AIBU to think that "blacking up" is never acceptable?

[CoolRunnings2017]

story here

I appreciate that the people on the float probably didn't mean to offend, but surely common sense would tell you that this wasn't in good taste?

I don't see why they couldn't have just dressed up as the characters without the face paint. It isn't as though the film reference wouldn't have been obvious.

I'm in west Wales and the response has shocked me TBH. 1k+ comments on the original post on Facebook slating the woman who reported it

PC gone mad

This is universal code for 'I'm not very bright'

Don't know what happened there was supposed to be not gin!

ilovesooty

PC gone mad

"There's always one isn't there?"

Yeah. She should fuck off and only come back when she agrees with you. Burn the witch! Bet she's a man anyway. Boo. Hiss.

Yeah. She should fuck off and only come back when she agrees with you. Burn the witch! Bet she's a man anyway. Boo. Hiss.

For someone who loves their 'alt-right' cliches, you seem to be very easily 'triggered'.

I don't see why they couldn't have just dressed up as the characters without the face paint. It isn't as though the film reference wouldn't have been obvious.
But if you wanted to dress up as the A-Team & you were all white the person being B.A. Baracus wouldn't look right. Yes you might "get" that they were supposed to be him, but it would be really lame. Think about that green witch with the frizzy hair (Grotbags??) (died recently) - if you dressed up as her but didn't stick green make-up on your face people would think you'd not made an effort. So how is it different just because the skin tone you're copying is black?
I don't see how it can be racist if you're merely dressing up as a particular character.

I agree that its not acceptable (I don't think its a police matter though)

I do wonder why though that the very people who would be the strongest against this are likely to be the ones that are all for men dressing as women, as if that isn't very much the same thing.

nike if you want to dress up as the A Team but think not blacking up would be 'lame' here's an idea. Don't dress as the A Team.

It is unnecessary but it also petty to get offended. It's just make up, if you see more in it than that then you are the one with the perception problem.

Agree with babyschmaby that the FB post was politically motivated, trying to reflect badly on the local councillor.

However that doesn't take away from the fact that it was wrong to do this.

I have a family member who dances with a molly (Morris) side who have recently decided to stop blacking up. Even though the tradition has absolutely nothing to do with minstrel style blackface, it's about miners and disguising your appearance, they were aware of how their black faces were being perceived in the 21st century.

Some other sides have opted to use different colours like blue or green or paint their faces with designs. I know there have been mutters of 'political correctness gone mad' but most people feel it's the right approach to a sensitive topic.

I don't think it was a good idea, but I think police investigating it as a "hate incident" is very over the top. Surely this could be handled with a word to the organisers, not to allow it again?

I think it's ok to dress as someone with a green face because they don't actually exist. I think when people are telling you it's hurtful you have to pretty entitled to keep doing it.

It is unnecessary but it also petty to get offended. It's just make up, if you see more in it than that then you are the one with the perception problem.

Yes, and golliwogs are just cute cuddly toys, 'Natives and Colonials' parties are just Sloaney good times, and dressing up as a Nazi for a fancy dress party is OK, because you once met a Jewish person and they said it was fine by them.

Has anyone here ever been to Holland in December? My sister lives there and feels pretty uncomfortable about St Nicholas's comedy side-kick clown (who also happens to have very thick lips, curly hair and a blacked up face). Basically lovely, liberal, Holland have a charming tradition where Santa's slave gives out sweets to children.

I think you're referring to Zwarte Piet. A Dutch work colleague tells me that the traditional legend was that he snatched children into slavery in Moorish Spain and / or North Africa. I don't know the truth of this, but slave trading by north Africans of people kidnapped from the European coast was a far bigger menace than most people realise, existed for hundreds of years, and wasn't finally stopped until the 1800s when the French conquered Morocco and Algeria.

It's just make up, if you see more in it than that then you are the one with the perception problem.

Do some fucking research.

Interesting that it isn't being seen as racist but that the guys in blackface on the float are blasting out this song in footage on various news sites:

It's a 'comedy' song about Jamaicans smoking too much weed; a choice lyric refers to them not using condoms so they have either more babies or HIV. The original version was sung by white men. In blackface.

It doesn't feel quite so naive or ignorant now

Oops. Linked to the advert. Here's the song they were playing. Lyrics on the screen so you don't even need sound

I dont really see a problem with it. Men often dress up as women.

Basically lovely, liberal, Holland have a charming tradition where Santa's slave gives out sweets to children.

Trust me, Holland isn't lovely and liberal, it just has that reputation from the weed thing. It's an incredibly racist country; and I've had overweight friends openly mocked in the street there. An ex used to live in the Netherlands and he was horrified at how conservative the country is.

Unless you think that dresses / jewellery /makeup somehow "belong" to women in the same way a black person's skin belongs to them, I don't see the equivalence. I wear trousers, unisex Ts and boots a lot of the time. No make up, no jewellery. I am not a woman in drag.

Nicely put Barbarian.

It is PC , as a black woman with mixed race dc I do not believe it is racist. Context is everything.
To call it racist discredits really racism.