Spike Lee's "Bamboozled" showed that American society really hasn't improved in depicting African Americans on the same level as whites. Pierre Delacroix seemed like he would maintain his role as the moral, honorable character as he was in the beginning of the film when he first hatched his plan. Delacroix wanted to do some shows that were soft, feel good, happy shows but that only led him to being criticized by his white boss, Dunwitty. So Delacroix's idea of the show came after he was unable to break his contract. Delacroix then came up with the idea of creating a ridiculous controversial modern day show that he thought nobody would accept because it was so outrageously offensive. The network executive Dunwitty tells Delacroix, "I'm blacker than you, brother man." Dunwitty boasts about his black wife and biracial children, and has his office decorated with black sports icons. While Delacroix speaks with an unnatural lisp of the "cultured negro," Dunwitty likes to spice up Delacroix's outbursts with "ghetto grammar."
Pie chart of religions of African Americans
Delacroix, Femmes d'Alger dans leur appartement
Promotional poster for Spike Lee's movie Bamboozle...So, Pierre Delacroix hires two street performers whose hunger for success and ignorance of history combine to make them accept the idea of performing in blackface. He wanted to prove a point that blacks have came a long way and society would not accept this kind of blue humor, but in the end Delacroix was wrong. Towards the end, however, we see he has been ruined and he is not much better than those he was protesting against. When he attempts to sabotage his assistant, Sloan, his character made a drastic mental change. It seems Pierre convinced himself that the show he came up with is "okay" when all the money started to pour in. Even though Delacroix's original idea was to come up with the most outrageous, stereotypically offensive show that...