On Thursday, a West Australian mother posted a photo on mummy blogger Constance Hall’s public Facebook account to share her “absolute QUEENING moment” of her son dressed and painted brown so he looked like Naitanui.
Queen or Queening is a term coined by Constance to describe herself and her followers. Basically, they are all Queens and should be treated as such.
Hall claims she has since received “death threats” for removing a photo of a young boy in blackface.
But the mother says the blackface was not intended to be racist, but rather a way for her son to idolise his favourite player.
“He was idolising his hero, and loved it. And it’s been twisted into me being racist,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
“Everyone needs to realise that who is affected here is a nine-year-old boy who wanted to be his hero for one day.”
So many fails in this story. Death Threats over taking the pic down after championing the freedom to put it up in the first place? Queening? Posting pics of yourself in tears? What a bunch of bonks.
But the question is can painting a little white kid brown to emulate his hero footy player that bad? It's not as if he was dressed as Al Jolson singing Mammy, or dressed in a civil war era slave costume or an aboriginal Australian being abused or something.
Australia tries to hard to be America at times, when we really shouldn't. Getting upset over shit like this is pathetic, there was no intended racism here people just love to get upset thesedays.
No. It's never acceptable.... However, I, for one, think it's stupid to demonize it when one is showing respect by trying to emulate someone that they look up to. As long as your aren't trying to project stereotypes or mock another race, I don't see the problem.
.... Of course, "White Girls" was a movie with white face making fun of white women, but the media and Hollywood elite didn't care about that... And neither did I, I'm just pointing out the double standard.
Edit: As someone else said, "blackface" is seen as it's own thing. However, the vast majority conflate the two. In fact, I read an article hating on a black actor who used makeup to play the role of a darker skinned person. She was even accused of using "black face"
Even if this was well intentioned (and it probably was, it's a kid honoring his favorite player), it's still best not to go there because of the history of "blackface". I don't for a second think either the kid or his mom meant any harm, but the mom definitely would've been better off listening to everyone that told her not to do this. Not only is it bringing negativity on herself, but her kid who doesn't know why this would offend anyone. Mom knows that it will offend some people and goes through with it anyway. So it's sort of a parenting fail with mom trying to prove some sort of bravery by letting her kid paint himself a different color.
All that said, I don't have a problem with this particular instance as I don't think it was ill intentioned. I also think it's over sensitive to even call it racist. Stupid, yes. Racist? I don't think so. Now there are other examples of this sort of painting up not being done by children but by teens and college students which are done in a blatantly racist manner, but this is not one of those cases IMO but again, it was a stupid decision on the mom's part to allow it.
So to answer your question, I personally think painting oneself to appear darker can be okay if truly well intentioned but you cannot convince everyone of your intentions and many, many people will be offended so it's just best not to even go there unless you're willing to take the backlash of all who don't care about your intentions and are offended on the basis of the history of blackface.
.... Of course, "White Girls" was a movie with white face making fun of white women, but the media and Hollywood elite didn't care about that... And neither did I, I'm just pointing out the double standard.
It was actually "White Chicks" and I found the whole thing creepy as hell but the main difference is that there is a more storied history with blackface and racism than there is with "whiteface" which I don't know if there even was a thing before that movie.
Which is a problem. Blackface is something specific and meant to insult an entire race of people. But let's say you're white and you are Lebron James for Halloween? I don't think that is a problem. The intent of the person should matter. I wouldn't consider that blackface. Blackface is something else entirely.
Yeah but intent is hard if not impossible to prove in a situation like that.
They could be a Lebron worshipper just paying tribute, or just saying they are as an excuse to don blackface because they think it's funny to get away with it.
No doubt, not everyone will care for their explanations no matter what the truth is.
IMO dressing as someone you idolize is totally different to blackface. Though with how people are now, it's not a good idea. The kid idolizes a black person and his family gets called racist. It's so backwards. I hope he doesn't let it get to him.
Context is everything. It was probably not meant to cause offense, but you know how people are. Incidentally I remember this clip from a comedy show called Mighty Boosh where this character played by Noel Fielding was a black man. Some would probably consider it racist too, but it was a comedy gag so I don't really take it seriously.
I don't disagree with Maniac at all. It's about the history. My thing is about changing the racist history to incorporate something far different. If we want to equate "blackface" with minstrel shows, of course... But relating it to random people that want to paint their face to look more like a hero of theirs, I disagree.
Painting it pitch black and making stereotypical jokes is one thing, but painting it to look the role of someone that you want to emulate is another. Just my 2 cents.
Context is everything. This is a 9 year old kid we are talking about who is essentially dressing up and using make up to idolize a hero of his. I do not think his mum had any ill intention and certainly the kid didn't. He wouldn't even know what blackface is.
The problem is people can't tell the difference between what is and isn't intended racism. The regressive left do this all the time and therefore end up complaining about the stupidest of things.
Don't even get me started on "Cultural Appropriation"...
Most white-majority countries don't have the history with blackface that America does. Yeah blackface entertainers existed in Britain and France and etc. 100, 120+ years ago, and they played on the same racial stereotypes, but it wasn't as big a phenomenon as it was in the USA.
And no I don't think it is okay unless you are consciously subverting the trope like in Tropic Thunder. Even then I was kinda ehhhh about it. The entire genre was created to shit on black people for laughs and nothing else, there's really not a single artistically redeeming thing about it.
The only person stereotyping in this thread is a self-righteous, "Don't worry minorities, I'll save you because you're so weak and oppressed!" flag-bearer.
That said, I do identify as a coconut (brown on the outside, white on the inside) so I guess he's not completely wrong ... (I also identify as a gunship and my pronouns are FU and WTF) but as hard as I try, I'm not white, never going to be white, don't really want to be white. I do however, appreciate a lot of things about white people and their culture and some things I don't like .. as I do of all other cultures :shrug
It's not too rare to see blackface being used in comedy shows in my country, usually if they're impersonating a black figure in either culture, sports, politics, etc.
Don't think I ever heard anyone complain about it though. I've heard black people imitating the non-black people impersonating black people in said shows, so I don't think it's much of an issue :shrug Either way it's comedy.
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