VermontsFinest

Chaplin’s films were banned in Nazi Germany, and Nazi propaganda smeared him constantly. (Part of the smear was claiming he was Jewish–which he was not, but calling someone Jewish in Nazi Germany was guaranteed to inflame public sentiment against them.)

Chaplin was concerned with social issues like homelessness, and was a liberal and an anti-Nazi at a time when to be either one (let along both) was to be accused of being a Communist–which at the time was pretty one of the worst things you could call someone–and indeed “anti-American.” (Because, again, American conservatives loved them some Nazis–right up until the time Hitler’s forces started invading other countries–and even then, the bulk of the US thought we shouldn’t “interfere” in what they saw as a strictly European affair.)

Even after the war, and even after the world realized the despicable things the Nazis had done, Chaplin couldn’t shake the “Communist” and “anti-American” accusations from conservative American “journalists,” politicians, and others on the far right, who were still angry with him for his pre-war anti-Nazi sentiments.

And when he refused to participate in the McCarthy’s “Red Scare” Communist witch-hunts of the early 1950s, he was banned from re-entering the United States, while on a trip to England.

In short, Chaplin’s ANTI-NAZI leanings made him so many enemies in the US that they set off a chain of events that eventually saw him kicked out of the country. Oh, sure, the US finally issued a formal apology and invited him back, but by that time, his response was pretty much, “Yeah, too little, too late.” And justifiably so.

Chaplin stood against everything the Nazis stood for, and was smeared and punished for it.

So don’t you fucking dare call Charlie Chaplin a Nazi. 

I remember being teased relentlessly throughout my childhood and my teenage life where people would say that because of my skin I’ll never be beautiful enough, they would even recommend skin bleaching products. So as a child I quickly realised that as a dark skinned girl I was not considered beautiful enough… At that time I didn’t know that it was the negativity from the people around me that was causing me to hate my skin and myself for that matter. I remember a time during school photos where a girl shouted “she’s too dark! You won’t see anything on her ID but her teeth!”, of course everyone laughed it out… And so did I…. Because I didn’t want to make it seem like I was offended… Their feelings felt more important than mine… After all growing up I was always reminded of how unlikely I was of ever being beautiful or finding someone that found my darkness beautiful….. As a 19 year old today I sit here and say “I never gave in to skin bleaching”, “I was constantly reminded of how ugly I was but that only made me love myself even more….. I began considering myself as someone different, someone beautiful and out of the ordinary.” Your skin no matter how dark it is that when you smile you can only see the glow of your teeth is worthy of love, your skin is that of a goddess and you should never feel anything about your skin but self love. I write this to all of the people that have gone through similar and worse, you don’t need to learn to Love your skin, the love is already there… You just gotta unleash it.