Lincoln Anthony Blades answers common questions about white people wearing blackface.
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This is an article I told myself I would never write, because I’ve touched on the topic of white people wearing blackface far too often and it’s becoming exhausting. I’ve had far many debates with people who try and tell me how “touchy” I am for believing that wearing blackface is ignorant and insensitive. And it seems I constantly have to address this topic around Halloween, which is quickly becoming a passive-aggressive prejudice playground. So because I’m officially sick and tired of addressing this topic every year, and in lieu of having to write a sentiment like this again next year, I have decided to write the definitive white person’s guide to wearing blackface on Halloween without looking like a complete racist or an oblivious douchebag.
Step 1: Don’t do it.
Step 2. See step 1.
Now, I know these steps may be too complicated for some people, so I’ve decided to attach a FAQ list to help those who may have further questions.
What if I want to honor someone I admire? What if it’s a great man, like MLK or Malcolm X?
Those men grew up in the time when blackface was used to propagate hate against African Americans, and prevent us from keeping a shred of opportunity and decency in the realm of entertainment, so donning blackface wouldn’t be an honor. That would be like honoring Anne Frank by naming Guantanamo Bay after her. If you really want to memorialize a notable person, then help fight ignorance any and every where it shows its ugly face.
What if someone does it without racist intent?
Your intent isn’t an excuse for ignorance that causes emotional damage. Maybe you truly are just trying to have fun, but that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable to deeply wound someone. Yes, you may not have known better, but you do now, so act accordingly. For example, is it important to parse the intent behind this Halloween costume?
My Black friend isn’t offended, can I get a pass?
Ahh, the “if one person isn’t offended, then nobody should be” defense. Listen, Black people do not need to have a 100 percent group agreement in order for something to be deemed racially insensitive. Truth be told, the words of some Blacks are wholly unimportant because they are completely disconnected from issues of race. Blackface hurts Black people who understand the history of it, and if a man like Allen West is fine with it, that doesn’t mean that other Black people can’t still have their objections about it. We don’t all think alike, ya know.
But, I don’t even know what “Blackface” is?!
Once again, ignorance is not a valid defense. For the record, the Civil Rights Movement fought the Blackface phenomenon in the early ’60s, so please stop acting as if minstrel shows weren’t popular in the previous century. Heck, the March of Dimes used minstrel shows to raise funds as recently as 1964.
Blackface and minstrel show rhetoric still shows up today, like in 2005 when Michael S. Steele was running for the Senate, and political blogger Steve Gilliard doctored this photo to disparage Steele, adding the caption: “I’s simple Sambo and I’s running for the big house.”
But, it’s a non-racist part of our cultural tradition? Characters such as Zwarte Piet, Knecht Ruprecht and Père Fouettard are integral in our celebrations, and they aren’t even about Black people!
Oh? Then I’m sure you won’t mind trading the confusing, offensive aspects of the characters for something more inclusive, if it has nothing to do with Black people. Instead of making the hair kinky (typical of Black people) make it long and curly like a member from the band Kiss. Instead of drawing on unusually big and thick lips, like the minstrel shows in the U.S., prove you are different by using another color or doing away with the inflated-lips look altogether.
Someone has suggested those exact same changes in the Netherlands so the Dutch won’t seem prejudice. How did that go? I’m sure it was met with a hearty willingness to comply, in order to avoid looking racist, right?
Well it seems that at a “Pro Pieten” demonstration in the Netherlands (since the Dutch refused to make any changes no matter how dehumanizing their current hero appeared, to the point they felt they needed to rally) a Black woman was attacked, told to go back to “her own country,” and was almost assaulted.
So with all this being said, I refer back to my original point. If you are a non-Black person and you want to celebrate Halloween by wearing blackface, the key to effectively pulling off your costume without looking like an asshole racist is by putting down the brown or black paint, finding a new costume, and NEVER trying to wear blackface again, as long as you live.
Simple, right?
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LAB
Lincoln Anthony Blades blogs daily on his site ThisIsYourConscience.com, he’s an author of the book “You’re Not A Victim, You’re A Volunteer” and a weekly contributor for UPTOWN Magazine. He can be reached via Twitter @lincolnablades and on Facebook at This Is Your Conscience.
Originally appeared at UPTOWN Magazine
All photos courtesy of UPTOWN Magazine
Sorry folks, but this doesn’t work for me or my friends. I grew up in a majority black and chicano (with a little bit of poor whites) barrio/ghetto where we didn’t have race issues with each other. RACE was a NON-ISSUE. My black friends wore white face at times, and poked fun of chicano and white behavioral stereotypes, and the whites and us wore black face at times, and poked fun at the black stereotypes. No one was “offended” because we were all laughing at those stereotypes together. I’m not saying everyone should rush out to wear blackface or whiteface,… Read more »
i AGREE WITH EVERYTHING THIS ARTICLE SAYS. I AGREE WITH THE TWO RULES. BUT I HAVE ONE PERTINENT QUESTION.
CAN SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN THE WAYAN’S BROTHERS MOVIE “WHITE CHICKS” TO ME IN THIS CONTEXT?
My Dutch friends see nothing wrong with blacking up for Christmas. Their argument is that the character is black with soot. I pointed out that if that is so, how come the makeup doesn’t include a streaked sooty face rather than full onblack, painted red lips and golliwog features? Apparently there’s no good answer to that
That’s what we were taught too, but they were supposed to be Black people that Sinterklaas returned to Holland with, regardless of why people in our culture still blacken their faces. And yes, the red lips. God, it’s so excruciating to even look at, once you’re outside of it.
Actually, in the Netherlands there have been a bunch of white people advocating against the Zwarte Pieten tradition as we know it. While it’s a small minority that is really against it, there’s an increasing mass of people who feel uncomfortable about it, or so it seems. The discussion of the Zwarte Piet tradition reached an unprecedented itensity last week. As for now, it seems that both sides (pro and against) are getting more and more radical. The people who are against Zwarte Piet put in an official demand to abolish that part of the tradition, while the fervent pro… Read more »
I don’t think Lincoln meant to imply that ALL of the Dutch people were for the Pieten tradition, but as a Dutch-American, I’m curious if you’re seeing something that my family is NOT seeing in the Netherlands… Of course not everyone is for the Zwarte Pieten tradition, but from everything I’m hearing, not enough white Dutch folks are speaking up for the Dutch people of color against this tradition. Thanks for the note on what that woman was protesting. I think it’s important to note that regardless of what she was protesting, she was intimidated because it was PERCEIVED that… Read more »
very interesting read maarten
would you know if the Black Dutch people are overwhelmingly opposed, indifferent, or in favour of the Zwarte Piet tradition
I’ll be impressed when it’s White people writing these DO NOT WEAR BLACKFACE articles instead of Brown people having to scream it over and over and over into a vacuum at people every year who refuse to care.
Okay then, I’m Caucasian (“white”). DO NOT WEAR BLACKFACE, for ALL THE REASONS STATED ABOVE IN THIS ARTICLE, as most of the sensible Caucasians (not the immature ignorant assholes that actually think wearing blackface is funny) most likely agree. Done. Impressed yet? (Sorry, I just had to LOL) I do agree with your point about most people on this site not really being the target audience of this article. But, the more talk their is about it not being ok, hopefully it will gradually work it’s way into the outer internets…. and maybe into the real world. Who knows? To… Read more »
…..And the movie White Chicks is ok because…..
In my mind its not okay.
That movie is pretty rude – but the difference is that white women haven’t been systematically oppressed by Black men throughout history.
The offensive thing about that movie isn’t the whiteface, in my mind, but the demeaning characature of women, who actually have been systematically oppressed by society in general.
Always punch up, you know? Like they say, the janitor can crack jokes about the boss at the office party, but the CEO cannot crack jokes about the janitor. It’s something we all know, instinctively.
You know when I first typed out that comment I had originally put in a line about about “no amount of institutional power is going to change how messed up that is”. But I took it out thinking no one would try to invoke it. The offensive thing about that movie isn’t the whiteface, in my mind, but the demeaning characature of women, who actually have been systematically oppressed by society in general. Then clearly we are of two different minds. So, institutional power is what defines if something is offensive or not? Always punch up, you know? Like they… Read more »
Joanna writes: Always punch up, you know? — No, actually I don’t know. When you punch up, you can bet that someone will react by punching down. It’s Newton’s Third Law of Motion as applied to the human situation. I grew up in the sixties, and there were two pre-eminent voices in the civil rights movement. One was MLK, and I don’t need to explain to anyone who he was and what he did. The other was a guy named Stokeley Carmichael, who is a footnote in history. Stokeley was a big advocate of punching up, and castigated MLK for… Read more »
Ah, but isn’t that a way of saying that white people ARE up and always will be? Isn’t that just what we should be fighting? I for one refuse to treat people of other skin color (I am “white”) like children by allowing them some harmless little fun at my expense. If we’re to be grown up and equal all around nobody can be allowed to make racist jokes. NOBODY.
True, its a basic concept. Institutional power means little.
If something is offensive is to be avoided, its not that hard. I cannot go out and oppose to offensive slurs against, let me say gays, and on the other hand encourage or tolerate the opposite. Bad behavior is destructive and counter productive no matter who does that, if thats the boss or the janitor, its irrelevant.
Glad you’ve decided what you’ll “allow” people of color to do.
/sarcasm
Huh? By “allow” I only mean that I reserve my right to get angry when anybody acts racist against me, just like I will be shouted at when I get out of line. Do you seriously mean to say I don’t have that right, JUST BECAUSE OF MY SKIN COLOR?
Btw., I consider sarcasm instead of mature rational communication a rhetorical fail.
Always punch up, you know? Like they say, the janitor can crack jokes about the boss at the office party, but the CEO cannot crack jokes about the janitor. It’s something we all know, instinctively. Since when do people know this instinctively? CEO’s and other higher-ups probably crack jokes about the janitor and other lower ranking employees all the time. And they do not restrict their mockery and contempt to just lower ranking employees. Remember the investment bankers who mocked the Occupy protesters by throwing McDonald’s applications at them? Even when CEO’s “punch down” at lower ranking employees, they might… Read more »
When the CEO makes jokes about the janitor nearly everyone agrees he’s an f’ing arrogant jerk. Even if it’s somewhat good-natured, we know it feels REALLY wrong. G.O.B. (Job) on Arrested Development illustrated it PERFECTLY in one episode, I should find a video. It’s not a rule, of course not, but it’s something we feel, instinctively. When the CEO makes fun of the janitor at the holiday party we think “What a jerk” but when the janitor pokes fun of the CEO we all laugh. It’s something we (mostly) innately understand. Something akin to being able to read a room,… Read more »
When the CEO makes jokes about the janitor nearly everyone agrees he’s an f’ing arrogant jerk. Nearly everyone? Maybe. Maybe not. Perhaps not the CEO’s peers who join in on the joke and bring up other lower ranking people to deride for their amusement. Even if it’s somewhat good-natured, we know it feels REALLY wrong. It may not feel REALLY wrong to the people who think up and initiate such humor and draw amusement from it. It’s not a rule, of course not, but it’s something we feel, instinctively. You know what a dubious thing it is to assume that… Read more »
I get the whole “different due to systemic and historical context argument,” and I fully agree that blackface has a nasty historical context and needs to stop, and I agree the whole reverse racism thing is a bunch of bull. The problem I have with this argument though, is the only time I personally see it used is to justify or excuse bad behavior. “It’s different” when a strange woman walks up to me and puts her hand on my chest or my butt. “It’s different” when a black guy makes a nasty comment about “white people.” So what? “Different”… Read more »
Just wear the costume. I’ve seen a lot of costumes where people wore black face and if they hadn’t I would have been okay with it.
So say with me white people. Just wear the costume. If I dress up as a character that is white there is a reason that I don’t try to apply make up to look white. Because its f’n rude, disrespectful, and offensive.