Shades Of Blackface
John McWhorter asks the essential question no one's been asking at The Atlantic.
The headline:
Are All Instances of Blackface Alike? Perhaps there is a difference between donning it to mock black people and donning it to resemble someone, as Mark Herring did.
McWhorter writes -- sanely, reasonably in a way nobody has been of late on this subject:
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring blacked up his face in 1980 when dressing as Kurtis Blow. Herring admitted what he did and apologized. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's yearbook page contains a photo of a man in blackface next to someone dressed as a Klansman. Northam admitted he was one of the men and apologized, then said perhaps he wasn't in the photograph at all.Is it right to treat these two acts in the same way, as unforgivable acts of racism, even white supremacy?
I wonder if we are allowing social progress to detour into a kind of reflexive shaming. I wonder if all blacking up is alike, or if even blackface contains shades of grey.
Perhaps there is a difference between blacking up to mock black people, as whom we might term as the person pictured on Northam's yearbook page seems to have done, and blacking up in affectionate imitation of a black person, as part of seeking to resemble said person, as Herring did. One indication that the latter is reasonable is that it was common among highly enlightened people in times hardly as removed from ours as Al Jolson and The Birth of a Nation.
I've written about seeing much of the social justice calls for virtual witch burnings (leading to career and life ruin) as a way to have unearned power over others.
McWhorter sees it similarly:
Much of this special kind of vigilance, which leaves many people who thought of themselves as on the barricades a few years ago scratching their heads, can be seen as a quest for power. To get someone fired from his job and publicly shamed for, say, having blacked up to dress as a black pop artist 40 years ago is to wield force, to have an effect; it is a kind of whip held at one's side.
This, from Coleman Hughes at NRO, is so right on:
We should also recognize the fact that "blackface" is an umbrella term. It covers everything from a white adult performing a nauseatingly racist caricature of a black person, to a pair of 12-year-old girls -- who had probably never heard the word "minstrelsy," much less studied the history of minstrelsy -- having fun with makeup at a sleepover. That the same word is used in the media to describe both scenarios should not obscure the fact that, ethically speaking, they belong in separate universes.
Blackface minstrels are revered folk heroes for the Black community, and we should all be sure to pay tribute to that.
Coonman at February 11, 2019 12:35 AM
In the land of the perpetually offended, there are no distinctions, only irrefutable presumption of evil warranting destruction of the object of one’s rath.
Wfjag at February 11, 2019 1:04 AM
So many of these loving tolerant SJW’s seem to live their lives searching for someone to hate next.
Jay at February 11, 2019 4:46 AM
For the Church of the Sufficiently Woke, it has to be all inclusive. Then, depending on whom the offender is, they can be judged appropriately.
If they like you, you get a lecture.
If they don't, well, you know how works out.
I R A Darth Aggie at February 11, 2019 6:01 AM
One has to be able to create witches on demand.
So many of these loving tolerant SJW’s seem to live their lives searching for someone to hate next.
I'm pretty sure that brings joy to their existence.
I R A Darth Aggie at February 11, 2019 6:03 AM
So these things are always absolute until a leftist gets caught at it -- then, all of a sudden, the "nuance" argument mysteriously pops up. Sorry. I'm not interested in hearing it anymore. You choose to live with extremism, you die with extremism. The best thing is that the SJWs are doing it to their own side -- I don't even have to do anything. You get the popcorn, I'll get the beer.
Cousin Dave at February 11, 2019 8:46 AM
Why are we asking if there is a time or scenario that blackface is ok? Black people don't like it, they find it very offensive and for good reason. Why are we always trying to find away to do something that a group has already told us to please not do??? Do you really need to dress up as someone else that badly? It's like the sports team names. The groups that are offended by this have stated their position very clearly, why do we have to continue to argue that they should not really be offended by it? They are offended. Can we not just trust them to know what offends them and stop doing it? Queue the whataboutism to follow....
Stormy at February 11, 2019 9:09 AM
"Why are we always trying to find away to do something that a group has already told us to please not do???"
Because we're offended by people telling us they're offended.
dee nile at February 11, 2019 9:55 AM
I can list lots of things that people get offended by that I think are stupid but this just seems like "come on, let us keep making fun of you, while we try to convince you that you are wrong, you shouldn't feel the way you do, because we don't want you to get your way"
Stormy at February 11, 2019 10:08 AM
"Black people don't like it, they find it very offensive ..."
No. White people don't like it and - like you - feel they can speak for black people.
The same goes for team names. All the polling indicates that actual American Indians don't care, or even like that teams use Indian names. But whites - like you - ignore them and claim to know better.
What Blacks don't like is the derogatory 'minstrel' application of 'black face', with the shoe polish make-up and lipstick. They don't care whether someone applies dark makeup as part of a costume, if it's not intended to stereotype blacks.
foff at February 11, 2019 11:06 AM
"Can we not just trust them to know what offends them and stop doing it? "
No.
Longer answer: No, because not everyone is rational in their application of ethics. And some people are willing to abuse ethical standards to benefit themselves in unethical ways. If you had to avoid doing anything that might offend someone somewhere, there would be nothing you could do at all. Some people just have to be told to grow up.
Cousin Dave at February 11, 2019 11:12 AM
"He asked them to suppose a certain rival college had a hockey team named the “Englishmen.” A large and exaggerated profile of Queen Elizabeth II would decorate the center ice. At halftime (something hockey games don’t have, but the young man didn’t look like a real hockey fan, so never mind) clownish skaters would come out wearing enormous bowler hats and carrying ridiculous, oversized umbrellas. They’d skate right across the queen and do pratfalls on her face. Then the school band would strike up a bawdy parody of “Rule, Britannia” while spectators wore fake monocles and cheered in plumy accents."
"This seemed like a great idea to me. But I’m a Mick. Which brings us to the ugly, pugnacious, and probably inebriated Irishman used as a mascot by Notre Dame University. It looks exactly like my Uncle Mike."
- P. J. O’Rourke (All the Trouble in the World)
I've got an Uncle Mike, my mother's cousin. He's straight outta the Auld Sod. It looks just like 'im.
Conan the Grammarian at February 11, 2019 12:45 PM
Of course this is usually about getting people fired and taking their jobs. And that is why 'nuance' popped up here.
First you had Fairfax who is looking at sexual assault/rape/yada yada charges. Northam says he has to go.
Next you have Northam with blackface and clanbake stuff. Mark Herring says Northam must go. Note, if both Fairfax and Northam are out then Herring is now governor. Party wise no big deal. They are all dems. But a bit self serving for Herring.
Now you have blackface on Herring. And after calling for Northam to go due to blackface he looks really hypocritical. But who is next in line if the top three people go? Kirk Cox, a republican. Now we have talks about 'nuance' and what is and is not blackface. But only once it looks like the democrat party is going to lose the governorship in Virginia.
Oh, and Cox says they all need to go as well. Just as self serving as Herring.
There is no morality here. No high ground.
Just taking what you can get. Which is why I'm like Cousin Dave. They made these rules. They need to live by them.
Ben at February 11, 2019 12:53 PM
The Zulu Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans was begun by black folks to satirize the pomp of the white "society" parades ... and the tradition developed of black folks wearing blackface in the parade.
(You can Google "Louis Armstrong Zulu" to see Satchmo wearing blackface as King Zulu.)
As more white people were invited to join Zulu, they too were expected to wear blackface in the parade alongside their black friends, because of the original tradition.
Like many cultural traditions in New Orleans, it's a complicated one.
Kevin at February 11, 2019 4:12 PM
> Black people don't like it,
> they find it very offensive
> and for good reason.
They?
It's not just about janky numbskulls taking offense on behalf of people they've never met.
I think we should be suspicious when someone describes such an enormous and diverse number of people as they."
Crid at February 11, 2019 8:41 PM
Fortunately in the US constitution there is no *right not to be offended*.
SJW’s have been trying to create these rights out of whole cloth for at least the last forty years.
Unfortunately they have made significant progress in colleges and government.
Nobody, and I mean NOBODY is going to like where this is going.
Isab at February 12, 2019 5:34 AM
Stormy thinks we should just take them at their word that they are offended. Let's see how this plays out:
Someone claimed that wood paneling at the campus felt "oppressive". Ban it?
Religious people don't like the nudity at gay pride marches--does their offense count?
Many are offended by abortion. End it?
Some people don't like ghost or witch costumes at halloween. Ban them?
Indian names for sports teams: these names were chosen because of the image of indians as brave warriors, not as derogatory. So that is the opposite. Eliminating these names would be in a sense to disappear indians from our history.
cc at February 12, 2019 9:08 AM
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