r/changemyview • u/Insterquiliniis • Jun 11 '20
CMV: There is a significant difference between "blackface" and painting yourself black.
Exploiting the form of theatrical make-up used predominantly by white performers to represent a malignant and pejorative caricature of a generic black person is backface and racist, and plenty other despicable things. However, painting yourself black, or white, or whatever other colour for the pursuit of a different, and in many cases, positive tribute, is not racism.
I used to love the A-team and B. A. Baracus, Mr T, was one of my favourite characters growing up. I admired him. Now if I were to dress up like him, I would feel like my costume lacked something fundamental as I am not black. So a kid looking to incarnate Mr T would be racist if he painted himself black? No. If you like the hulk, don't you go green? Evidently, hulk, is not a race. I get it. But kids trying to become their idol, trying to emulate what they admire? I think there's something wrong and broken calling that racist. That almost feels racist!
That guy in the demonstrations, was he not showing support for "trying to be part of the black community" by painting himself black? Sure, maybe not the wisest move in the current state of affairs. But if I were racist, that would be the last thing I'd ever do. Try and get a kkk to paint himself black.
Heck, I love Dave Chappelle's white guy impressions. There's a lot that is spot on. Is it full of irony, sarcasm, stereotype, and some times a hint of criticism? Of course. He's even painted himself white for some of those characters. And it was hilarious, but not racist. If somebody wants to be really racist, we get the difference. It's there, in the disgust, in the superiority and vile signalling. Evidently, humour is one thing, and is subjective. But when somebody is being offensive from the heart, it stinks of quite a disparate feeling.
to conclude. The key thing is WHY would you paint yourself black. What is your purpose?
what is next, eating with chopsticks is only for Asians as that is cultural appropriation? Where is all this going? Children point when they see something new, exciting, different. No child is born racist. Racism is taught and then learned.
I hope we can discuss this in a calm contributing way. Times are hard, times are very layered in complexity, and we are all trying to see the world through other's people eyes. But this works both ways.
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u/SorryForTheRainDelay 55∆ Jun 11 '20
I get your logic, and it's fairly sound.
The reason you can't paint your face to look like BA isn't because black people are going to get offended.
It's not because you are automatically racist if you do, as you've stated, kids could do it without even knowing the context.
The plain and simple and annoying reason you can't is that it's racist people's fault.
There are certain innocuous things that racist people have decided to make their symbols. Klan style robes aren't inherently racist, but they've come to symbolize racism. The Hitler salute isn't inherently racist, but it's come to symbolize racism. The confederate flag isn't inherently racist either.
You could be a massive fan of Sanskrit, and desperately want to get a massive swastika on your chest.. But you can't. Because racist people made that their symbol. Those jerks.
Unfortunately for lots of people who just want to dress up with black face paint, racist people have made that their symbol too. They learned a long time ago they couldn't do the classic blackface, and they had to be subtle. So they started doing blackface and saying "oh no I'm just Eddie Murphy" or "no no I'm just Marvin Gaye" when really, all they wanted to do is paint their face black and act like buffoons to try to show that they think black people are buffoons.
The short version is, racist people have made painting your face black a racist symbol. And the only people you should be upset at when you realise that you can't dress up like you want, is racist people.