New York Times calls blackface "dark makeup," edits headline after being called out

[Wanderfound]

@docosc

VA is historically very racist in the old fashioned, “we don’t talk about things like that, son” way.

Exhibit A, the “emeritus” state song:

Carry Me Back to Old Virginia

Lyrics to Carry Me Back to Old Virginia

Carry me back to old Virginia,

There’s where the cotton and the corn and taters grow,

There’s where the birds warble sweet in the springtime,

There’s where this old darkey’s heart am long’d to go,

There’s where I labored so hard for old massa,

Day after day in the field of yellow corn,

No place on earth do I love more sincerely

Than old Virginia, the state where I was born.

_ _

CHORUS:

_ _

Carry me back to old Virginia,

There’s where the cotton and the corn and taters grow,

There’s where the birds warble sweet in the springtime,

There’s where this old darkey’s heart am long’d to go.

_ _

Carry me back to old Virginia,

There let me live 'till I wither and decay,

Long by the old Dismal Swamp have I wandered,

There’s where this old darkey’s life will pass away.

Massa and missis have long gone before me,

Soon we will meet on that bright and golden shore,

There we’ll be happy and free from all sorrow,

There’s where we’ll meet and we’ll never part no more.

_ _

CHORUS

[Melz2]

I’m busier than usual at work today, so I dont have the time (or energy) to rage properly about this idiotic, complicit fuck-shit, but this gif should sum it up until I get home:

It doesn’t matter whether the paint or coloration is actually black, brown, or fucking Vanta;

Artificially darkening your skin to look like you belong to another race as part of a ‘costume’ is fucking BLACKFACE and that shit is IGNORANT and fucking OFFENSIVE. PERIOD.

[Akimbo_NOT]

@Melz2

I’m busier than usual at work today, so I dont have the time

[knoxblox]

Nothing new, just the usual “Is it Blackface if it’s not actually black?” b.s.

[atl]

The blackface is awful.

Yet it a white Virginia college student dressing up as a rapper in 1980 seems… premature? I was 10, but I really don’t recall rap hitting any kind of mainstream that early. Rapper’s Delight was 1979 or 1980. And I don’t think it broke into big rotation on MTV until Run DMC came around in 1983 or so.

I’m guessing that he knows the one picture and has decided to retcon it so it’s (somehow?) not quite so bad.

[walkensyndrome]

He said he was being Kurtis Blow. So if he is lying he must have done his research.

[JonS]

also @larrycovey

He can call it whatever he wants, but we can see what it is you know

[navarro]

what makes me crazy are people who act like they’re shocked–stunned–floored-- that whites would have dressed in blackface or in kkk robes for laughs so recently.

does anyone remember an anti-affirmative action movie called “soul man” that was basically nothing but two freakin’ hours of a rich white punk in blackface? a republican showed it at the white house to demonstrate how happy he was with the message of the movie. anybody remember what year that was?

hint–it was more recent than those yearbook photos.

[Akimbo_NOT]

@navarro

anti-affirmative action movie called “soul man”

1986 and hey, isn’t that title in black face?

Ron Reagan (son of) had a bit part.

[TobinL]

@navarro

two freakin’ hours of a rich white punk in blackface?

Who does get his punishment (as much of one as a Hollywood comedy will allow) and grows because of it. It isn’t the best movie out there but it doesn’t end with white privilege winning out.
And if a republican was happy with the message…err thought it was anti-affirmative action… in the movie they missed the point of it completely.

Soul Man 1986 Last Scene Between Impersonator and Professor

[navarro]

for all the personal growth the main character might have experienced, reagan endorsed the movie as a devastating takedown of affirmative action and showed it at the white house.

[TobinL]

@navarro

reagan endorsed the movie as a devastating takedown of affirmative action and showed it at the white house.

Then he totally missed the point… but then president grandpa was never all that in touch with the little people.

[navarro]

and i expect by late 86 he was already starting to have some problems with oncoming dementia.

[Melizmatic]

@knoxblox

Nothing new, just the usual “Is it Blackface if it’s not actually black?” b.s.

Yeah; same shit, different day.

I’m so damn bone weary of this bullshit.

@navarro

i expect by late 86 he was already starting to have some problems with oncoming dementia.

Reagan was already struggling with dementia during his first term; there’s no telling how bad it was by '86…

[NickyG]

@TobinL

Dear NYT you are making it very hard for me to want to give you money for crossword access this year.

I cancelled my crossword subscription. I still have digital access, at least they are keeping even worse shit in semi-check right now. It’s something…

[Akimbo_NOT]

Patrick Healy (patrickhealynyt)

“The coverage should have said blackface; once we realized this, we made the change. It was never my intent to hide the change we were making. This was a breaking news story, and the headlines and text in breaking news stories are often revised and updated.”

He’d make a great Virginia politician with that baloney.

[byron_p]

I find I am quite happy with the access to past puzzles and so don’t miss that I cannot do today’s.

[knoxblox]

@Melizmatic

Reagan was already struggling with dementia during his first term; there’s no telling how bad it was by '86…

Crack is whack, yo.

/s

[hecep]

The NYT editors will claim their distressed blush is not a blush, but a healthy glow.

[Melizmatic]

@knoxblox

Crack is whack

So sayeth Whitney, but not until 2002.