Published: November 19, 2009

I stayed in on Halloween night. I sequestered myself with popcorn and enough horror movies to subdue me into a fetal position. However, my night of planned mindless thrills turned pensive when I read some deep social commentary from a place of often-shallow social commentary: Twitter. I couldn’t help but notice that a friend of mine tweeted, “Dear white man wearing Blackface and an orange shirt that said ‘convict’, #yourearacistpleaseneverreproduceorwalkoutsideagain.”

It’s easy to see from New York City’s annual Halloween festivities that people really enjoy the liberties inherent in playing dress-up. For New Yorkers, imitation is more than a sincere form of flattery; it’s a chance to do what others, like celebrities, do on a daily basis:  dress up provocatively, get unwarranted attention and maybe even earn some shock value. Americans all over the country share vicariously in New York’s imitative spirit every Saturday night when Lorne Michael’s “not quite ready for primetime players” gear up to portray world news in a mocking fashion. Artfully disguised in sketch comedy wrapping paper and tied with a facetious bow, Saturday Night Live’s (SNL) weekly program is a cathartic experience that allows Americans to laugh at our national and global problems for just one hour and a half.

Lately, a staple of SNL’s programming has been criticism of President Barack Obama and his supposed infidelity to many of his campaign promises. Fred Armisen, of mixed Venezuelan, Chinese and German descent, dons only a bit of make-up and a near expression-less face to imitate our calm, cool and collected Commander-in-Chief. Fred Armisen’s impression is by no means racially offensive. He is not critiquing Obama’s “blackness” like the jumpsuit-man in blackface. Armisen’s impression, as poor as it is, is a critique of Obama’s job and character, not the color of his skin. However, does that mean that it should not raise a few eyebrows? I am in no way implying that Armisen’s impression or SNL’s writing staff should be viewed as discriminatory. I am, rather, examining if the line not to be crossed in representing ethnicities is written in the sand or etched into concrete.

The history of actors playing in blackface in Hollywood is long. The very first “talkie” picture, “The Jazz Singer” (1927), featured a Russian-born, Jewish actor, Al Jolson, playing in blackface. In hindsight, the act is completely racist, though at the time, it was an acceptable medium through which the studios could portray “blackness” to its audience.

I think that we, like the 1927 audience, may not have the clearest view of what is happening every Saturday night on NBC. In our global society, SNL should have a more racially diverse cast. They currently have only one African-American cast member, Kenan Thompson, who is often relegated to playing cheap-gag transvestite roles like Maya Angelou or loud, caricatured African-American women. Interestingly enough, Thompson has also become a staple in a new recurring sketch based on the “Scared Straight” series where he does play a jailed convict, though there are two white convicts, as well. Armisen claims Asian-American and Hispanic-American heritage, but Saturday Night Live boasts no other cast members of those ethnicities. I do applaud SNL for its recent hire of Nasim Pedrad, an Iranian-American comedienne, however. (Interesting to note: they’ve already utilized her to play a loud-mouthed incarnation of the wife of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.)

In an age in which America’s news and agenda have gone global, SNL can be considered (gulp) conservative in addressing the growing global culture. After having a half-black, half-white comedienne Maya Rudolph for several seasons, SNL currently has no African-American women to play Michelle Obama. Barack, sadly, has to appear spouse-less in all his sketches. While the landscape of America continues more and more to resemble a Bennetton ad, SNL seems to regress comfortably into a 1950s tableau of white America. There are more consequences in this than having to invest a higher budget for their make-up department. It’s important that television in general show racial diversity as the norm as to ingratiate the idea into viewer’s heads. Children learn just as much about racial diversity on television as they do in the classroom. Does a young black girl or Latino boy who likes to crack jokes at family gatherings have a role model when they watch SNL? They see roles they could play being played by white comedians. Though we may not recognize it, this can have just as much of a psychologically damaging effect as Al Jolson with shoeshine on his face or Joe-Schmo-jumpsuit in the Halloween parade.

What I do not want is a situation in which ethnicity stands out like a sore thumb. Nor am I advocating that people should play characters only of the same race, as that would make me narrow-minded on race issues, as well. I am rather saying that the idea represented by television of “what is funny” can and should be broadened. I am asking that comedy aim for a more post-racial landscape. In scenes with married people, many viewers would not be shocked for an interracial couple to be depicted or for the children to be of separate races. In high-school reunion scenes, a diverse cast would only help portray the broad array of students that might attend a public high school. A Halloween scene could have white men playing white convicts, and so on. And maybe, just maybe, we can see a skit about Michelle Obama’s fabulous arms without Kristen Wiig donning a spray tan and a weave.