‘Race Is Not a Costume’

I don't think wearing "blackface", proves someone is racist....But, it does prove they are stupid enough to put shoe polish on their face. Poor judgment.

I was 8 when I dressed as Aunt Jemima and went to bars at Halloween with my brother (who accompanied me on 4 Seasons ttunes). We sang so well they sent us to their familys' homes nearby for a repeat performance and paid us in quarters which bought our first bike. Back then I had the chops to imitate Jolson and Frankie Vali of the Four Seasons but my younger brother had much catching up to do with other genres. We both lost our dynamic vocals with the onset of puberty. I meant no harm or disgrace to blacks, respecting their music as much as rock. I appreciated all the great blues, jazz as well as Soul and R&B singers that came in succession in my formative 60's and 70's. I for one would probably do it all again. Everyone frpm The Stones to Zep has been influenced by that culture and they should be proud of it. Great imitation is the MOST SINCEREST form of flattery you can ask for music wise, but we both stood firm against any form of racism that is of a derogatory nature meant to demean them.There is an import to everything and everyone under the sun.

I am not black but I am member of an ethnic minority which has typical distinct features. Yet, not all members of my ethnicity look exactly similar. Their skin color ranges from truly black to truly white and interestingly their preferred skin color is white (fair skin). Typical skin color of this group is brown. Will it be considered racist if a black man or a white man wears a brown face? No, not to me. IMO, such thinking is fanatical. We seem to be incapable of distinguishing straw and grain. I mean, we seem to be uninterested in substance. We are intent on judging everything by the cover and not the content. If a white man dresses up in the garb and skin color of Mahatma Gandhi, should we condemn him as racist or commend him for his admiration for Mahatma Gandhi? Will all Indians be up in arms and call it a racist act? What if a white man dresses up like an aborigine, is he really a racist? What baffles me is that everyone focused on the person who wore a black face but almost none on the person who wore a KKK hood. The guy who wore the KKK hood should bear our collective wrath. It is like a German wearing Hitler's Nazi uniform. What is wrong with us? We have lost our marbles all at the same time? We should find out who the person is wearing KKK hood. If it is the governor then he must be Impeached. That is what we should be doing.

My how quiet the schick comedians Billy Crystal and Jimmy Fallon have grown. It's all funny until it isn't.

I agree that race is not a costume. But costumes are not always racist. Shakespeare's Othello is a case in point. And it predates Africans being transported as slaves to America. And the change in perception has occurred slowly. The Nuremberg Trials avoided ex post facto laws. Let's not make ex post facto laws now.

Seems we are missing a significant point about evaluating an individual based on the totality of their life actions. We should all be judged, hopefully, on progress we have made. How else, for example, do we help individuals convicted of felonies productively re enter society. Also, seems entertainers and not politicians are given a pass. Why else is Jimmy Kimmel still employed?

I don't like anyone, mocking another person. And certainly not for their melanin levels. Clearly, there is no reason for blackface. (I didn't find the Wayans brothers reversal tasteful either.) However, It is hard to forget Ted Danson's blackface routine, replete with the use of the "N" word, which Danson's then girlfriend found quite funny at the time. Granted it was in 1993, but I have always been perplexed as to why Whoopi Goldberg encouraged Mr. Danson, to perform such a bizarre and offensive routine.

Fred Armisen satirized President Obama on SNL. Was he racist? Is SNL racist? Was the audience who applauded racist? Weird Al Yankovic parodied Michael Jackson. Is he racist? If you're going to retroactively punish people's past behavior according to contemporary standards then it's time to dismantle the Thomas Jefferson memorial because we have DNA evidence that he sexually abused his slaves and forced them to bear his children. Let's not be hypocrites. Justice must be served.

I wonder, is this sentiment that "race is not a costume" applicable to all races equally? If it's not just identity politics, then we should also be shaming the Wayans brothers for their 2004 whiteface movie "White Chicks" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381707)

I know practically nothing about Governor Northam but I'm sure that when he was in medical school he used black face as part of some costume. Back in less politically correct times no one thought blackface was intended to be racist or mean-spirited. Look who hasn't done something stupid in college? As a wise man once said "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

Not only is race not a costume it is not even anything other than an invention of racists. To understand that I will for the nth time refer readers to the brilliant study by Professor Dorothy Roberts (University of Pennsylvania): "Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Recreate Race In the Twenty-first Century" The title lacks these key words "in America" In 1922 a full-fledged Swedish racist physician Herman Lundborg created the Swedish Institute for Race Biology with the intent of assigning residents of Sweden to "races" and then over time eliminating all who belonged to a "race" other than his own. Lundborg was in close contact with Hitler's race biology people. Sweden learned from that, and unlike my USA does not classify people by "race". The other essential book is by former US Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt: "What Is Your Race? The Census and Our Flawed Efforts to Classify Americans" We should long ago have ended use of that system as proposed by Roberts and Prewitt. But as you will learn by reading about presidential wannabes the single most important element that must be pointed out in the Times is their "race". Only-In-America Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com Citizen US SE

Unless you're the reincarnation of Al Jolson, it's inappropriate and demeaning.

I am a person of color. I have no issue with black face, if that's how you choose to express yourself. I am far more interested in the person you are and the things - good and bad - that you do or have done than I am about how you choose to express yourself. If I examine your whole life and conclude you are a racist bigot, then I will shun and avoid you. But I will not campaign for you to resign or be fired or raise a mob to pressure you into doing so. I accept that I have no right not to be offended.

When I was a senior in high school in 2007 on Long Island, a white boy came dressed in blackface to our Halloween party. He said he was supposed to be Michael Vick, and had 2 friends dressed as dogs. His face was painted black, not brown. He did it to antagonize me. We had been fighting for 4 years over Affirmative Action. A teacher later complained to the dean and he got in trouble, but then spread a rumor that I was the one who told on him and turned half the school against me. I personally would NEVER want him to be in public office. I will always be suspicious and distrustful of him. Blackface wasnt his only racist action. I believe his intent was malicious, but everyone needs to understand that intent DOES NOT matter. Blackface is wrong. It was used in the past to honor and emulate as well - see Fred Astaire honoring Bojangles in Swing Time - but that doesn’t magically make it ok. Just don’t do it! It’s that simple. To see how many people are brushing it aside or rationalizing it is horrifying as someone who knows firsthand just how hurtful it can be. That being said, I don’t think Governor Northam needs to resign. I care much more about what his life has been like over the past few decades. I would like to hear from people who knew him then and know him now, particularly any black people, to hear of their impressions of him. I don’t want my classmate in public office but that doesn’t mean he can’t make amends and prove to everyone else that he’s changed.

Given the unfortunate fact that most Americans are ignorant of their own history when it comes to race, it comes as no surprise that so many find nothing wrong with the concept of 'Blackface' when worn as either entertainment or a hoax. But that's no excuse to accept it. Especially when it involves individuals who should really know better -- as in the recent case of two high-ranking politicians in the state of Virginia, which also happened to be a slave-holding state in addition to being the center of the Confederate States of America. And given the brutal and degrading history of slavery and the way Black people were treated as chattel with no human rights, and the subsequent laws that were enacted to keep them subordinate and exploited, it should hardly be surprising that the use of 'Blackface' would be met with such resistance from African-Americans today in light of the painful and tragic past it represents. There's nothing funny about 'Blackface' and all that it implies. And there's no excuse for it.

So do Laurence Olivier and Orson Welles as Othello belong in the same class as Al Jolson singing "Mammy" or a minstrel show end man? And is there to be no statute of limitations regarding long-ago participants--even if only once--of this infamous practice? (What really makes Ralph Northam unfit for office is not so much that he did blackface once but that now he didn't have the brains to claim he was paying off a bet or something.) And where does this put "drag"? Could it not be argued that drag is to gender what blackface is to race: a grotesque caricature? Not all that many decades ago, cross-dressing not only was a dirty little secret but downright illegal. (Drag performers had to wear trousers under their skirts in case the venue was raided.) But now, thanks to the efforts of RuPaul and the producers of events such as "Wigstock," drag is a rather respected art form. Accordingly, is it completely inconceivable that one day--clearly we're nowhere near that now--trans-racial costmetology, or whatever the term for it will be, having been disarmed of its power to hurt, will become accepted by a society that prefers to rise above past offenses? (Black lives matter; archaic practices and iconography do not.) Even at its most hateful, blackface, at least in part, represents subconscious envy of people of color their color. After all, why do white people spend time and money in tanning booths, or risk skin cancer lying in the sun, to get paler?

I believe that blackface is, and always will be offensive. But sadly I have to accept that it is now "less" offensive than last year. There appears to be a double standard for talk show hosts. The female conservative host who suggested that "blackface is OK if done with respect" lost her job! But liberals hosts have actually worn blackface and their actions have been mostly ignored. That example of liberal hypocrisy is why, sadly, blackface is now less offensive than before, and critics of the practice less relevant than they should be.

I think american people are over reacting on the blackface thing. Black is a characteristic like being a man or woman. It doesn't imply that white is better than black in itself, same way that man is not better than woman. Being blackfaced is, in my opinion, not more offensive (more bad taste), than wearing a dress for a man is sexist. The problem should be the way people act when blackfaced, thus displaying stéréotypes that can be racisits. The real problem is that America is still a racist nation Who doesn't know how to deal fairly with equality among its People. So it fights for symbols instead of fighting against real display of racisim like shooting of Black men by cops.

Northam's picture wasn't parodying anyone's physical appearance with exaggerated racial characteristics, which is what blackface traditionally was. He was telling a joke: the incongruity of two people dressed as enemies having a friendly beer together, with the caption "I'll have another beer". A stupid joke, surely, but not a crime. Do the critics want to outlaw any theatrical makeup? How do you stage Othello if there is no actor with dark skin, to which there is reference in the dialogue?

The distinction between wearing blackface and not, is equating a person’s, or their race’s, character with their skin color. The distinction may have been more subtle in America’s past, but today I cannot imagine what we were thinking...

I’m 62 and grew up in an all-white neighborhood in Chicago. I knew blackface was wrong when I was still in high school - long before the yearbook photo - and can’t imagine anyone of my generation or after not knowing. But what about the guy in the KKK outfit?

Reading people wallowing in shame and guilt because they have done or seen politically incorrect things is like the online version of self-criticism meetings in the Soviet Union under communism. Don't wait for your failings to be found out and criticized by others, step up and do it yourself.

Blackface is deplorable and should be called out. While we're at it let's denounce those embracing racism in sports team caricatures of "Chief Wahoo" and the "Redskins." People need to respect People and not try to earn lame social points through dehumanizing stereotypes. Those who think that they are superior to others are shamefully deluded.

Young people do stupid things. They always have, they do now, and they always will. The important thing is that at a point they stop. They mature, become aware, enlightened. The husband should have let his wife go in her costume. She might have learned, the hard way, how unenlightened she was. A few years ago I was shopping at a thrift store with my teenage niece. I found a piece of clothing from a region in India that was perfect for her. "No Auntie, it's cultural appropriation.", I was told. That was a long conversation. With both sides learning something. At sixty-three I had no idea what it was about. I do now.

Racism as well as sexism will always be with us. Complain by all means but do not overreact. Remember you control your emotional response and you can change it if you want.

Race is just what a person identifies as. Skin color has no bearing about the person inside it.

Heartfely comments, no doubt, but not all a reflection of our suconscious prejudices...in need to atone for...by way of educating ourselves not only on the issues but on the stupidity of thinking that some folks are better or superior because of the color of one's skin. And, yes, 'whites' awful behavior in exploiting 'the other' may not be redeemable; but, without trying, a sure condemnation.

The quest for the True Meaning of blackface has taken on the allure of a calvinist campaign to root out evil. It is ugly and mean, like lots of insult humor. Must it also be satanic? The would-be Savonarolas and Grand Inquisitors have become tiresome.

I don't know if Gov. Northam should resign, but imagine how Jews in Germany would feel about someone wearing a Star of David patch next to someone in an SS outfit. That racial prejudice and the lingering effects of the past are not close to being overcome should be clear, but, especially among moderates -- and I'm a moderate -- is not, much less among the white horde. The idea that this was all long ago, that bygones should be bygones, that we, all of us, now partake of American opportunity equally is a ridiculous nonsense, a Dream that, in Ta-Nehisi Coates's words, "smells like peppermint but tastes like strawberry shortcake." It's past time for white America to take a deeper interest in both the history and the present plight of African Americans, but the latter usually doesn't come without the former. People who really understand, and I mean deeply, the plight of Blacks in America tend to be almost universally liberal, and for good reasons. And this means they typically prefer all manner of interventionist economic programs to "make up" for history. Here, usually, is where I start to dissent (although I favor specific programs aimed directly at the plight of Blacks), as I often question their efficacy. I'm interested in results, not intent. At any rate, as Coates again says, "Hate gives identity." As long as we remain what we are -- human -- struggling to overcome bigotry will be a never-ending quest. Every generation must take it up. And perhaps that's as it should be.

We love to sweep big issues 'under the rug’ while we attack the minor ones. It is much easier (and sometimes enriching) to ‘enforce the law’ for minor things and to not deal with major issues. Think about the church and child abuse. Think about the church and Nun abuse. Think about major things you all know were ignored while you got a speeding ticket. Speeding tickets support the community, as do minor infractions. They, are however, enforced much more on minorities. And they are, mostly, irrelevant to our safety and security. Blackface is sometimes just acting. So can dressing as the Ku Klux Clan. Judge the circumstance and the era. If the play was a lesson about and/or an attack on the KKK then it was o.k. We should KNOW the difference even though the action was the same. Should no man act and less as a woman? Vive versa? Was it a sophomoric somewhat excusable action? Let’s be real. FOCUS on SIGNIFICANT actions, not minor ones. And be understanding of the age of the participant. We were all young once. Let’s stop the idiocy of attacking our friends for MINOR past actions, our enemies for actions as minors, and focus on their actual actions and success in important issues.

Blackface make up was part of Hollywood since the silent film era. Al Jolson wasn't the only actor who was in blackface--I just returned the WC Fields comedy You Can't Cheat An Honest Man to Netflix. The movie also co-starred Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his puppets Charlie McCartney and Mortimer Snerd. Brace yourselves for a shock--there's a brief scene where Charlie McCartney's face is covered in blackface make up. I know this sounds lame in today's no tolerance universe but back in Hollywood's Golden Age blackface was just another part of movie magic. Until a month ago no one really gave blackface make up a second thought.

One thing that this mess in Virginia has taught me is that we have to get off our moral high horse on the issue of racism. Racism is too deeply embedded in our history, including recent history, and it is not feasible to declare entire swaths of people beyond the pale morally. I guess I learned that from the polls in Virginia which show majority support of Northam among POC. If they consider it is for the greater good for Northam to remain in office because his policies are more progressive than the alternative, that's powerful. As for blackface, I remember it in my childhood from old films on TV in the fifties, and it has always seemed weird and demeaning to me. But it was there, part of the culture.

It seems that every day we are told that the country needs to have a conversation & reckoning about race, and it's true. But the conversation that the powerful want us to have always seems to be purely about personal attitudes and prejudices. The reason race is important, even determinative, for the way some people experience life is the disparity of economic power and opportunity between races. But you could wave a magic wand and make everyone in the country completely color blind (I would do it if I could) and it would not make the slightest difference in those disparities. We have an economy structured by law and practices to create extreme divisions. People largely inherit their economic status, whether they are urban blacks or Appalachian whites. We can navel gaze about our attitudes until the cows come home, but we won't have a more racially equitable society until we create more economically equitable society.

One of the most egregious examples of black face worn by Bing Crosby and the keeping the black actors subservient is the movie musical" Holiday Inn" often shown at Christmas Time and a hotel chain named after the movie at that. Recently TMC showed it with the announcement that some might me offended because of the blackface stereotypes but that was how it was back then in that day,or some such words to that effect.