Quote:
Originally posted by sugar and spice
The historical context is simply not the same. Blackface has a history. "Whiteface" just doesn't. They're not comparable.
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I think you're exactly right.
Blackface has a long history in this country that is inextricably interwoven with racial stereotypes and supposed racial superiority. One couldn't have a
real black man in a show, so white men dressed up, very stereotypically, as black men and behaved as very stereotypical black men.
Now, no matter how innocently a naive college student may put on blackface for his rapper Hallowe'en costume, there's just too much historical baggage connected with a white person putting on blackface. No matter how innocently it was done, it is going to offend, and understandably so.
The same just cannot be said for putting on "whiteface." There is no historical precedent for "whiteface" being used as a socially-acceptable form of ridiculing white people. Putting on whiteface,
per se, does not necessarily reflect prejudice, nor can one assume that the whiteface will offend, as one can with blackface.
All of that said, the man in question
may (I, of course, don't know one way or the other) have been expressing some prejudice through his choice of a Hallowe'en costume, in which case his costume can validly be considered offensive. It would be the underlying motive, though, and not the whiteface itself that should give rise to offense.