Page 6 - aruba-today-20190209

A6 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 9 February 2019

Blackface scandal doesn’t surprise people of color

By COREY WILLIAMS
Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — In the
brightly lit Vintage Barber-
shop in northwest Detroit,
Thomas Carter carefully
trimmed the graying hair
of a customer as he was
asked about photos that
depict whites wearing
blackface.
He paused and slowly
scanned the shop where
about a half-dozen black
men of various ages await-
ed their turn. “It’s not funny
to me. It’s not funny to me
at all,” he said.
From police shootings of
black men, to white su-
premacy rallies, to efforts
to remove Confederate
Civil War monuments, the
nation has lurched from
one racial controversy to
another in recent years.
The latest is blackface —
in which someone darkens
their face and adds bright
red lipstick to create ste-
reotypes and caricatures. In this Thursday, Feb. 7, 2019 photo, barber Thomas Carter cuts a customer’s hair in Detroit.
The disclosures have an- Associated Press
gered and frustrated many He has so far refused. wearing blackface is a another person dressed in man from Detroit, said the
black people, who say it is Days later, Virginia Attor- painful reminder of Ameri- a white robe and mask like incidents show there is still
mocking and demeaning. ney General Mark Herring ca’s history of racism, hate the Ku Klux Klan, said Korey racial hatred.
The practice took hold in — who is second in line to and exploitation. Garibaldi, an assistant pro- “I’m disappointed that
New York City in the 1830s succeed Northam if he re- “It’s just a huge form of dis- fessor in American Studies more black people don’t
and became immensely signs — admitted to wear- respect. I’m kind of upset at the University of Notre know the history (of black-
popular among post-Civil ing blackface to look like a with a lot of people allow- Dame. face) and know it’s very in-
War whites. In fact, the Jim rapper during a party when ing it to be done. It’s ac- “With that, you have a lit- sulting,” Muhammad said.
Crow laws that enforced he was a 19-year-old at the ceptable in a lot of circles, eral reference to racial “I’m not disappointed in
racial segregation in the University of Virginia in 1980. even with our own people,” terrorism,” Garibaldi said. people of European de-
South took their name from The Virginia disclosures he said. “It’s never just blackface. scent. Historically, most Eu-
a character played by drew intense attention but Education consultant and There’s always something ropeans never have been
blackface performer Thom- are hardly unusual. Just in travel writer Fernanda Mei- that makes this just that embracing of people of
as Dartmouth Rice. He said recent months, Florida’s Re- er took to Twitter Wednes- much more frightening — African descent.”
his act “Jump, Jim Crow” publican secretary of state day to express her disgust. the Klan, exclusion from The number of hate crimes
(or “Jumping Jim Crow”) resigned in disgrace after “Dear white people,” she school, a job. It’s a whole reported in the United
was inspired by a slave he a 2005 photo showed him wrote, then retweeted: kind of comprehensive States has risen in recent
saw. wearing blackface and “Don’t wear blackface. white supremacy, not just a years to more than 4,100
On the first day of Black His- dressing as a “Hurricane Don’t think about wear- particular sort of image or motivated by race or eth-
tory Month a week ago, Katrina victim.” ing blackface. To be safe, remark. It’s a structure that nicity in 2017 compared to
a photo emerged from Clothing label Gucci said don’t even say the word needs to be challenged.” just under 3,500 the year
Virginia Democratic Gov. it was pulling a blackface- blackface, except to say Carter said the person in before, according to Jus-
Ralph Northam’s 1984 themed sweater from ‘don’t wear blackface.’” Klan garb in Northam’s tice Department data .
medical school yearbook stores. A Snapchat video “My skin, hair, lips are a yearbook photo angered Chicago-area pastor Eric
page that showed some- shows two Connecticut costume to non-black him as a black man. Dorsey said it springs from
one in blackface and an- high school students wear- people,” Meier told The “When you see the Klan ... systemic cultural bias.
other person in a Ku Klux ing what seems like black- Associated Press from Bo- these people took pictures “It’s kind of funny in a way
Klan hood and robe. face. A similar incident gota, Colombia, where she next to bodies, hanging out where stuff like this comes
Northam at first admitted was reported last month currently resides. “There is of a tree,” he said in refer- out and the public has this
he was in the picture, then at the University of Oklaho- nothing flattering about ence to lynchings. outrage and this outcry
denied it a day later, but ma, when a man walked using shoe polish or dark “The brutality that we face of, ‘Oh my God! I can’t
acknowledged he once around campus in black- makeup to paint one’s skin on a mental, physical and believe this happened,’”
blackened his face with face. An old photo has like mine, when the very spiritual level is a lot. Hate Dorsey said.
shoe polish to imitate Mi- popped up of “The View” same thing is the source of is taught. You’re not born a “When if you really study
chael Jackson for a dance co-host Joy Behar wearing my oppression.” racist. So, you have house- the history of this nation,
contest in 1984. The disclo- makeup to darken her skin The Northam yearbook holds teaching ... kids. It’s why are you surprised?”
sure roiled Virginia politics for a Halloween costume in photo was even worse be- inbred. How are you going He said the publicity
and prompted widespread the 1970s. cause the person in black- to stop that?” around the incidents could
calls for Northam to resign . Carter said white people face was standing next to Taj Muhammad, a black be a good thing.q