| Posted: 15 December 2018 at 11:56am | IP Logged | 2
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When I was in 5th grade, we did a school musical that included several fairy tale characters, including Little Black Sambo. In retrospect, I think they included him to add diversity to the cast. The script had an explanation of who he was, and there was a note that he could be played by a black actor or a person in blackface.*
The previous year we did a musical about settlers in the western prairie. I remember being baffled by the makeup used on the people playing "Indians". They each had red circles on each cheek. I'm thinking it was "redskin"? At the time, I didn't see a purpose to it at all, it just looked silly.
* I was in the ensemble, so I had a copy of the script, and I still remember a lot of the details. My character was Jack Toddy, who wasn't afraid of anybody!
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