Belated Halloween Post: Blackface. Halloween Fail.

It continues to amaze me that people don’t get that dressing up in blackface for Halloween is not okay. Most white people my age, they have never even heard of blackface, so when I suggest that it’s highly offensive, they are often like, “yeah, whatever.

Hey, I didn’t make the rules – and neither did you. You can’t just say it’s not offensive, and then expect no one to be offended by it. Unless you want to go back and chnge historyand I haven’t met anyone with those capabilities yet. It is arrogant to assume that you, a white person, can decide that something doesn’t matter anymore. That’s as arrogant as the white people who decided to play blackface in the first place – because blacks weren't good enough to represent themselves.

Now I know many people just don’t know about the history of blackface. If you don't, Wikipedia it. Wikipedia=the answer to everything. Anyway, I found out about blackface my junior year of high school. We were in a Native American unit in history class, and had to do some group project on Native Americans. I don't remember the point is us doing this, but our group decided to make a video portraying stereotypes of Native Americans. So, some of the guys painted their faces red/brown, and pretended to drink a lot of beer.

I look back and wince. Needless to say, our history teacher was quick to gently point out the inappropriateness of our portrayal --- and the reason behind it.

In conclusion, if you still don't believe me that blackface is offensive, google how many news stories there are about some witless white person donning it on Halloween and creating a ruckus. This year, the ruckus was centered on a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, who decided to be Lil' Wayne. It didn't work out too well for her, as you can imagine.

The end.