Blackface Already? But It's Not Even Halloween Yet!

Spike Lee must be pissed!

From Soulbounce:

I give anyone reading this post 3 guesses as to which Black actor this is before proceeding onto the next line. A young Ben Vereen? No. An angry Will Smith? No. Lighter-skinned Don Cheadle? Umm...definitely not. Brace yourselves, y'all. This is none other than Academy Award winning actor and former multiple drug-abusing Robert Downey, Jr.

Apparently, Tropic Thunder, a new movie featuring Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey, Jr., is slated as an "epic action comedy" whose trailer will debut in theaters March 17th...and so close to St. Patrick's Day at that! Downey's character in the movie is not surprisingly an Oscar-winning actor who is cast in a Vietnam War-era movie within this movie in a role originally written specifically for a Black actor. But thanks to the wonders of makeup and current wig technology, Downey transforms into...Poof! A Black Man! And according to Ben Stiller, test audiences seemed to "really embrace it."

I don't even know where to begin with this one, folks. I mean, I thought the ridiculousness of C. Thomas Howell in Soul Man was well behind us and just a bad 80's flashback, but apparently some people still find mockery of Black culture an expense they are willing to bear.

I keep telling folks we're this close to having a Bamboozled television show.

The movie is called Tropic Thunder, an action-comedy about three actors filming a movie about the Vietnam War. Co-star Ben Stiller said Robert Downey, Jr's blackface character is satirizing over-the-top actors, not African-Americans.

Okay, Ben. We shall see.