About your comment about posing as JayZ & Beyonce, & not “needing” blackface to pull it off:
It can be and has been done.
I’ll say it again:
In this day and age in the US, if you choose to darken your skin as part of a “costume” on the one day you think you can “get away with it,” then at your core, you hold some racially bigoted beliefs, end of story.
And again, it seems like Amber Ruffin needs a repost:
I think the notion that kids instinctually know that there is a taboo about skin color, such that they wouldn’t even think of changing it for a costume, is absurd. Among other things, it suggests that our notions of skin color as being something categorically different from hair color is “natural” and correct. Rather, it’s our history of racism that makes skin color so important.
My four-year-old has told me she wishes she had black skin, so she wouldn’t have to put on sun cream. It’s cute from a four-year-old. From a 40-year-old it would sound pretty tone-deaf.
This. I have to wonder if there’d be as big of a complaint if they both had bought those very expensive realistic masks (the fake skin ones), and truly dressed like Jay Z and Beyonce, so that who they were supposed to be was instantly recognizable. (even if they used makeup to “blackface” their other exposed skin bits)
That way you could honestly argue that they were dressing up as individual people that they admire (regardless of race). There’s a lot of stupid and privilege and casual racism that goes into “well shit, I’ll just paint myself darker, wear “stereotypical” clothes (not to mention the whole chain mocking thing), and have to explain to people who we are…”
Because some people are content with their subconscious internalized bigotry, and they don’t want to have to change in order to become better individuals, because change is actually hard work?
In the U.S. With the connotations people have over there. It’s not ‘inherently not ok’. Saying ‘emulating the hair is ok, but the skin tone isn’t’ is completely arbitrary for someone from a culture with different sensibilities. If Rihanna would dress up as Megyn Kelly (which would actually be a good halloween costume ) and she’d lighten her skin. Would that be ‘whiteface’? Or just dressing up? Connotations matter.
I call bullshit. Children don’t have the sensibilities/connotations yet and just want to look like the person they’re emulating as much as possible. You’ve obviously never done party makeup for children’s parties
I guess so, but there’s got to be some point where we can recognize a genuine expression of admiration from something that’s just racist and lazy.
The fun thing is that as a halfbreed that looks very asian, I get to see (even kids) dressed up as “geisha girls” or the ever present ninja, etc… It’s a costume though (regardless of how historically and culturally inaccurate), and it is a bit racist as there are tropes of exoticism, power, etc… that definitely play into those costumes. But honestly, I’ve never really cared. IMHO, if being some video game ninja as a kid gets them to later read a bit, learn some history, or understand the culture a bit more, then I’m all for it.
But… back to this costume, I’ve never seen one do “yellowface” to complete the costume (though black wigs for the girls don’t seem uncommon). I guess from my “other minority” somewhat privileged space it seems like if the costume is instantly recognizable as an individual, matching, with makeup, the rest of your skin color to the super realistic mask wouldn’t seem racist. I.e. not something I would think of as racist if it were done with the subject matter being someone Japanese. But there’s a lot of different racist baggage with white/black relations than white/yellow… so I’m obviously not the person who gets to decide that.
To be a devil’s advocate (and yes, knowing I’m being a dick doing so), would it be racist for a black person to wear an Adam or Jamie from mythbusters mask, and then lighten their arm/hand skin to match it? Or just an awesome costume?
Hatred is taught, and saying Rihanna would definitely do “whiteface” if she chose to impersonate Megyn Kelly is an unfounded assumption…
No, there doesnt.
It’s not that hard to choose to NOT be an offensive dick who thinks their ‘admiration’ somehow outweighs someone else’s dignity and existence in the world as a valid individual.
Dude… that word isn’t cool; even if you’re using it in reference to yourself.
You’re a fucking human being with agency, not a chattel animal.
We must remove people who publically display outward racial biases or even racial insensitivity from our institutions if we ever hope to bring an end to the cancer known as institutional racism. Zero tolerance, call it a national security issue that has festered for centuries if that helps you get your head around how important this is.
I think it might seem at least odd in many cases. It’s like, it’s not racist if you note that I have thin eyebrows or whatever, but if you keep going out of your way to mention it, I will definitely start to wonder what you mean. And in a similar way, if racism never existed, I suspect a lot of these costumes would make people think “sooooo uh… what are you trying to say with the skin color?”
In particular, I think it is telling that the shade people paint themselves is rarely anything like the person they’re dressed as. Because it’s not about their objective appearance, it’s about the fact that they’re coded as Black (and this coding is at least as important as whatever they’re famous for). It’s like covering yourself in titanium-white foundation in order to impersonate Ryan Gosling.
Man, I’m going to have to disagree on that one. Kids do it to look more like their friends etc… My kid can get pretty tan in the summer (in a part asian “looking like all my family from hawaii” way), and went through a phase of drawing all her self-portrait pictures with her “black”. Why? well her logic was that she had gotten darker in the summer, and one of her really good friends is black, so she thought darker was prettier, so… They definitely see skin tone, but just don’t associate it with the cultural/racist baggage that goes along with it.
Of course hatred is taught. Children who dress up as Michael Jordan because they are a fan are not busy ‘hating’.
And I’m not saying Rihanna would definitely do ‘whiteface’. I’m just saying connotations matter. Therefore using dark makeup is problematic, in the U.S. with the historical connotations.
I just balk at the blunt decree that this is somehow a universally valid law of nature.
And this is maybe the thing that needs to get out there more. Because all of this is deeply rooted in history and gets glossed over a bit. People take this out of context and turn it into “only white people can be racist, black people can’t be racist” and BS like that. Or the thing that I’ve been read the riot act here before about that it’s only racist if there’s power associated with it, and since minorities don’t wield the power “POOF” not racist… I call BS on that. I’ve seen a lot of ugly racism over my middle aged life, from white people, and also a ridiculous amount from minorities.
Maybe the message has got to be more along the lines of “hey, it’s not cool if anyone does it, but given the heavy heavy history and cultural baggage if race relations in the US, white people… just don’t.”.
) and she’d lighten her skin. Would that be ‘whiteface’? Or just dressing up? Connotations matter.
