An actual black couple, dancing very well. A (jump) cut, and then a number of black and white people together, dancing very well. When we see minorities in old films we’re inclined to look for and make assumptions about injustice, inequity, prejudice. We are almost certainly right to do so, as there certainly was plenty of those things. Louis Armstrong has written feelingly about how the existence of a fundamental bigotry was like a chronic pain in his life, and in the life of his people. That’s very important.
At the same time, it’s probably a caricature, not to mention a drag, to always make this kind of assumption, or to paint every artifact that we encounter therewith. An actual black couple, dancing very well. A (jump) cut, and then a number of black and white people together, dancing very well.