I’m sure we can all agree… America has some seriously strange trends recently, but I swear, none of them could really compare to this new one: The “blackface” ….uh. I’m sorry what?
Their parents must be so proud!
Yeah, you saw right… The “blackface” – Caucasian Americans painting their faces black as a costume. I’m sorry, but why is this a “cool thing to do”? OK, we get it… People are always looking at trying something new for Halloween, you want to be convincing and you want to go all out on your costume this year… Errr. NO, we DON’T get it!
‘The “blackface”‘ trend originated with blackface minstrel in the 1820′s, where white male performers would blacken their faces and wear old, dirty clothes as a part of their performance. They would make jokes about the stereotypes about African-Americans. Some of the main characters in these performances were, the educated free black man – who pronounced everything incorrectly and Mammy, a fat, faithful female slave who was played by someone who obviously looked like a man.
Now the blackface is back! For some reason it seems like the new popular thing to do among white Americans, including ‘celeb’ Julianne Hough, who went out for Halloween as character known as Crazy-Eyes from the new tv series “Orange is the new Black” to attend a party last Friday. Hough felt the need to paint her face with a darker shade of foundation, I suppose she wanted to get more in character? Some might say that in Hough’s case it isn’t really so bad. If the girl wanted to depict a black character from a show I don’t see what’s so wrong about that? Fair enough. But Then again, taking into consideration the history of the blackface? … Ummm Yea!
Worst of all people are dressing as Trayvon and Zimmerman
The latest ‘blackface’ sighting was these two white girls who painted their faces brown, deciding to go to Halloween as black people. Before heading out one of the girls thought it would be cool to tweet a pic captioned, “@dobebieber: me and @kinkystyles are niggers this Halloween”. The tweet began to trend when re-tweeted by Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson. Of course, she would get real heat for that kinda tweet, but it seems like she didn’t care, as she responded to people’s distaste by tweeting things like “stop worrying about my Halloween costume and worry about finding your dad” …excuse? Look, lemme not even…
Yup this is TnT!
And as with any insanely disgusting trend to hit social media, it tends to spread faster than Aunty Kams can down a bottle of white oak. As much as I hoped that this wouldn’t happen, the blackface has made its way to Trinidad. How do people think this is a good idea?
Dear America (and, Trinidad too!),
I’m not sure why anyone would have to tell you this, but “blackfacing” is not cool. It’s not funny and never was. Don’t do it. It has to go! The fact that this is still a thing in 2013 is not only sad, but kinda pathetic.
Sincerely,
Black People Everywhere.
