Friday, September 16, 2011

Blackface: Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't...Take It Off Before Anyone Sees

I don't think I can add much to what white people Gawker and Gabe have had to say on the matter of the University of Monteal business students putting on blackface to celebrate (YAY!!) and honor Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.

Gabe came up with this wallet-sized flowchart to the right for everyone considering an outfit topped with blackface and smiling about the hijinx and wacky hilarity sure to ensue. Because, y'know, there was that time when the *blackface gag* (haha!) was nailed so perfectly by [nobody's name goes here]...

I had experience with this odd impulse soon after starting this blog, from my own school no less (no, it wasn't a tribute in honor of me). So I'm starting to think words and blog posts don't matter much in getting the message across. But undaunted and always on the cutting edge of anti-racist technology, I'm pleased to inform anyone reading this that I've just come back from purchasing all the Wite Out in my neighborhood. Oh yeah. I figure if telling people blackface is retarded doesn't connect, then maybe putting on witeoutface will drive the point deep into their hearts and allow them to finally understand.

while i'm putting on my makeup, here's the vid of those crazy canadians:

so funny and awesome! who wouldn't feel honored?

An Open Letter to the University of Montreal students Who Wore Blackface [Videogum]
Trinity's Assimilation Program Stronger Than Most [TAN]
Don't Support Blackface by pre-ordering NEGROPEDIA!


  1. also: there might be another discussion needed on "blackface" one word, or "black face" two words. i tend to think the one-word version is much more effective in that stern civil rights foreboding sort of way. but then again maybe the two-word version is a little more nimble and "2011".

  2. Anonymous9/16/2011

    the biggest problem i have here is that no one who is dumb enough to don blackface is smart enough to answer the question, why?

    i just really want to know what they're thinking. if you go to cheer on the women's team do you go in skirts? should female fans scratch imaginary nuts when they go cheer on male athletes? okay, well that would be funny. but only because public undercarriage handling is inappropriate.

  3. Anonymous9/17/2011

    That flowchart is real talk. How do you coat yourself and not think about how people will view it? smh

  4. Really? Really?!? Did they learn nothing from Ted Danson?

  5. that ted danson reference gets me every time. i wish he and whoopi had a bunch of children and now they were all writing blogs or memoirs about their *crazy* lives. ted playing blackface pranks on the kids....

    it does point to an evolution of some sort. i think there was something more like genuine hatred for this type of behavior before, now it feels a little more like, can you believe how crazy these fools are *faceplant*

    ...or maybe not faceplant, but some type of jazz-hands-for-idiots sort of thing

  6. Anonymous9/19/2011

    Welcome to post- racial Canada, it's just up the road a piece from post - racial America.


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