Blackface!

America is still very racist in their thinking when it comes to African Americans and criminal behavior. Blacks are thought of as criminally inclined and whites are not. But this throws the salt on the wound. A chase for a bank robber hitting several banks and businesses in the Tri-State came to reveal shocking results. Pursuing a man that was described to be African-American, authorities discovered that their search was for the wrong person and the wrong race. Conrad Zdzierak, 30, fooled many after donning a mask that made him look as though he was a Black man when in fact, he is white.

Check out this video:This is crazy but not surprising.

The blackface minstrel act was a very popular form of entertainment in 19th-century America. It was also a highly racist depiction of African Americans. The stock characters of blackface minstrelsy have played a significant role in disseminating racist images, attitudes and perceptions worldwide. Every immigrant group was stereotyped on the music hall stage during the 19th Century, but the history of prejudice, hostility, and ignorance towards black people has insured a unique longevity to the stereotypes. White America's conceptions of Black entertainers were shaped by minstrelsy's mocking caricatures and for over one hundred years the belief that Blacks were racially and socially inferior was fostered by legions of both white and black performers in blackface.

Blackface makeup was either a layer of burnt cork on a layer of coca butter or black grease paint. In the early years exaggerated red lips were painted around their mouths, like those of today's circus clowns. In later years the lips were usually painted white or unpainted. Costumes were usually gaudy combinations of formal wear; swallowtail coats, striped trousers, large hats. The audience for these shows was largely working-class whites, and at first the blackface character was actually a smart and sympathetic one. But as time went on, the minstrel show took on a more racist tone.

Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder in 2008

There are those who believe that blackface is so offensive it should be erased from the cultural record. I am one of those people. Any artistic, technical, or film-history value it has is far outweighed by the repulsive stereotypes it reinforces. It is said to be an example of history that is "best forgotten." But no history is best forgotten. It's foolish and dangerous to censor historical events we're not comfortable remembering. The impulse to erase the historical record of books, films, TV shows and other cultural artifacts of things people find offensive or embarrassing today is a totalitarian urge that results only in ignorance.