Watch young Don Cheadle and Golden Girls' Blanche grapple with racism, Confederate flags in 1992

The Golden Palace
(Image credit: Screenshot/Twitter/The Golden Palace)

Before the Avengers movies, Hotel Rwanda, and Oceans Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen, Don Cheadle was a cast member in the short-lived Golden Girls spinoff The Golden Palace. And decades before Black Lives Matter and the police killings of Michael Brown, Rayshard Brooks, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd (among others), Bill Clinton-era America had a "national conversation on race." Racism wasn't solved in the 1990s, obviously, but in one marker of how far we've come (and haven't), freelance journalist Seb Starcevic dug up this Golden Palace clip from 1992.

The plot of The Golden Palace involves three of the four Golden Girls (Bea Arthur moved on) investing in a hotel with only two remaining staff members, manager Roland Wilson (Cheadle) and a chef played by Cheech Marin. In this scene, Cheadle tries to explain to Blanche Devereaux (Rue McClanahan) why the Confederate flag is bad. Starcevic guides us through the rest.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.