Is this just me or does it seem like Halloween was all about race this year? Maybe it's that way every year and I've just never bothered to pay attention. But it seemed like every news site I turned to in the days leading up to and following Halloween had at least one article bashing people for dressing in blackface for the holiday
While I certainly don't disagree that it is distasteful and ignorant to dress in blackface, why hasn't this been an issue in the past? Again maybe it's because I just never noticed, but why has the media never been as charged up about people dressing in Native American or other racially-based costumes? I don't want to compare the plight of Native Americans to Black slaves, but I think it's safe to say they were both treated poorly, for lack of a better word, by whites.
So why is it such as issue for someone like Julianne Hough to wear blackface as part of a costume? She wasn't dressing as a slave, nor was she dressing in a manner that was disrespectful or stereotypical - she was dressed as a character from the Netflix show Orange is the New Black. Sure, she didn't have to darken her face. Plenty of other people dress up as black pop culture figures for Halloween all the time without darkening their face, but she did and that's that. So why are people still so upset about it?
I didn't take her costume as being minstrel. Her face wasn't actually black, not that that makes a difference. But she didn't have bright red lipstick on to give the impression of enlarged lips. While she was wearing a jail jumpsuit, that's accurate to what the character wears, just like the white characters do as well. So aside from her darkened skin, there was nothing about her costume that was an exaggerated portrayal of a black person. However, I think the scholars featured in Ethnic Notions would disagree. They would argue that the way Hough was dressed upheld the stereotype that "black is ugly." Even though the character has "crazy eyes" and a nontraditional hair style, Ethnic Notions would argue that Hough was helping to reinforce the belief that black is "ugly" and "savage."
I suppose another way to look at it is whether a white person would be offended if a black person dressed in whiteface (if that's a thing) for Halloween. I really don't think I would be. Would you?
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ReplyDeleteYou brought up a very interesting conversation. l never really noticed that people dress up as "black face" for Halloween, but then again it might be a trend because they saw one person doing it.?
ReplyDeleteI think the reason it became such a big deal, is because she is a white person. She is trying to represent something that does not fit in to category.
Another reason for this could be that media wants to take something small, and make it into a bigger problem. Race is now part of the hidden agenda, where it is not discussed as much. Bringing out this factor might have contributed to this becoming a popular subject. This obviously caught a lot of people's attention.
Also, it is true when you mentioned that when people dress up as Native America, it is not a big problem in society. This might be because when we refer to racism and stereotypes in our society they are mostly linked to minorities such as black people. This could also be because black face is such a emotional topic, since it is linked to the time of slavery, and how white people depicted black people to be.
I think that black face should not even be an option for people, even on Halloween when crazy costumes are somewhat acceptable. I think that Hough's costume would definitely have been recognizable without the black face; the orange jumpsuit and the hair style that "crazy eyes" wears in the show gave her costume away (to people that are familiar with the show of course). I think putting on black face took it a step too far. As a celebrity she has a responsibility of being in the spot light to not be overtly offensive to people because her actions could be mimicked by younger kids.
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