SEPTEMBRE ANDERSON
SPORTS EDITOR
Joe Zee, the creative director of Elle Magazine, is often quoted as saying, “twice is a coincidence. Three times is a trend.” However, Mr. Zee was talking about fashion’s next big obsession not one of history’s darkest moments.
Blackface has been popping up everywhere lately. Fashion magazines such as Paris Vogue, W Magazine and D Mode Magazine have featured white and Asian models in blackface.
In an episode of the reality TV show America’s Next Top Model the shows founder and host, Tyra Banks, who happens to be black, gave the contestants biracial identities and posed them in a sugar cane field in corresponding traditional attire.
Closer to home, four University of Toronto students attended a Halloween party dressed as the Jamaican bobsled team from the 1993 movie Cool Runnings. The students wore brightly coloured tracksuits, a “dreadlocked” wig, dark brown foundation and won a group costume prize for their effort.
Blackface was first worn by the American Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice in an 1828 performance in the United States. “Daddy” Rice choreographed a musical performance in which he mocked an old, broken black slave he knew by the name of Jim Crow. His routine was an immediate hit and was subsequently performed throughout the United States and England.
It seems that blackface and the minstrel show have never left with appearances of blackface continuing well into the 20th century. The Australian variety show Hey Hey It’s Saturday featured a quartet who sang and danced in blackface paint and afro wigs. The popular “Uncle Tom” and “Mammy” characters of the minstrel shows of old persist today in the forms of Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben.
There are those who argue that the blackface that we see today is not offensive but entertaining, engaging, intriguing, provocative and even beautiful.
Blackface was meant to further denigrate an already marginalized population through mockery and offensive caricatures. It was a massive propaganda machine that disseminated racist images and stereotypes in order to bolster the prevalent viewpoint of black people as a racially and socially inferior group of people.
Blackface is just as offensive today as it was in 1828 with a history rife with negativity, humiliation and disempowerment. It was and still does promote stereotypes through the objectification of black people and their culture.
We as a society have not come so far, African-American president or not, for blackface to be acceptable.
I could not agree more. I came across this article while doing a bit of research to bring before the principle, a teacher and the PTA at our local elementary school. They are putting on a play about Lewis and Clark and are planning on painting a white student with make up because he is portraying York, Clark’s slave/manservant. I am horribly offended by this and I can’t seem to get the teacher or principal to change their minds.