Quote:
Originally posted by LatinaAlumna
You don't need to paint your face "black" to follow the theme of a hip-hop party. Nowdays, hip-hop transcends race and culture, and people of all ages, colors, religions, etc. enjoy it and are part of the hip-hop community. Those boys could have easily come dressed in hip-hop style clothing or found another way to follow the theme of the party. I don't buy for one minute that they "had no idea" they would offend anyone.
|
You're right. They didn't *need* to paint their faces black to follow the hip-hop theme. But hip-hop was started and is still mostly influenced by black people. If their intentions were merely to dress for the theme, then I don't see anything wrong with what they did.
I may be missing the point completely. It happens a lot. But where I went to high school, where the black population is roughly 35%... Issues like this tend to lose dramatic effect. Black students regularly would call up the whole "racism" thing to get their way, to get others in trouble or just to get attention... And sadly this takes a lot away from my sympathy on issues like this...
If these guys were being blatantly racist, I totally agree and think that it is wrong. But given their situation and the theme of the party, I just fail to see what the huge deal is. If a black person decided to paint his face white, it would be a totally different issue.
---- Also -- While blackface in the old days was used for entertainment while making fun of blacks, many of the shows also included african americans in the acts or side-shows to dance or sing... This led to blacks staring in major roles and then to the black theatre movement. (Movies like cabin in the sky, raisin in the sun, etc)