It’s not rote criticism, though. It’s trying to break through a wall of privileged disinterest.
Women, people of color, the disenfranchised, sooo many immigrants arriving in good faith, ALL of them have a significant and well-documented bone to pick with white men in power right this moment. And none of them can afford, none of them should have to spend another minute’s time on a reaction this obtuse.
ETA:Also disappointed that this “have you no shame” post may likely go unseen because it’s attached to a toxic one.
I mean, the whole point of the gag in Tropic Thunder was how hopelessly out of touch and tactless a white guy would have to be to think wearing blackface would be an appropriate way to gain greater empathy for black culture …
That is a valid point, which unfortunately will make up a tiny fraction of people who attempt it. Professional actors aside, most people who attempt this fail miserably. And it usually fails because they aren’t attempting to learn anything or even respect anything.
I am aware of a handful of what I would be considered successful attempts of people portraying characters of different races in cosplay or as an artistic endeavor. The 99.99% + of the other attempts are slap dashed executions. Some times their attempts are “innocent” enough, but most of the time they seem to be at the very least attempting to parody something in the news. That last case of this I saw was from Australia at a tennis club, portraying the Williams sisters.
We have had this conversation in a local cosplay group, and we have several active black cosplayers within it (these two sisters do some amazing costumes). They too pointed out that at Halloween they see at least one horrible costume in black face of something like Colin Kirkpatrick or some other black celebrity, usually with a mocking sort of angle.
So - yeah - this is one of those “in theory you could do it an make it work, but in practice it almost never does” sort of thing.
The studio where I used to work had a Halloween tradition of all the employees dressing up as each other (we pulled names from a hat to see who would be who).
When I pulled the name of an African American coworker I was put in the position of having to find a nonoffensive way for a white guy to pose as a black guy. My solution was to just find a picture of his face and turn it into a printed mask (along with wearing clothes that matched his personal style). I don’t think there’s any way I could have done it tastefully if I tried the makeup route.
It’s hard enough to put on make up to look like the Joker and make it not look like a bucket of aborted possums. I wouldn’t even attempt something that looked like a real person.
Though if it happens again, wear a festive ski mask and you could say “I’m so-and-so skiing.”
Well, isn’t it lovely that you have the immense privilege to hold such a glib viewpoint that’s totally detached from the reality which millions of persecuted people actually inhabit.
Hah. Fair point. I was thinking something with Christmas trees and reindeer when I pictured it in my mind. I guess you would have to play it up with like a leg in a cast and a ski coat and poles, but then you would be defeating the whole “dress like a co-worker” thing.
In that case? I don’t think our fashion senses were different enough that it would’ve been obvious that I was wearing a costume at all, much less impersonating a specific person.
