Woman holds African-themed party and is labelled a racist

[fireheart17]

http://www.news.com.au/national/auss...-1226744540370

So a woman holds an "African" themed birthday party. Sounds fairly innocent in the first place right?

Well until a number of her guests started painting themselves in blackface (does not hold as much of a negative connotation in Australia BTW) and in one case, dressing up as a member of the KKK. Unsurprisingly, the photos have gone on the net (her encouragement). Unsurprisingly, she's been labelled a racist (not her encouragement )

The party hosts response? Trying to defend her guests by claiming that the folks who dress up for Oktoberfest don't cop flak for their costumes or that if she held an australian-themed party, she wouldn't cop flak.

Then she goes on to the classic "I have a black friend" quip, made even more ironic in that the person in question painted himself WHITE. O.o

Thoughts?

[anakhouri]

I have no problem with an African-themed party, but why on Earth would anyone put on blackface for such a thing? I can't even fathom the thought process there. It's just weird. I mean, I can see the African animal costumes and the clothing...but why paint yourself black? Obviously there were white people there who didn't put on makeup.

I am American though, and in this country blackface is automatically and strongly offensive.

And the KKK hood...definitely NOT African. I would kick out anyone who would dare come to my party in such a getup.

[hinakiba777]

I'm on the strong belief that if you dress up like another culture for a laugh, it's kind of offensive. But yeah, "blacking up" even without America's history of minstrel shows and the like, is still a very not cool thing to do.

[Hyena Dandy]

I'm kind of confused about why elephant or gorilla costumes are racist.

[Andara Bledin]

It's intriguing.

We absolutely denigrate anyone that uses makeup to look like a different race, but when women use makeup to make their eyes look as though they have different racial characteristics, or dye their hair to a color that is common for another ethnic group but not theirs, that's just fashion.

[anakhouri]

Blackface is particularly touchy because historically it was used by white performers to portray characters that were essentially a collection of negative stereotypes: blackface charcters were universally lazy, stupid black people, as portrayed by whites.

As Fireheart said, it doesn't have quite the negative connotations in Australia as it does in America. The people at this party may not have had any bad intentions at all- but to an American like me who has grown up in a country where race has always been a huge issue, it's pretty startling. Maybe they don't deserve to labeled be racists, but it still just seems strange. I don't understand why anyone would paint themselves (unless you're in the Blue Man Group, obviously), it wouldn't even occur to me when I got the invitation.

I do think any country would find something inappropriate in wearing a KKK costume to an African-themed party.

Question for Aussies: if someone held an Aborigine-themed party and painted themselves black, how would this be taken by the Australian public?

[fireheart17]

Question for Aussies: if someone held an Aborigine-themed party and painted themselves black, how would this be taken by the Australian public?

Not very well. Most aboriginal folks down here are treated with a little more respect. That is, those that are very heavily focused on their culture and language, not the ones who petrol sniff and have alcohol issues.

I'm kind of confused about why elephant or gorilla costumes are racist.

It wasn't those and nobody had a problem with those. It was the people who painted themselves up to look black or dressed up as the KKK.

[Hyena Dandy]

"This is what resulted … blackface, elephant and gorilla costumes, warpaint, Native American headdresses (?!) and more …. I'm at a loss for words,"

It's got elephant and gorilla costumes listed amongst warpaint and blackface.

[Andara Bledin]

I have to ask.

If the people who put on makeup had skipped the makeup and just gone as white people in African style clothing, would that have been ok?

And if so: Why?

I'm seriously having a hard time not thinking people betting upset at the makeup itself (as opposed to other potential issues) are saying a hell of a lot more about themselves than they are about the people who put it on.

It's worth noting that another incident involving a person putting on makeup to look black also included a man dressed in a wig and a dress, and yet, it's ok to change your gender with a costume, but lord help you should you change your race. But only if you change it to black. Asian, Indian (take your pick), or white are all good.

[Kelmon]

There are plenty of countries where wearing blackface is simply not offensive at all, or - as the host of the party correctly states - not any more so than dressing in any manner of (faux-)cultural way. And i guess the same goes for a KKK costume in countries where there is no KKK, and they're basically known as "US-weirdos in ghost costume"

Coming from one of those countries, i don't see anything wrong with these pictures. Wearing blackface is a reasonably common to go along an "african" costum during carnival (There you go), it's done in theater if no black actor is available and the piece needs a black character, it's done by comedians on occasion, and one of our minor religious festivals has kids dressing up as the three Magi, one of them usually painted black.

I find it rather sad that the girl in question is under massive attack for nothing more than one culture (in this case mostly the US) trying to judge her by their own standards and taboos. Every culture has different things it considers offensive, wrong or taboo. Imagine being judged by certain middle eastern countries for your eating, drinking or sexual habits...you'd probably say: That's not your business, it's *my* culture, thank you very much.

[Hyena Dandy]

I read a very interesting sort of idea on cultural appropriation. It's fine if you want to have that outfit, but you should make an effort to do it without insulting. One thing mentioned was not to put anything that is 'Sacred*' in the costume. Also, trying not to dress up as one thing call it another.

(*Sacred not in a religious sense, but in a "This means something important that isn't you" sense. It's like having a marine costume with fake medals vs. replicating the Medal of Honor. The MoH is 'Sacred' in our culture.)

[Kelmon]

I read a very interesting sort of idea on cultural appropriation. It's fine if you want to have that outfit, but you should make an effort to do it without insulting. One thing mentioned was not to put anything that is 'Sacred*' in the costume.

This.

Or, rather, intent should matter most, in my opinion. Does anyone really believe the girl in question set out to mock black people (or africans/Africa) when setting the theme for the party? I hardly think that she hates black people if it is her goal to get a teaching job somewhere in Africa.

[ebonyknight]

Honestly....

The only ones I have a problem with are the ones dressed up in leopard skins. "africans" don't wear leopard skins like Tarzan. That's offensive. The ones that are actually trying to look like africans, I really don't have a problem with. Even the ones in blackface.

I do find it interesting that she chose not to post her minority friend that came in "white face". Wonder what that is about.

[ebonyknight]

This.

Or, rather, intent should matter most, in my opinion. Does anyone really believe the girl in question set out to mock black people (or africans/Africa) when setting the theme for the party? I hardly think that she hates black people if it is her goal to get a teaching job somewhere in Africa.

That sounds like, "Well, I have a black friend". But I will reserve judgement.

[Andara Bledin]

I do find it interesting that she chose not to post her minority friend that came in "white face". Wonder what that is about.

Did she choose not to post a picture of him, or was there not a good picture of him?

You can actually spot him in the back of the first pic. He's very obvious because he's very pale white and not actually white person colored.

As for the leopard skins, they probably were just working with what they could manage to get together from whatever costume shops were around.