Akroyd in black face...

It was 1983. People weren't wrapped up in the whole politically correct business as they are today & in recent years. I'm sure it offended some people back then, but it wasn't treated as a huge outrage as it would be today.

You have to take the times into consideration when viewing older movies that may have material that is not considered politically correct by today's standard & let being offended slide off your back.

You can't go back & change history. I'm not saying it would be alright to say such things today but it wasn't considered such a big deal back then. What is so hard about understanding that?

There are so many films, TV shows and even cartoons that have material in them that are considered controversial today--do you want to go back & censor them all because some may be offended today??

Shows like All In The Family, The Jeffersons, Good Times & films like Gone With The Wind, The Jazz Singer, Imitation of Life through to something like Trading Places were made during times that were different than today--what is so hard to understand about that?

People today are out there LOOKING for things to be offended by in my opinion. I went through my teen years in the 80's as a gay person and trust me, I know what it's like to be on the receiving end of inappropriate comments & jokes and plain ignorance & fear, especially during those early years of the AIDS epidemic.

But even so, I would never want the history of that time changed in any way, be it Eddie Murphy's insensitive comments about gays & AIDS in his Delirious concert or the depiction of gays on TV in the likes of Jodie Dallas on SOAP or Stephen Carrington on Dynasty. If I hadn't been exposed to those things or went through what I went through, I wouldn't be who I am today or where I am today.

If you want to exert effort being offended by something that happened in a movie or TV show that's years in the past then go right ahead & knock yourself out. Even offensive moments in our history need to be preserved so that an accurate mirror can be held up for review. I look at reviewing the past as a way for me to truly appreciate my present & how far things have come.

And it's closer to "then" now than many realize today and it is certainly not the fault of decades old films or TV shows. It's the current crop of things on TV in the movies and on the Internet that are the real threat of returning things to places we don't ever want to go again.

Well personally, I think it should still be okay today because it's just comedy. People really need to grow a thicker skin and stop getting their panties in a twist over everything nowadays.

Shut up. If you don't like it, don't watch it.
There was nothing racist or insulting about it. It was done tastefully and only the most brainwashed sensitive and neurotic people will find it offensive.
The problem is with YOU and how you interpret it.
People try so hard not to be racist they end up being bigots.

Get a life. It was a disguise to trick the bad guys! Millenials are the stupiest generation in human history.

I guess Soul Man is an acquired taste then.

You'll beg for a left!

No, White Chicks did not offend me and it didn't offend your white ass either. Mainly because this country does not have a sordid and disgusting history of disseminating racist images, attitudes and perceptions of WHITE stereotypes. Every immigrant group and minority has been stereotyped but the history of prejudice, hostility, and ignorance towards black people has insured a unique longevity to the stereotypes. White America's conceptions of Black entertainers were shaped by minstrelsy's mocking caricatures and for over one hundred years the belief that Blacks were racially and socially inferior was fostered by legions of both white and black performers in blackface. THAT IS NOT THE SAME FOR WHITE PEOPLE SO YOUR 'WHITE CHICKS' ARGUMENT DOESN'T FLY.

Well, you're a wanna-be, wanna be better than me!

Exactly, this was not black face. At all. This was not problematic at all. He was pretending to be more authentically black, not some awful stereotype. I have a bigger problem when movies have corny white guys try to act black by acting outrageously stereotypical with stupid slang. Or even when black people in comedies have to act obnoxiously stereotypical. Both of these examples can be seen in that awful Queen Latifah and Steve Martin movie. No one was protesting that movie.

Seriously some of you people need to get lives if this really offended you...It was hilarious - I thought so back in 1983 and still do in 2012. Just for the record - Landis said that the studio execs were very concerned about it but until the mixed preview audiences laughed hysterically at it then it was a non-issue...Funny I don't remember Black boycotts of this film do you??? I'm pretty certain that most of us got the fact that it was a comedic sequence in the context of the story not an Al Jolson minstrel thing???