I Am Not a Costume!

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by christiangirl

I was having a hard time figuring out what was wrong with the costume because I didn't realize they were costumes. I did briefly wonder why he was grabbing onto that pregnant woman's butt, though. I'm there now.

In other words, even with the blackface, I would not know they are supposed to be Beyonce and Jay-Z.

[christiangirl]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

In other words, even with the blackface, I would not know they are supposed to be Beyonce and Jay-Z.

Blackface was a very specific type of theatrical makeup used for a specific purpose. I don't consider the above use of face/body paint to be an example of "blackface." But no, I still didn't know who they were supposed to be.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by christiangirl

Blackface was a very specific type of theatrical makeup used for a specific purpose. I don't consider the above use of face/body paint to be an example of "blackface."

The specific purpose was to depict Blackness and usually a parody of Blackness. Blackface was not only used by actors in stage performances and movies. It also did not and does not always look like this:



The people in that photo are darkening their skin to pretend to be something and someone they are not. In that sense, life is a stage and we are all actors. Sure, we can just call it "black or brown makeup on their face and/or bodies" but that still boils down to the same thing and the problems with it are rooted in the history of blackface.

*******

(This isn't for christiangirl) Wikipedia sometimes gets it right:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackface