Office creators remove blackface scene
The Office creator Greg Daniels has announced a blackface scene in the hit U.S. comedy has been edited out.
The Dwight Christmas episode, which aired in 2012, no longer contains a scene featuring Rainn Wilson in character as Dwight trying to convince his colleagues to celebrate Pennsylvania Dutch Christmas while in blackface.
“The Office is about a group of people trying to work together with mutual respect despite the inappropriate actions of their boss and assistant manager,” showrunner Daniels told Variety in a recent statement. “The show employed satire to expose unacceptable behaviour and deliver a message of inclusion.
“Today we cut a shot of an actor wearing blackface that was used to criticize a specific racist European practice. Blackface is unacceptable and making the point so graphically is hurtful and wrong. I am sorry for the pain that caused.”
The Dwight Christmas episode of The Office will no longer appear on the Netflix streaming platform or in syndication.
The news follows a string of similar actions in Hollywood to remove blackface from programs, in the wake of global
Black Lives Matter protests worldwide following the murder of African-American George Floyd by a white police officer in Minnesota last month.
30 Rock creator Tina Fey asked TV bosses to axe multiple episodes of the show featuring the practice. Three episodes of Scrubs were also pulled from the Hulu streaming platform and Netflix bosses have removed the entire British sketch series, Little Britain, for blackface depiction.