Are all instances of blackface alike?

[nomoredemocoups]

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/mark-herring-and-grey-zones-blackface/582355/
 You decide

[John Dule]

Little Justin Trudeau decides to paint his face black one day for Halloween.

He walks downstairs to where his mother, Margaret, is cooking dinner, and says "Look mom, I'm black!" Margaret Trudeau stares at him, picks up a wooden spatula, and spanks him with it-- hard. "Take that stupid paint off, son!" she says. "You look like a darn fool!"

Justin runs into the living room, where his father Pierre sits reading the paper. "Dad," Justin yells, "Mom hit me because I'm black!" Pierre takes one look at his son, rolls up his newspaper, and hits him over the head with it. "For God's sake, son, wash your face!" he shouts. "You'll get in serious trouble if you walk around town like that!"

Justin runs upstairs crying and slams the door to his room. "I can't believe it," he says. "I've only been black for ten minutes, and I already hate these motherf**king crackers!"

[dead0man]

When I was a little kid, the least racist white people alive wore black face.  There were a ton of Mr Ts for a couple of Halloweens there, because he was awesome.  Nobody that was racist would like Mr T and nobody with racist parents would have been allowed to wear a Mr T costume.  And nobody alive* at the time would have thought the little kid in black face was a problem at all.

<FTR, I did not ever go as Mr T>


We also really liked Boy George, but this isn't about gayface.






*ok, there is always someone, but certainly not like today if an 8 yo tried to dress up as a character from Wakanda.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Very different.

As Deadoman said, very common place when I was young and no one mentioned the word racism.

[vitoNova]

Mark Herring dressed in blackface as a homage to Kurtis Blow?

That's actually pretty dope.  I would have gone as Slick Rick. 

[PSOL]

Most of the time they are outside of using it ironically or to mock the practice.

[If my soul was made of stone]

Whether or not its intentions are actively hateful, the purpose of blackface is always to perpetuate racial stereotypes. Both doing it "without racial intentions" (a professor I had who spent much of his career teaching in the UK spoke of colleagues who defended the use of blackface in that country, such as in The Black and White Minstrel Show, which actually temporarily rebranded after pressure from civil rights groups only to revert by popular demand) and post-ironic mocking of the practice are unable to transcend this basic level of tastelessness.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Back in 2009, Robert Downey Jr. was nominated for an Oscar for playing what was essentially a blackfaced character. Would that generate more controversy nowadays? Probably. But it seems they got away with it then because it was a parody of blackfacing and racial stereotyping, hence reaching a whole new meta level. Some may argue that even meta blackfacing is bad.

[dead0man]

Whether or not its intentions are actively hateful, the purpose of blackface is always to perpetuate racial stereotypes.

what about my example above (white kid in 1983 dressing up like his hero, Mr T)?

[Saint Milei]

Whether or not its intentions are actively hateful, the purpose of blackface is always to perpetuate racial stereotypes.

what about my example above (white kid in 1983 dressing up like his hero, Mr T)?

That's not blackfacing unless you dress up like some dark ass Mr. T and it comes across bad.

[ingemann]

I think the cultural context and the meaning behind blackface matters. There’s a lot of difference with using blackface in countries with a history of minstrel shows, and using blackface in countries without similar tradition. It also depend on the person in question, if the person come across as a massive hypocrite or have a history of racism I see as worse than if they don’t.

[If my soul was made of stone]

I think the cultural context and the meaning behind blackface matters. There’s a lot of difference with using blackface in countries with a history of minstrel shows, and using blackface in countries without similar tradition. It also depend on the person in question, if the person come across as a massive hypocrite or have a history of racism I see as worse than if they don’t.

"A history of minstrel shows"...which were based on what?

HERITAGE NOT HATE is, as always, not an excuse.

[Mr. Reactionary]

I think the cultural context and the meaning behind blackface matters. There’s a lot of difference with using blackface in countries with a history of minstrel shows, and using blackface in countries without similar tradition. It also depend on the person in question, if the person come across as a massive hypocrite or have a history of racism I see as worse than if they don’t.

"A history of minstrel shows"...which were based on what?

HERITAGE NOT HATE is, as always, not an excuse.

He might mean Black Pete at Christmas.

[fhtagn]

according to the internet, blackface is okay when Democrats do it

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Obviously not.

[afleitch]

Blackface was found on mainstream UK comedy a decade ago. That it's really cringy to watch now shows how fast things change.