Blackface and the Real Issue

2019-09-01

Part 1

Since Facebook has been reduced to almost exclusively memes and politics for the past couple years… politics. I hadn’t heard of blackface until by my estimation 2011, when I was 24. Until a couple days ago, I’d only ever heard it spoken of on Reddit, in my life. I still don’t know what a minstrel show is exactly (YouTube will solve that for me by the time this piece is written).

On the parts of the internet I frequent, I’d estimate 1/4 of people find Trudeau’s offense unforgivable, 2/4 find it incredibly bad judgement, and 1/4 find it believable that he honestly didn’t know better. Meanwhile in the real world, I’ve asked a dozen people for opinions, and the only ones that seem to be able to even comprehend how someone could possibly be offended by this are people that aren’t from around here.

Maybe that’s got something to do with it, I don’t know, but either way, I’m one of those people. I utterly don’t get it. There is absolutely no temptation in my mind, in 2019 or in 2001, to associate Trudeau’s actions with “blackface”. How can it be that some people using face paint to belittle and insult another group of people generations ago makes any racial face paint at all, regardless of the race it portrays, regardless of both the accompanying actions and the accompanying intention, an attack? Not just insensitive for some, but outright racist, and condemned to be classified as racist so long as society’s collective memory can recollect similarities in something that was?

I say again, I see absolutely nothing wrong TODAY with a person of any race or background making an honest attempt at recreating the appearance of any other likable person (eg. Barrack Obama, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Morgan Freeman) in any context where costumes might be appropriate. I would only say that the costume must have other aspects, since it would certainly be offensive to identify the only defining characteristic of Michael Jordan as his skin colour, for example. In my eyes it’s just attention to detail, right along with your Nikes and your “23” jersey, your shaved head, or your basketball or Looney Tunes prop.

The obvious counterargument is that it’s not just how I see it, but how others see it – the heart of politics, I suppose. On this point, I do lean towards free speech, but I don’t feel like I even need to make a defense of free speech here, because I just can’t believe there are very many people truly hurting from this. Maybe people growing up elsewhere have a different experience, but as far as I can see, minstrel shows are obscure trivia by today’s standards. Who among us has seen one? Knows the title? Can name an actor, or quote a line?

Humanity has conflicting adages, from “forgive and forget” and “leave the past in the past” to “never forget” and “history repeats itself”. We must strive to come to terms with our history, to understand the unsolvable moral dilemma of what is most fair in a world that has never been anything close. In this case, however, I believe with some conviction that the best way to combat racism is to dismantle it, not quarantine it. It wasn’t always the case. Certainly if I believed our collective memory would truly struggle to break the bond between these two things, quarantining would be the civilized thing to do. But if the world is as I think it is, and blackface is not even a distant memory, but purely committed to the history books for most of us, why not destroy the link completely, see this purely for the overenthusiastic costume it clearly is, and take one small step towards a society where no one feels targeted by such things in the first place?

Part 2

Despite the above, there is one angle to all this I’m surprised I haven’t read more about: perhaps my examples don’t work, because the issue isn’t about changing your race for a costume, but about turning a culture into a costume. Was Trudeau Aladdin, was he a sultan, or was he simply an Arab person? If the term “blackface” never existed, would society’s hesitations disappear?

As the people in my area most commonly victim to racism are First Nations, I’ve tried to imagine how I would feel about wearing a First Nations costume. I’ve participated in First Nations events and felt welcome. I even remember making and sporting button blankets in school as a child, instructed by genuine local artisans. Today, though, I would think twice about that. Truthfully, I can’t think of a specific iconic and visually distinct First Nations person to dress up as for something like Halloween, and of course day to day we are far more alike than not, and so any realistic image of a generic First Nations person would hardly be a costume at all – I’d simply be a person! Any costume worthy of the name would be a historical reference, probably a bad one, and certainly easy to misconstrue as some kind of awful statement.

Of course, generic and historical costumes abound. One can be a lumberjack, a knight, a cowboy, a geisha… mostly trades, I think? Could you dress simply as “a European”? I suppose. Might that be offensive to Europeans? Actually yes, I could imagine just about any stereotype you personified being offensive to some. Would a Zulu warrior costume be offensive? Maybe? Would it be offensive if it showed real craftsmanship, as seen by an informed audience that could appreciate its details? Probably not?

More specific: if the educational institute I taught at had a “Plains of Africa” themed gala, would a Zulu warrior costume be inappropriate? King Tut? Elon Musk? Just a regular everyday person who “looked” African, ie. was black? Surely some could appreciate the message that “we’re all just people” that could bring?

If my costume wasn’t offensive, but the whole theme was offensive, would you put it on me to speak out against the event, or strictly blame the institution for deciding on a culturally targeted theme?

Is it okay to organize a Highland Games competition and encourage everyone to wear kilts? Is it wrong to do the same, but only allow True Scotsmen to wear kilts? Or only allow Scotsmen to participate at all?

Was I wrong to eat at the Tilted Kilt that one time?

THIS is where I see some grey areas emerge. This is where I see a conversation some might find worth having, but can’t find.

In this instance specifically, I see no evidence of Trudeau being an absurd caricature, only that he went the extra mile on a costume fully in keeping with the theme he was prescribed, something unsurprising both for Trudeau and for a good number of teachers I’ve known or been taught by. I also see no reason to believe it likely anyone involved intended to offend or were themselves offended by this Arabian Nights theme party generally.

But it’s possible. Probable enough to be a bad idea? I want to say no, that for a mature audience, in an educational context, I can only imagine it being an opportunity to explore and glamourize legendary stories and places, at least to the same extent as something like Disney’s Aladdin is. If the event were for an under-performing high school, though, I’d undoubtedly blame the administration for not seeing the sea of negative imagery they were inviting and the unwelcome spotlight they’d be shining on their Arab students. “Use caution” would then be my advice at the time, and be hesitant to confidently label wrongdoings from a couple photographs decades later.

Updated Oct 22, 2020 10:28:51am

Sep 21, 2019 12:42:27am