Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 ··· 38 39

Original poster

To report friend to FB for photo of her blacked up?

960 replies

Greyhound · 31/08/2014 11:48

I'm really shocked - cousin of mine has pic of herself on Facebook blacked up. She is white. The picture is of her at a fancy dress party - she has covered her face in dark brown stage make up and is wearing an "Afro" wig and Rastafarian style striped hat.

Her husband is also blacked up.

OP posts:

bunchoffives · 31/08/2014 12:54

I'm thinking of those who bought into the Blairist concepts and discourse of political correctness in the noughties. Just read a typical Guardian columnist for an eg.

As a society I think we did need a strong discourse of anti-discrimination to emerge. But like other ideologues, it had its ridiculous (imho), extremist pole. Dressing up as a black person and putting your pic on FB and then being called racist, is to me extreme.

Username12345 · 31/08/2014 12:54

bunchoffives but I just don't think it's about black colour prejudice anymore.

Then you are extremely naive. It may not be the only thing, but it is still very much part of it.

Saoirseba · 31/08/2014 12:56

Blackface has been used to humiliate and mock black people for centuries.
Whiteface is packaged as "Fair & Lovely" moisturiser and sold for millions of pounds profit in black and Asian majority countries, which have usually been colonised and shaped ever since to see white faces as the epitome of beauty.

Funny how people can "dress up as a black person" by just having an afro and dark skin. But nobody seems to be able to recognisably "dress up as a white person" without it being intended to be a particular character because there's no pervasive stereotype of what a "white person" looks like.

Silly political correctness trying to take away our right to dress as a racial caricature. It's not like we could just stop something completely unnecessary to avoid hurting many people's feeli- oh.

Disneylandkilledmychildhood · 31/08/2014 12:56

I think everyone has missed a key point here. What about all these girls wearing fake tan and making themselves look like Oompa Loompas?

GhoulWithADragonTattoo · 31/08/2014 12:57

Maybe it was the halcyon days of not being racist. I'm guessing you're also feminists who support the rights of disabled and gay people.

bunchoffives · 31/08/2014 12:59

'Then you are extremely naive. It may not be the only thing, but it is still very much part of it.'

To me, it's a convenient 'label' to hang elite power/wealth privilege on, as is sexism, and all the other forms of discriminatory thinking/being. But really it's just about greedy men!

JennySense · 31/08/2014 12:59

Last summer our neighbours held a Caribbean barbecue type party and blacked up. We were a bit surprised. It never crossed their minds that their dressing up party with grass skirts etc would be seen as racist.

Sallyingforth · 31/08/2014 12:59

This thread has rapidly expanded to cover the whole subject of racism, and is clearly going a long way from the original post.

From what was originally said, there appears to be no attempt at parody. she has covered her face in dark brown stage make up and is wearing an "Afro" wig and Rastafarian style striped hat. at a fancy dress party. There is no evidence of 'parody'. If she had behaved in a racially offensive manner or voice, that would have been 'parody'.

For all we know, she might have been aware of a racist person being at the party, and decided to dress that way to confront them. I would applaud that.

Anyway, since this thread has moved on so far I'll leave it now.

MagnificentMaleficent · 31/08/2014 13:00

Whilst I agree with you bunch about a white patriarchy, I find that the white/Hispanic/black divide in the US is more wider than in the UK.

And whilst of course there are also white people in poverty, there is a continually higher percentage of black and Hispanic people living in poverty.

For example, amongst single parent families in the US, 22% were white and 44% black. Not really an equal playing field.

McBear · 31/08/2014 13:01

To me that's putting cerebral palsy on a par with being black and seeing them as a negative. Skin is skin. If putting a peg leg on or eye patch is matter of fact, why isn't black skin?

I still agree it's tasteless and not something I would do but it isn't racist. We are not living in the 60s. We have moved on. Most people (unfortunately not all) know that racism is wrong.

Sallyingforth · 31/08/2014 13:02

crossed with this:

It never crossed their minds that their dressing up party with grass skirts etc would be seen as racist.

Perhaps it wasn't! How else would one dress at a Caribbean party? It wouldn't be very Caribbbean is they dressed in suits and ties.

Username12345 · 31/08/2014 13:03

If it's beyond your comprehension there's nothing anyone can say that will make a difference.

MagnificentMaleficent · 31/08/2014 13:03

Yet to me it seems that people know racism is wrong and yet can't recognise when it's staring them in the face.

CaptainSinker · 31/08/2014 13:04

I can only speak for myself and say I am not a guardian reader or Blair supporter/voter (shudder).

It is unproductive to attempt to reduce people to stereotypes, or to negate their opinion based on their age, or other irrelevant factors.

Just confused by why people want to defend others' supposed right to behave in a thoughtless, hurtful manner.

PhaedraIsMyName · 31/08/2014 13:04

Would it be racist if she were a fan of and had meant to be Bob Marley ? Is she automatically parodying all black West Indian people or celebrating some-one she admired?

Would a gay man who had dressed up as say Judy Garland or Kylie be unacceptable?

RabbitRabbit78 · 31/08/2014 13:04

If you have to ask... Then yes. Yes it is racist. Blackface is hugely offensive and I can't believe there are people defending it and/or going the "political correctness gone mad" route.

yoisthisracist.com

MagnificentMaleficent · 31/08/2014 13:06

When I think of a Caribbean party I think of Malibu and grass skirts.

Oh and then I think about colonisation and the slave trade. Was no one keen to dress up like one of the slave traders?

No much easier to black up.

MrsWhiskersonTheFirst · 31/08/2014 13:07

Why is this racist? I'm not seeing it at all.

FreudiansSlipper · 31/08/2014 13:08

if you are saying well it is not done with intent so it is not racist but others see it as offence you have decided that their opinion should not matter why is that

PhaedraIsMyName · 31/08/2014 13:08

Actually I think that was racist or at best displays a poverty of imagination. There are presumably people of every colour in the Caribbean.

Saoirseba · 31/08/2014 13:08

It wouldn't be very Caribbean if they dressed in suits and ties.

You may be stunned to realise that "Caribbean people" (all being one homogeneous group, obviously) do not, in fact, walk round in grass skirts all day. Some of them even wear suits and ties! Omg!

Now tell me, how would you "dress up like a British person"?

Username12345 · 31/08/2014 13:08

MrsWhiskersonTheFirst

Why is this racist? I'm not seeing it at all.

Then maybe you should read the posts explaining it.

McBear · 31/08/2014 13:10

So all fancy dress is racist in it's connotation. It should be banned.

Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost · 31/08/2014 13:10

Sorry but I think you must have a problem with her to begin with..... She was an a fancy dress party dressing as someone who is black... She obviously likes the person I would think. So I can't see where she's being racist. You're terrified to do anything in this world for fear of being accused of something...

CaptainSinker · 31/08/2014 13:12

I know, it is a terrible world where you can't be racist for fear of being accused of being racist

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 ··· 38 39