. check it out and also Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry and one of the Broadway Melody flicks with Judy and Buddy Ebsen is also excellent.
The fool in blackface that should never be forgotten is Justin Trudeau.
“Martin Luther King was a great man. He patiently tried to heal the racial device.”
MLK Jr cheated on his dissertation and his wife.
Was he heroic in some ways? Yes. But a great man? I’m not so sure. I think if he lived he would have ended up like Jesse Jackson.
> MLK Jr cheated on his dissertation and his wife. Was he heroic in some ways? <
The great WW II Marine fighter ace Gregory “Pappy” Boyington had a saying that I think applies here.
“Show me a hero and I’ll show you a bum.”
RE: Al Jolson in bygone era....
I am probably the biggest Jolson fan here. Lost count of the cds but believe I have 99.9% of the songs including earliest ones. And books and the dvds. Opera singers used to admire his voice.
Note: Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra among many others had blackface stage appearances. Sinatra: “We were wrong but at the time we didn’t know we were hurting anybody.”
But Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man
That he didn’t, didn’t already have
And ‘cause never was the reason for the evening
Or the tropic of Sir Galahad
Because we must not let racism die out!
I was deeply offended at the fact that someone thought it was funny.
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