Perhaps.
I’m not the most sociable creature myself, at times; you really don’t want to know what I think should happen to Megyn so that she finally understands…
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I have heard of modern fads with japanese youth taking on black/urban style because they personally identified with it. Some going as far as tanning or darkening their skin and getting their hair done in particular ways. I think on some level it could be construed as problematic but i might be inclined to say its not… could be a topic all of its own i suppose. Though i view that different than i would entertainers playing up blackface for a cheap gag, even if japan has a different history with blackface its still a cheap joke at the expense of someone’s race.
Also relevant: Japan totally has mocked black folks with black face historically
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This was on in Britain until 1978…
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Ah, you beat me to it!
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I have very vague memories of watching it, or at least being aware it was on, when I was kid, probably while waiting for Doctor Who or Warships or something to come on.
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Weirdly enough, I only know about it because OF Doctor Who, as it was on a documentary called “Race Against Time” which talked about the history of depictions of race on British TV in general and Doctor Who specifically. It came on the DVD from the Pertwee era story, The Mutants…
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Hear, hear. I was born in 1973, the first time I saw a picture of Al Jolson in blackface I knew in my gut it was wrong without ever being told it was.
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I’m sure someone’s already responded to this, but… yeah, right? This is such a simple equation it doesn’t stand up to the smell test. Look, if something has historically been used to marginalize, ridicule or oppress a group of people of any sort it is offensive. It may be racist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic or whatever, doesn’t matter, it’s all the same. And honestly, the word offensive doesn’t really say enough. It is enabling and perpetuating a future rife with hatred. Not that hard to understand, Megyn.
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I remember two British programs that featured blackface and “minstrelsy”-- “Jeeves and Wooster” and “Little Britain”. I’m not sure what Clive James was going for, and Little Britain was, as per usual, trying to offend.
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ohh, i’ve seen some Jeeves and Wooster, and i love that show. i haven’t run across any blackface. but because the main character is a spoiled artistocrat, i suppose that sort of thing would probably come up at some point.
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from wikipedia’s article on the black and white minstrel show,
Following 1963 the murder of 35-year-old white postal worker William Lewis Moore in Alabama, who was on a protest march against segregation in the American South, the satirical show That Was the Week That Was did a sketch in which Millicent Martin dressed as Uncle Sam and sung a parody of I Wanna Go Back to Mississippi
("Where the scent of blossom kissed the evening breeze / Where the Mississippi mud / Seems to mingle with the blood / Of the ni****rs that are hanging from the branches of the trees) accompanied by minstrel singers in blackface
(“… we hate all the darkies and the Catholics and the Jews / Where we welcome any man / Who is strong and white and belongs to the Ku Klux Klan”),
parodying the Black and White Minstrels supposed trivialising of southern U.S. racism.
I kinda want to see that clip.
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I think the problem is that Megyn Kelly doesn’t know the meaning of the word “blackface.” She seems to be talking about white people dressing as black celebrities. Whether or not that’s offensive in its own right, is different from the stereotypical, exaggerated blackface makeup seen in minstrel shows and The Jazz Singer.
I don’t think the “natural” blackface of Neil Diamond in the 1980 remake is an improvement on the concept.
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What, I love mimes. Marcel Marceu was my childhood hero. For real.
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I wish I could agree, but then there’s this from 2014.
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