Blazing Saddles Race Quotes

Lyle has lived most of his life believing in racist stereotypes about black people, like the one about how black people love to sing. That's why Lyle is so disappointed when he finds that the black railroad workers spend their time complaining about their brutal work instead of singing.

But this is just one more instance of where Mel Brooks takes racist stereotypes and uses them to make racist people (like Lyle) look like fools.

Lyle and Taggart are worried about the quicksand that lies ahead in their railroad building. But when Lyle suggests sending horses ahead, Taggart tells him to send two black workers instead. The "comedy" of this exchange tells us that men like Taggart would have put a way higher values on a horse's life than on a black person's life. But the sad historical fact is that this was often true.

Taggart spends all his days yelling at his black workers and whipping them. Then he gets really upset when one of them hauls off and hits him in the head with a shovel. Go figure.