I’d explain that symbol was used by a man who sought to divide people based on superficial traits such as eye and skin color. Then I’d explain that no good leader has ever sought to do that, and that some people still really want us to treat skin and an important defining trait when it’s not.
Cosplay make-up is not racist when depicting Klingons.
Cosplay make-up that is used by a white person to try to look like a black person is racist.
Quit bringing up elves. Nobody is coming to take away your elf make-up!
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Wrong. I specifically called out the actors, who happen to be very pale, not generic “elves.”
As for the rest of your post,
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Should skin color dictate our teams or not?
You’re venturing way off topic to try and “win” the argument.
Did Justin Trudeau do something bad (at least 3 times) when he wore blackface? Yes, he did. By his own admission.
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OTOH he fully admitted it was wrong, apologized, and made no excuses.
The right seems to want to crucify him w./o understanding there’s a huge difference between “That was a mistake and I deeply apologize” and “Hurr durr free speech are you triggered snowflake”
If you dug up my old nyms from my early 20s / late teens you’d see lits of problematic stuff. People change and also I think we forget that social mores change.
I think people who make mistakes should be forgiven if (AND THIS IS THE BIG IF) they acknowlede they were wrong unequivicallty.
(John Edwards comes to mind… when pressed about Iraq he fully admitted he was wrong to vote for it, no himming and hawing)
I worry if we create a future where if you were en edgelord in your mid 20s, you can never advance in your career, people will double down and go full Nazi.
That being said Trudeau is a neolib and I look forward to NDP seizing the day. I saw a video of a sikh NDP being racially harassed and was super impressed how he handled it:
Justin is good at PR (when not in blackface) but he’s still a neoliberal at heart,
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And then you’d dress up a white kid in blackface that dehumanizes actual black people, because otherwise Hitler wins?
some people still really want us to treat skin and an important defining trait when it’s not.
It’s the people demanding the right to use blackface over the wishes of black people that “want us to treat skin and an important defining trait” of their “tribute” Halloween costumes.
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white people are so scared of black people
they bulldoze out to the country
and put up houses on little loop-dee-loop streets
and while america gets its heart cut right out of its chest
the berlin wall still runs down main street
separating east side from west
and nothing is stirring, not even a mouse
in the boarded-up stores and the broken-down houses
so they hang colorful banners off all the street lamps
just to prove they got no manners
no mercy and no sense
and i’m wondering what it will take
for my city to rise
first we admit our mistakes
then we open our eyes
the ghosts of old buildings are haunting parking lots
in the city of good neighbors that history forgot
i remember the first time i saw someone
lying on the cold street
i thought: i can’t just walk past here
this can’t just be true
but i learned by example
to just keep moving my feet
it’s amazing the things that we all learn to do
so we’re led by denial like lambs to the slaughter
serving empires of style and carbonated sugar water
and the old farm road’s a four-lane that leads to the mall
and our dreams are all guillotines waiting to fall
i’m wondering what it will take
for my country to rise
first we admit our mistakes
and then we open our eyes
or nature succumbs to one last dumb decision
and america the beautiful
is just one big subdivision
Subdivision — Ani Difranco
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As I said, I’d explain that some people really want us to treat skin color as our team, when it’s not. Then explain how it’s ok for a fan to lighten her skin to look like Billy Eilish, but not ok for someone with light skin to darken theirs look like Harry Belafonte. We need to keep that racial tension in tact for the next generation.
Pretending black people don’t have opinions, or framing those opinions as stupid or unhelpful, is not a solution for fighting racial injustice
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I think this is worded a little awkwardly, but I think I understand what you tried to say. Do you mean that you believe future generations should be aware of the history of racial oppression, and that they should consider that history in deciding how to behave?
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Because there isn’t a history of black performers putting on “white face” to mock white people who are also victims of a supremacist system that kills them regularly.
Both things are not racist, even if both things might cause offense.
Once again, black families HAVE NO CHOICE IN THAT, because they have much less control over the system they live in. White families can and do shield their children from racism that they’re black peers experience on a regular basis. White parents do not have to have a talk with their children about how to behave around the police, because white children are far less likely to be shot by them.
Don’t you think black families would dearly love not to have to tell their children that they could be shot by the police or a white person for asserting their rights, or playing their music too loud, or doing normal teenaged things? Do you think they relish feeling sick to their stomach when their kids go out with their friends on a Friday night? Or that they live in a society where they can pick names for their kids that might not get them the job? Or that they are still being disinfranchised and then told it’s THEIR fault that racism continues to exist?
Right?
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Maybe you and @Bernel need to rent out the World’s Smallest Convention Center and have yourself a merry little blackface convention?
The thing is, you won’t be drawing in progressives or even average people. You’ll be drawing in these guys:
data:image/jpeg;base64,
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That’s not what I did at all, and I don’t think you speak for all dark skinned people. I said, “some people”, which includes white people. Have you ever seen KKK propaganda, talking about preserving white culture?
If you watch the news responses on this issue from people of different backgrounds you’ll see many think it’s just a silly high school play, fairly understandable, and not an incident of actual blackface at all.
“Some people”, means “some people”.
Maybe some people find the Klan silly, but the KKK and other white supremacist groups are dangerous, and that danger should be taken seriously.
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Completely agree, groups like that need to be taken seriously and should be wiped from the earth.
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I’m amazed this thread is still going. Why do people wanna defend blackface!? It’s offensive in all forms. Just don’t. Move on!! (Saying that to the people with the “but what if’s”, not the people taking the time to rebut them)
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As I said, I’d explain that some people really want us to treat skin color as our team, when it’s not.
The existence of the KKK is absolutely not an argument that wearing blackface will make you somehow “post-racial” or anything like that.
Yes, racists exist. Putting on blackface to annoy and de-humanize black people is not a way to “own” racists.
Listen to yourself.
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“Dark skinned people” have weighed in on this thread, and said “don’t do it.” Why are you ignoring that?
And please see @anon61221983’s excellent post on the sociological meaning of “white” and “black” above. We’re frankly lucky to have her expertise contributing on this topic. Your question has been asked and answered, if you’re open to listening.
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