Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/31/blackface-halloween-costume-co.html
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I am completely mystified how some people claim to have no idea blackface is racist and offensive in this day and age.
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I’m sure a “Devil’s Advocate” will be along shortly to explain and Just Ask Questions.
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When Obama was elected, there was a certain kind of white person who assumed that this event signaled the end of racism. Sure, they were dead wrong, but some serious legal policies were rolled back based on this assumption.
(School integration and voting rights are what come to mind, there are probably others I missed)
Now that Orange is the new Black, the same bad assumption is being made by a certain kind of white person. They are just as wrong now as before. They probably dont even see racism as being a choice.
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they know who what, but don’t know who whom.
that’s a complicated way to say that they are ignorant racists
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Bad taste or not, a personal picture is no reason to fire someone.
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It was publicly posted. Hospitals and other institutions have codes of conduct that reasonably ask that you not be an asshole in public even off the clock. As a nurse it reflects poorly on her ability to do her job and treat everyone with the same amount of care and compassion. By extension if a hospital continues to employ her it also reflects poorly on them and brings into question their dedication to all patents regardless of race, gender identity, etc.
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I suspect it’s less about whether it’s racist or not (of course it is), and more about the privileged, entitled sense that they’re allowed to express themselves however they want, free of consequences. Sure it’s racist, but they didn’t mean it out of spite, so it’s a joke.
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I’m willing to out myself as an idiot here, but I absolutely cannot parse that last sentence. I can’t tell where the emphasis lies or whether ‘what’ is somehow being wielded as a verb…
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I’m glad you said that. I was also struggling.
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It made marginally less sense than the costume choice.
Just so we’re clear; both were fucking terrible.
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Ooh! I think I got it. “…they know ‘who’ (as in) what, but don’t know ‘who’ (as in) whom.”
They knew they were dressing up as generic black stereotypes (the what/object/black person), but didn’t acknowledge that Jay-Z and Beyonce are actual unique individuals (the whom/subject/person who happens to be black).
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This is a common failure state of examined privilege: they know who what, but don’t know who whom.
Is this poetry or typo? I do not understand the grammar.
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And to ask why doesn’t anyone have a sense of humour any more
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There is a story about stupid white people doing this literally every halloween. And every halloween, I think to myself, “Maybe this year…” and am proved wrong again and again.
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Blackface for Halloween, because “negroes are scary!”
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Ohhhhh, ok. That certainly makes some sense.
The “they” also confused me, as it seemed initially to refer to the hospital.
Someone involved needs a cold shower or a hot cup of coffee.
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Pretty sure a bot wrote that
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[Emphasis added]
Let’s not go too far. Cases like this are a whole other ball of wax, but I’ve worked for an institution that treated this kind of rule as broad license to be giant dickweasels to employees. They’re not always reasonable.
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