I hate that colorism was in full swing during the production of this film. Notice that the men were all dark skinned and the women were all light skinned with the exception of Lena. As per the standard, the only dark-skinned women that exist are overweight, de-sexed, and in the matronly role or are disreputable (i.e., the dark-skinned woman in the bar booth).
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I'm not sure what your point is. I'm not ridiculing McDaniel. It just saddens me that at the height of the Black Power Black Arts movement, our own black people were practicing internal racism. Wouldn't you call that hypocrisy?
It's another sad inheritance from slavery. The idea that being lighter skin somehow makes you better....could come from the fact that many slave owners DID interbreed with their slaves and favored their progeny by making them 'house servants'.
Same is true for the hair: I love the short black hair that the medical student aspirant adopts.
"He who swaps his liberty for the promise of 'security' deserves neither." Ben Franklin
That rich, snotty, uncle Tom, college student, George Murchinson was dark. I mean, you don't get much darker than Louis Gossett Jr.
I woke up this way...
The film was released BEFORE the Black Power movement. Maybe if it had been released in 1971, you might have a point. But as a previous poster noted, it was virtually the entire cast from the Broadway play, except for Roy Glenn (in the play, "Willie" is never seen if I remember correctly) and Stephen Perry.
"May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?"
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