I cannot believe that I actually am about to blog about people in blackface in 2013 and it not be a historical piece about the racial inequality that black men and women have (yes present tense included) had to deal with for hundreds of years. But, to get everyone up to speed as to why this is a pop culture issue, and why we are still talking about this, a little history (in super brief):
Blackface gained popularity in the late 1800s (there is history going back to the 1400s!) in order to create a comical stereotype of "coons" that white theatre goers could laugh at openly. The travelling minstrel shows that had blackface comedies actually have a lot to do with the racial slurs, hatred and names still used against black people in North America today. With the exaggerated lips, crazy hair and "yes massa" routine, blackface truly was one of the most insane things that ever called itself theatre. That slowly faded in the middle of the twentieth century and most people started to understand that blackface in any form is not appropriate (and there are many examples of blackface the world over that are still used by whites to portray comical black characters. Google Zwarte Piet if you want your jaw to fall off).
I say most people only because in the last week there have been 3 high profile instances of blackface that highlight that there is still a lack of understanding of what racism actually is in 2013, and it saddens me as a parent and as someone who loves history and popular culture. The first incident was Julianne Hough of Dancing With The Stars, who, along with her friends dressed up as Crazy Eyes from the Netflix show Orange is the New Black. It would have been a fine costume if she hadn't decided to make up her skin with dark brown makeup.
But she did. And rightfully, a lot of people were up in arms about it. But Hough isn't the only one who thought blackface was an acceptable Halloween costume.
2 coaches and a teacher in California were also suspended last week after donning blackface. And just today (Tuesday) the Vice Principal of a school here in Ontario was suspended for wearing a Mr. T costume complete with blackface. There is currently a campaign to have the VP not suspended because he's a "revered, great teacher." I call bullshit on that.
I call bullshit on people being so apathetic that this racism is allowed to exist. I call bullshit on someone being a "nice guy" if they think for one second that blackface is acceptable EVER. As someone who teaches kids, the fact that he didn't think anything of painting his face black in spite of the history is appalling.
Now, because I've been vocal about this not being funny, I've been told this week (mostly by white males but by one person of colour) that I'm humourless and that our society is garbage because this is "nothing." I respectfully disagree. I was also told that minstrel makeup and "painting your face black" are not the same. WHAT?
I do think that it is fully acceptable if you want to dress up in costume of someone of a different race and think you can do it and not make it a minstrel show.
Case in point — the girl everyone loves to hate, Miley Cyrus. She dressed up as Lil' Kim for Halloween this year and shock of shocks, she didn't paint herself black in any way, shape or form. She dressed up as someone she admires and it didn't take anyone more than half a millisecond to know who she was (if you know about rappers from the late 90s, that is).
You can view the (slightly NSFW) picture here.
In my humble and personal opinion, you can dress up as a character from a movie you like, as your favourite singer or as anyone else you like as long as you don't add face paint to the mix. Unless, of course, you're looking to be the Incredible Hulk.
It ain't easy being green.
What are your thoughts on the recent resurgence of blackface in popular culture?
We've all seen campaigns where people ask celebrities to be their date for prom, or a banquet, or other formal event with moderate success, but what if you just want to meet someone because you know it will make a good photo op or it's just a lifelong dream? It's something that's totally doable, and something my friend Rob Chodos successfully did earlier this year with actor Seth Green.
Why Seth Green, you ask? Well, the two look a lot a like:
These two look so much alike that Rob admittedly has used this likeness to his advantage. He admitted to me that while on a Kibbutz, he was mistaken for the actor and played along in order to score some grub from other campers a number of years ago. He's also been stopped in airports, malls and the like. Rob doesn't mind it so much, and it's pretty flattering, I think, to be mistaken for a celebrity.
But why decide you want to meet your celebrity Doppelganger, or any celebrity for that matter? Mostly for fun, I would think, and I asked Rob what made him decide to reach out to Seth Green. He said, "Mostly for a good story...And I've been mistaken for him for years, so I thought it would make a good picture!"
Rob set out by doing a Twitter campaign way back in June, a few months before Seth was going to be in Toronto for JFL42. The way it worked, he asked his friends to tweet at Green asking him to meet with Rob while in town, and to have us (his friends) get our other friends in on the tweeting. Because of this campaign, some friends of Rob's from high school got wind, and they let Rob know that they would be interviewing Seth while he was in Toronto for a documentary about classic wrestler The Iron Sheik while Seth was in town.
They asked Rob to tag along.
Rob says that during their time getting ready for the interview, he was mistaken for the actor by one of the crew members! When Seth arrived, I think he looked suspiciously at Rob at first, and then Rob let him know who he was: the Twitter campaign got to Seth! He said, "That was you!?" and happily took photos and tweeted this out:
Fun, right?
Obviously, there was no movie to be made, but Rob had told Seth the idea and I think Seth thought it was funny enough to tweet that out to his thousands of followers. I asked Rob if he'd do something similar again, and while he said he personally wouldn't, he thinks it's a fun idea for anyone to give it a try because, at the very least, a few great photos and a good story is all anyone really needs at the end of the day.
Rob was lucky because of his friend connection, but the fact that Seth took notice of the tweets is awesome. Social media can seem alienating, but in many ways, it's bringing all sorts of people closer together.
Have you ever used social media to interact with a celebrity you love? Tell me about it in the comments below.
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