A nuanced look at "blackface"

One of the problems with our cultures rush to outrage and seeking to dig up past words or photos to take down political enemies is that we forget that there is nuance in most situations.

So take the meetoo movement. Some people treat an awkward hug on a date with actual sexual violence like rape. This unfairly tars the awkward person as a terrible person, and diminishes the crimes of the actual rapists or sexual assaulter.

The new focus on "blackface" is doing that as well.

In this video I show pictures of all of the different stages of what is now lumped in as "blackface", and I show why it is bad to forgo nuance and lump these all together.




Now normally I know many people dont like watching the video and prefer just reading the thread, but I have so many pictures on the video that it would make it tough to post them all on this thread.

The jist of the video for those that cant watch is that even when we take all politics out of it, there seems to be a lack of nuance in being upset about "blackface"

And so we have everything for actual minstrel show type blackface designed to be racist towards blacks, to people wearing that minstrel show paint to mock minstreal shows, to painting up to look like famous black people to mock them or celebrate them, to painting black for a blackout game, to placing soot on your face to look dirty, to wearing black camo or black facepaint to help do your job like a stage hand; all being lumped together as blackface and offensive.

This is a huge mistake, as every one of these situations on this scale is totally different.

My personal preference is even the worst of these situations (like virginia gov northam is accused of) doesnt warrant expulsion from public service. It is one bad situation from decades ago, and if this is the standard, god help us all if people look in to our pasts.

But even if you do want to hold people higly accountable like northam, clearly there is a level of painting yourself black that is far worse than others, and so we should look at each sitaution individually and the context around it before we just yell; racism.

We all should have learned a lesson from the Covington saga how rushing to judgement without context can lead to some really bad things.

I see these "blackface" threads here lately and for some reason all I can see is Mickey Rooney doing the Asian guy. This and blackface were done in many movies back in the day.

In the new culture, should all of these old school actors and actresses now be demonized as well? Have them removed from the walk of fame and have their achievements removed from the history books as well?

At what point is this just over the top. I see this as a continuation of the "remove all the statues" debacle.

a reply to: WalterTilley

At what point is this just over the top.

It’s over the top now.... my dog, who has a blackish head, came in with just her face completely covered in white snow, and I wondered “is whiteface racist too?”

Yep.
From the sublime to the ridiculous........

Well articulated Grambler.

Your voice of reason is much appreciated on these forums !

I think this Leftist 'Cultural Appropriation = Racism' trend remains as ridiculous as it always has been.

My interest in this is watching a Leftist narrative developed to exacerbate racism in order to give more power to Leftists...turn around to bite those same Leftists in their a##...ultimately...to see if it results in more Leftist hypocrisy.

Which it obviously has.
Dem Governor Ralph "Coon Man" Northam and his Atty. General...STILL haven't resigned.

Isn't Elizabeth "Pow-Wow Chow" Warren STILL running?

While you and I agree a lot....I really applaud you for this post.

The level of insanity in the world is unreal. I do not understand why we are pushing to forget our past (tearing down statues). We tend to look at the past with the filter of today.

While it is offensive, what we need to remember is this:

This is what makes America great....we see our wrongs and fix them. Look at how much we have moved forward in issues of race and gender....we saw what we could do to fix things. Nobody is perfect, not a hundred years ago and not today. Instead of being angry and offended, we should be proud of our country for leading the way in fighting to make all equal.

Are we perfect yet? Nope and never will be....but if we look at the positive instead of the negative, we would all be happier and better off.

originally posted by: Grambler
One of the problems with our cultures rush to outrage and seeking to dig up past words or photos to take down political enemies is that we forget that there is nuance in most situations.

So take the meetoo movement. Some people treat an awkward hug on a date with actual sexual violence like rape. This unfairly tars the awkward person as a terrible person, and diminishes the crimes of the actual rapists or sexual assaulter.

The new focus on "blackface" is doing that as well.

In this video I show pictures of all of the different stages of what is now lumped in as "blackface", and I show why it is bad to forgo nuance and lump these all together.

Now normally I know many people dont like watching the video and prefer just reading the thread, but I have so many pictures on the video that it would make it tough to post them all on this thread.

The jist of the video for those that cant watch is that even when we take all politics out of it, there seems to be a lack of nuance in being upset about "blackface"

And so we have everything for actual minstrel show type blackface designed to be racist towards blacks, to people wearing that minstrel show paint to mock minstreal shows, to painting up to look like famous black people to mock them or celebrate them, to painting black for a blackout game, to placing soot on your face to look dirty, to wearing black camo or black facepaint to help do your job like a stage hand; all being lumped together as blackface and offensive.

This is a huge mistake, as every one of these situations on this scale is totally different.

My personal preference is even the worst of these situations (like virginia gov northam is accused of) doesnt warrant expulsion from public service. It is one bad situation from decades ago, and if this is the standard, god help us all if people look in to our pasts.

But even if you do want to hold people higly accountable like northam, clearly there is a level of painting yourself black that is far worse than others, and so we should look at each sitaution individually and the context around it before we just yell; racism.

We all should have learned a lesson from the Covington saga how rushing to judgement without context can lead to some really bad things.

a reply to: Grambler

I say we excoriate the English because back in the day they only let dudes play the women in Shakespeare plays. Thou must tucketh thy junk out of sight to playest Juliet pining in the night.

We all should have learned a lesson from the Covington saga how rushing to judgement without context can lead to some really bad things

Yet we did not all learn a lesson other than people refuse to cling to actual facts and everyone's judgement is skewed according to their political beliefs. Even as i type this you still believe it is ok for a group of people to counter protest on the national mall under the guise of waiting for a bus for hours on end in the middle of a permitted protest.

As far as blackface goes i feel that really coal miners should be offended more that brown Americans. Newsflash to my fellow Americans who are brown.....You aint black!

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: Grambler

I say we excoriate the English because back in the day they only let dudes play the women in Shakespeare plays. Thou must tucketh thy junk out of sight to playest Juliet pining in the night.

"Methinks, The Lady Doth Protrude Too Much."

originally posted by: UncleTomahawk

We all should have learned a lesson from the Covington saga how rushing to judgement without context can lead to some really bad things

Yet we did not all learn a lesson other than people refuse to cling to actual facts and everyone's judgement is skewed according to their political beliefs. Even as i type this you still believe it is ok for a group of people to counter protest on the national mall under the guise of waiting for a bus for hours on end in the middle of a permitted protest.

As far as blackface goes i feel that really coal miners should be offended more that brown Americans. Newsflash to my fellow Americans who are brown.....You aint black!

The fact you feel after all the available footage that the covington kids were counter proitesting the native americans (who were defenidng the black racists) is mind boggling.

Damn! In 1985 I dressed up as B.A. Barracas of the A-team. He was my favorite character in that show. So since I did it as a tribute, I'm now a racist? My opinion on that would get me banned from this site.

originally posted by: JIMC5499
So since I did it as a tribute, I'm now a racist?

You are, and we pity you, fool.

a reply to: Grambler

Let's just not do things that are considered racist and there isn't a problem.

It really isn't that difficult to figure out, and it really doesn't require paragraphs of opinion.

oh wait thats not ted danson


and now everyone ruined it for this little boy;



That feeling IS CALLED SHAME!


edit: why is the actual ted danson one so hard to find? was it just photograph swore there was video.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: JIMC5499
So since I did it as a tribute, I'm now a racist?

You are, and we pity you, fool.

Finally we are outing these bigots!

What happens if a black guy dresses up as Al Jolson?

Asking for a friend.

originally posted by: hombero
a reply to: Grambler

Let's just not do things that are considered racist and there isn't a problem.

It really isn't that difficult to figure out, and it really doesn't require paragraphs of opinion.

Again, this is why nuance is important.

Who gets to determine what is considered racist?

I hope your life is never ruined because something you thought was innocous is determined to be racist by someone.

originally posted by: IAMTAT
What happens if a black guy dresses up as Al Jolson?

Asking for a friend.

Depends, does he also convert to Judaism like Sammy?

originally posted by: Grambler

originally posted by: UncleTomahawk

We all should have learned a lesson from the Covington saga how rushing to judgement without context can lead to some really bad things

Yet we did not all learn a lesson other than people refuse to cling to actual facts and everyone's judgement is skewed according to their political beliefs. Even as i type this you still believe it is ok for a group of people to counter protest on the national mall under the guise of waiting for a bus for hours on end in the middle of a permitted protest.

As far as blackface goes i feel that really coal miners should be offended more that brown Americans. Newsflash to my fellow Americans who are brown.....You aint black!

The fact you feel after all the available footage that the covington kids were counter proitesting the native americans (who were defenidng the black racists) is mind boggling.

Really does than boggle your mind when they are on camera asking the chaperone if they can do school chants to counter the hateful things being spewed? You have great intellect and i can only believe you are taking the piss on that issue for political gain.

As far as blackface i think we have more common ground though cause i believe we can both see that such is being used also as a political weapon used to degrade someones character.

Again i think the kids are hurt the most cause they are being ingrained with the belief that somehow black paint makes them inferior. It does not and i wish we would all take time to get them to realize that without all the people becoming outraged over such then the matter would hold no weight.

If any politician or socialite has ever appeared in blackface, now's the time to state that you have, as the hypocrites stand in solidarity. Don't miss the opportunity to free yourself!!