Netflix Pulls 'Community' Episode 'Advanced Dungeons & Dragons' Due to Blackface Scenes (Exclusive) - TheWrap
Hulu also removed the Season 2 episode which features Ken Jeong's character wearing black makeup while playing "D&D"
www.thewrap.com
Netflix has pulled the classic season 2 Community episode "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" over a gag where Senor Chang dresses as a dark elf for a D&D game and is mistaken for doing blackface by the other characters. The decision has been controversial as the episode is widely considered one of the series' best, the context around the joke making it a bit more complicated than "character does blackface lol," and the fact that Chang's scenes are minor and could have been edited out with relative ease. According to the article, it is unclear whether Sony Pictures Television requested the episode be pulled or whether it might be re-uploaded with edits.
EDIT:
The point I was trying to raise isn't really over whether or not the scene is offensive. If Black people find the scene offensive, then it is, and it should be dealt with.
Rather, the question I'm raising is why we've decided to draw the line solely at this one particular type of bigoted stereotype. There are thousands of TV episodes that contain obscenely offensive jokes, characters, storylines, and tropes besides just blackface, but corporate White Hollywood has successfully co-opted the important conversation around offensive bigotry in television in order to cover up their own complicit involvement in maintaining white supremacy. "We deleted the bad episode with the blackface thing! Maybe now nobody will notice all the other horribly offensive stuff we've done." It's a sacrificial lamb.
It's not an organic, positive attempt at responding to the complaints of marginalized communities; it's a craven, hypocritical distraction created by capitalism to hijack the concerns of marginalized people.
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