In a controversial move, Angelina Jolie has donned blackface for her newest role. She is playing Mariane Pearl, the widow of Daniel Pearl.
Daniel Pearl was the Wall Street Journal reporter whom Muslim extremists kidnapped and subsequently killed, releasing footage of his beheading online.
Angelina Jolie in blackface
Of course, Jolie is becoming almost as famous for her charitable work as she is for her acting roles. She’s a UN Ambassador of Goodwill and Mummy to adopted African and Asian babies. Her movie star boyfriend, Brad Pitt, is a do-gooder, too. He wants to rebuild an eco-friendly New Orleans.
So, you’d think neither of them would perpetrate racial appropriation. Yet, here they are, committing racial appropriation while masquerading this film as a noble cause.
Mariane became a global sensation in 2002. She was on all media pleading to no avail for her husband’s kidnappers to free him. The world grieved with her when they ignored her pleas. The sympathy she evoked was especially acute because she was so noticeably pregnant with Daniel’s child.
A Mighty Heart is the bestselling book Mariane wrote about that tragedy. Pitt bought the rights to dramatize it. And it appears neither he nor Jolie could think of a more suitable actress to play Mariane.
The hitch? Mariane is of Dutch-Caribbean and mixed-race heritage and is considered Black in America. Jolie, of course, is White.
The 1915 film Birth of a Nation is infamous for many reasons. Most notably, though, because director D.W. Griffith had White actors paint on blackface to play Black characters. That earned him eternal condemnation.
Yet, astonishingly, Pitt seems to be following suit. Reports are that he intended to cast his blonde wife, Jennifer Anniston, to play Mariane. Their divorce rendered her unsuitable for the part. However, casting either Jolie or Anniston in this role would be a slap in the face to the Black community.
Jolie and Pitt’s entitled blackness
It was virtue signaling enough that Jolie and Pitt adopted African kids. Yet they traveled all the way to Namibia for the birth of their child. I registered my cynicism in the post “To Jolie and Pitt – a child is born…to save Namibia!?”
I’m sure Halle Berry, Thandie Newton, or another actress of mixed race would’ve been happy to play Mariane Pearl. Jolie and Pitt should have known better than to cast her in this role. I hope box office receipts reflect public disapproval.
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C. Schaefer says
There is no denying Ms. Jolie has certain features indicative of a black background, and no doubt she would qualify under Louisiana’s 1/16th rule, if one were to do a comprehensive DNA test on her (suggest her mother, Marcheline Bertand was, technically, a black woman). But the point is moot. If a black woman were to play the part, would whites have the right to say something like “Hale Berry inslults whites by donning whiteface to lay white woman in new movie!” Or are you one of these people who use the term ‘light skinned black’ which makes absolutely no snese whatsoever. I suggest you ask the woman whose life Ms. Jolie is portraying what she thinks. I know you won’t like the answer, therefore would never ask it. You know…races were created by man’s own ignorant idea that staying with people who you look like makes all ‘nice nice.’ Now…you know, and I know that’s not true, but that’s not neither here nor there. People like you just want to create some dirty laundry on this woman who’s only crime is trying to do some good in the world for someone other than herself and does not have an insulting, nor prejudice bone in her body, for the purpose of promoting your career/agenda. Shame on you and all racist such as yourself.