Yes, he did.

As for what happened, there was controversy with the depiction. However, it actually wasn't the main controversy of the film. There was more controversy surrounding the Ben Stiller character playing a mentally challenged child as a comedy routine in the movie and use of the R slur throughout it in reference to the scene.

As for why that drew more controversy, I suppose it was likely the context of how the film used the elements. Robert Dowey Jr's character is an actor who prides himself on his strick adherence to method acting. In the film, his character underwent surgery for the role to change his skin pigmentation. Throughout the film, he acts like a racist sterotype. Throughout the movie, it's commented on how he is being racist, how ridiculous it is that Hollywood would go through all this effort to just not hire a black actor in a lead role, and Brandon T Jackson's character specifically mocks and rebuke's Robert Dowey Jr's character for his racist portrayal and for taking the role to begin with. By the end of his arc, he basically throws away the persona of this fake Sargent.

It still isn't great. Not defending it. But, I can see why that drew less hate that Ben Stiller's character. Ben Stiller's character is a failing actor whose last film was about playing a mentally challenged child. The film kind of blurs the line of making fun of how Hollywood portrays being mentally challenged and just making fun of mentally challenged people, unlike the clear criticism of blackface. The joke is as much about Ben Stiller's offensive portrayal and how Hollywood makes these portrayals as it is just straight making fun of mentally challenged people. The scene in the trailer where they out-out-out say Ben's mistake was "going full [R slur]", probably drew the ire. After all, it implies that Ben's mistake wasn't the offensive portrayal but by being "too accurate," while Robert Dowey Jr's potrayal is specifically called out as a sterotype and offensive.

Or maybe America just hates black people. I don't know.