Use of racial slurs in film

I watched Stanley Kubrick's The Killing today. The film was made in 1956 and there's one scene where a character uses the N word. I was quite taken aback to hear it used in a film made in an era with a strict and rigid censorship code, where no swearing was allowed.

Now I realise that those were more racist times and so the word itself may not have been as unacceptable as it is today, but even so. People swore in the 50s and that wasn't allowed in movies. Anyone know when racial slurs (offensive ones I mean) were first used in cinema?

I'm pretty sure there's been somebody calling black people 'bad' in Birth of a Nation from 1915. I also remember that all black people used ebonics in this film, while white people used correct English.

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Oh yeah, I know there have been racist messages in films since cinema began. However, I was wondering more specifically about the use of the N word, given the bad reputation it holds. The Killing (1956) is the earliest film I've seen with usage of the word.

I did a little research and from what I understand here was the stance of the Production Code. Words and expressions which could be seen as offensive to certain groups in the U.S. as well as other countries "should be avoided." If at any time there was a blanket ban on the n-word I'm not sure, but I would imagine a filmmaker would have an awfully tough time getting a racial slur past the Production Code Administration, whether the movie was made in 1935 or 1956. The Production Code was modified in late 1956 to make it clear no film should "incite bigotry" and again that racial slurs should be avoided.

I imagine Kubrick argued that the use of the n-word was necessary as a plot point. The character wants the over friendly parking attendant to leave him alone so he can shoot the horse and he does it by calling him the racial slur.

Here is where I got the information: http://productioncode.dhwritings.com...uctioncode.php

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The Emperor Jones (1933) was the last film to use the N-word before The Hays Code prevented it. It was first allowed again in 1949's Home of the Brave, which starred James Edwards, who coincidentally was the actor who played the character slurred by Timothy Carey in The Killing. Kind Hearts and Coronets used the phrase "ten little niggers" (a common minstrel show/nursery rhyme phrase from the 1860s on) the same year. I recall it used in Intruder in the Dust (1949), Stars in My Crown (1950) and Bright Victory (1951). The word was used in all these movies (except the British comedy) to show the user to be unjustifiably racist and hateful and eventually wrong-headed. In the Kubrick film, it showed Carey to basically be unrepentantly evil.

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