Jimmy Fallon had little choice but to grovel for forgiveness after his comedy sin got exposed earlier this year. Twenty years ago, the “Tonight Show” star darkened his skin to enhance his impression of black comedian Chris Rock.
The act was innocent at the time, part of a larger comic meme where white performers used makeup to appear black. Few, if any, people howled in protest at the time, and the practice was commonplace. The culture didn’t draw a direct line between the makeup and the inexcusable blackface incidents of the early 20th century, which were cruel, calculating, and intended to hurt black Americans.
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