{"id":2918,"date":"2006-11-14T15:01:37","date_gmt":"2006-11-14T22:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2006\/11\/14\/step-away-from-the-damned-blackface-already\/"},"modified":"2006-11-14T15:01:37","modified_gmt":"2006-11-14T22:01:37","slug":"step-away-from-the-damned-blackface-already","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=2918","title":{"rendered":"Step Away From The Damned Blackface, Already"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blackacademic <\/a>points out yet another case of young whites deciding that putting on the blackface is just, y’know, hilarious. And she also points out that the University President’s letter, which is mainly about saying “it was just a few bad apples, there’s no larger problem to be addressed here!,” manages to avoid ever using the word “racism.” Because using that word would apparently be in bad taste or something.<\/p>\n

Look, it’s not that complex: If you’re white, put the blackface down. Whether you’re a frat boy or a liberal <\/a>blogger<\/a>, put it down. If you’re not white – well, even then, you should probably put it down. (Ebogjonson has a very fine blackface appropriateness test<\/a> that bloggers of all colors who considering blackface should consult.)<\/p>\n

Because if you happen to be an artist of Spike Lee’s<\/a> caliber, then maybe <\/em>you’ll be able to use blackface in a way that is both genuinely interesting and genuinely anti-racist. But you know what? Odds are very very high<\/em> that you’re not <\/em> Spike Lee.<\/p>\n

Just leave the goddmaned blackface alone, already. It’s not… that… hard.<\/p>\n

More reading: Zuky<\/a>, Wampum<\/a>, Dark Sun<\/a>, Prometheus 6<\/a>, Slant Truth<\/a> and Pen-Elayne<\/a>.<\/p>\n

UPDATE<\/strong>: Carmen at Racialicious<\/a> reports on a constructive approach campus administrations can take when students wear blackface.<\/p>\n

UPDATE 2<\/strong>: And do check out this post on My Private Casbah<\/a>:<\/p>\n

To ask whether or not this was “Racism or Stupidity” is to create a false dichotomy. Is there some reason why it could only be one or the other? I’m going to go out on a limb here and introduce what might seem like a really far-fetched notion to some. Could it be that it was racist stupidity? I know it’s anecdotal but, in my experience, racism and stupidity are not exactly strange bedfellows.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[Crossposted at Creative Destruction<\/a>. If your comments aren\u2019t being approved here, try there.]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blackacademic points out yet another case of young whites deciding that putting on the blackface is just, y’know, hilarious. And she also points out that the University President’s letter, which is mainly about saying “it was just a few bad … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-race-racism-and-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}