Quote:
Originally Posted by christiangirl
Meh I think people get hung up on the whole body paint/face paint issue when (as Phil put it) there are other ways to incorporate racial identifiers that are just as offensive as face paint if not moreso.
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I do not rank these things. They are all unnecessary coming from an outsider.
Quote:
Originally Posted by christiangirl
I found the cheerleader's face/body paint to be unnecessary but wasn't personally offended by it. Mostly because she was imitating as one person in his usual attire. If she had put on that same outfit and just said "I'm a Black person for Halloween," the my offense would come from her assumption that Black men are thugs. This would be true whether she painted herself brown or not.
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Is there a substantive difference between imitating one person in his usual attire and imitating a group of people? If a nonBlack woman had the luck and privilege (
) of dressing up as me for Halloween and she used makeup and a wig to depict my skin shade and hair, does that remain in the realm of her only imitating ME? While I love my Blackness and my afro, I do not want a nonBlack person having the luxury of reenacting that. Find another way to be me for Halloween.
For the record, these issues do not require that we find personal offense or even have personal consciousness. I say this because I often hear people say things like "my Black friend says this isn't bad so that means it is okay...why are you offended as a Black person" as a defense for things. Not all Black people agree on what is appropriate but, like I said earlier, let the Blacks folks disagree on that. Meanwhile, nonBlacks need to spare us the "I'm going to do this to prove that I can do it just like you can" routine.