What is Blackface Really?

by with No Comment Gen Z

Lately, there have been a number of incidents where well-known public figures, celebrities, and even name brands have been accused of blackface.

The well-known brand Gucci was recently criticised for creating a black sweater that featured a turtleneck with a cut-out for the lip-area, which was surrounded by a bright red color.

Gucci isn’t the first designer brand to be accused of supporting blackface. In December 2018, the Italian designer brand Prada, popular for its handbags and shoes, removed statues with brown-skin, big bright red lips, and a monkey-like appearance in a New York store window that was accused of resembling blackface. There was also an entire line of products resembling the same figures titled “Pradamalia”, all of which are no longer being sold. According to a CNN article titled, Prada pulls products after accusations of blackface imagery, Prada stated the images are “imaginary creatures not intended to have any reference to the real world and certainly not blackface.”

Pop star Katy Perry also received backlash for creating shoes designed with blue eyes and bright red lips, which happen to come in black.

Several other celebrities have been called out in the past. In 2016, actor and dancer Julianne Hough dressed as Crazy Eyes from the popular Netflix show “Orange is the New Black,” a black character which Hough wore darker toned makeup to look like her. She has since apologized on her Twitter account.

Unfortunately, even politicians have been apart of this controversy. In early February, Virginia governor Ralph Northam was discovered to have a photo of 2 men, one dressed as a Klu Klux Klan member and another in blackface on his personal page in his medical school yearbook. “I believe then and now, that I am not either of the people in that photo,” Northam stated in a press conference.

He did, however, admit to wearing blackface before. ”I darkened my face in part of a Michael Jackson costume,” he stated. Northam has apologized and stated that he is focusing more on racial issues and educating himself. “His advisers have assigned the governor homework: He’s begun to read Alex Haley’s ‘Roots,’ and ‘The Case for Reparations,’ the seminal essay in The Atlantic by Ta-Nehisi Coates,” according to the Buzzfeed article “Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam Plans To Survive By Changing His Agenda To Focus On Race.”

Incidents such as these highlights the importance of being informed. It is imperative that people of all races and nationalities understand the history behind the word, and why it is so offensive.

What is the meaning of blackface? Blackface originates from the early 1800’s, a time where slavery was still legal. White Americans would place shoe polish on their skin to resemble African-Americans and perform plays meant to be comical called minstrels that help spread many of the negative stereotypes still associated with Black Americans today. African-American actors often times were forced to participate in these awful events and behave in the same ways that blackface actors portrayed them as.

Participating in blackface equates to continuing a time in American history where African-Americans faced social and political oppression. It is denying Blacks the respect that was fought so vigorously for through riots, protests, and bloodshed, which is why many are quick to call anything out that so much as resembles the horrible images created by this.

Similar Read: Press Play & Focus on the Future

Press Play & Focus on the Future

by with 2 Comments CultureGen Z

I learned about the history of blackface in my music history class back in my junior year of college. It focused on popular music and blackface was a prominent form of entertainment dating back to the 1830s. In the late 1850s there was a surge of Irish immigrants due to the famine that overtook Ireland. The crops failed, leaving death to claim the Irish by means of hunger and/or disease. 

At this time, they weren’t considered White. According to author and historian Christopher Klein’s article published on History, they were even considered lower than Blacks for not being Protestants. American Protestants were afraid that the Pope was sending his army to take over America. This fear stemmed from when America’s forefathers fled Britain for religious freedom (Klein). While they lived in the same slums as Blacks, they were still not accepted as White. 

In an interview with author John Strausbaugh published on Vox, Strausbaugh states that blackface was taken up by Irish immigrants in order to set them apart from Blacks. At the end of the day, they were still just as fair skin as Whites. At the end of each performance, they would wipe the black off their faces, to say that well, at least we weren’t actually Black. Through the popularity of these performances, they gained White status (Strausbaugh). 

Blackface, I thought, no longer held a place in society. I thought we made progress. However, our black skin is still worn by white sheep who want to be the big bad wolf. With Gucci’s sweater that has an extended turtleneck which covers the face but has a large mouth printed around the hole in the neck, how were we not supposed to understand that as a new form of blackface? 

It would have been a completely different story if the turtleneck was simply longer than normal because in my opinion, the extended neck isn’t blackface. It just functions as a scarf and ski mask without all the extra material and allows for warmth without the bulk. But I and others like me cannot just look past the glaringly obvious. Apologies are not enough when discrimination, bias, and ignorance are stigmatizing our black skin. More has to be done. Reformation needs to start now. 

Daniel Day, affectionately known as Dapper Dan, is an African-American fashion designer who continues to work in collaboration with Gucci after this incident. It is a bold move that I believe others are not willing to take. Day is thinking about the future of Black fashion designers. 

The fashion industry is notorious for being racially exclusive. Take a look at advertisements in magazines and on television. Take a look at the runways. While the magazines might feature designers and models of color, the runways have always contrasted it with the whitewash. As Day has said in several interviews, he went through a lot to understand the industry/business and to keep his brand growing. These large brands are the stepping stones for Black designers to use to catapult their careers. 

By boycotting Gucci, that is a “now” solution. This will only resolve people’s gripes now but what about later? If we continue to boycott every incident individually, nothing will ever get done. Think of it as constantly pausing a movie every two minutes. It makes the movie much longer than it is, the plot gets disjointed by the constant stop and start, and the end gets pushed farther and farther away. By trying to handle each incident in real time, we are stopping and starting, pushing off the reformation that we seek. Reform will not happen if we keep getting in our own way. 

To make change, we have to be the change. We need to take a stand for the future and not everything that happens in the present. This is not to say that Gucci should be given a free pass, but as Day said in an interview with The Huffington Post, “this is an opportunity to learn.” This incident with Gucci is another moment that you could call a pause. There have been several pauses before this one and can be several pauses after this, but why not make this incident the last pause? In this pause, we can initiate the process of change and let it develop over time like a plot in a movie? Otherwise, we will always be dissatisfied with how things are and always call for change. 

Clothes Don’t Fit

by with One Comment CultureDiversity & InclusionFeatured

I previously wrote an article about the blackface incidents circulating the news. Gucci, the luxury fashion brand; however, deserves additional dialogue for their attempt to sell a blackface sweater.

Let’s be clear, all acts of blackface are egregious and the usual cockamamie excuses for them are equaling as insulting, but the Gucci incident is more costly than the overpriced sweater they tried to sell. 

Simply put, Gucci and most luxury brands, whether it be alcohol, cars, watches, or apparel, have largely become household names due to one group of people… hip hop artists. 

You and I both will never check the time on our Rolex watch flooded with diamonds while jumping into a Maybach in Prada flip flops… spoiler alert… neither will most rappers. Those braggadocious lyrics may not mean much; however, their effect has left an imprint on an entire culture. 

That culture being people fixated on luxurious brands… brands that have put forth little to no effort or appreciation for some of the people buying their products. By people, I mean Black people. 

From Prada to Gucci you rarely find Black models in their ads. They host virtually no community engagements or services at all. Their company is composed primarily of well to do White people and their stores rarely have Black employees. 

I get why the lopsided relationship exists between luxury brands and Black people.

Spoiler alert, they don’t want us buying and promoting their brands!

Remember when Tommy Hilfiger said, “I wish the rappers didn’t wear my stuff?” He received major backlash and immediately Black people stopped wearing Tommy Hilfiger. Tommy Hilfiger was actually saying what most designers were thinking. 

So why do Black folks in particular still buy brands that make every effort to show they have no interest in them or even their dollars???

Well… 

The American economy is a consumer based economy, and the supporting culture is materialism. Black people in this nation have been ostracized from housing loans to draconian drug laws. And if there’s one aspect of American culture where Black people feel like they can briefly escape these oppressions, it’s through fashion, buying the most expensive items… flossing as they say, or at least it seems. 

Whether it’s a new Benz, a very expensive handbag, or the latest designer shoes, such products immediately grant American consumers the attention and praise they crave, for whatever reason… regardless of their race.

Lastly, many luxury fashion brands have no interest in the inclusion of Black people, which is evident by their repeated blunders and cultural mishaps. Yet, many Black people continue to spend their hard earned money on these brands. It’s like the clothes don’t fit, but we continue to try them on in hopes of breaking them in one day.  

Similar Read: Stop Giving Out Black Hall Passes

Stop Giving Out Black Hall Passes

by with One Comment CultureDiversity & InclusionFeatured

Remember hall passes? I’m probably dating myself, but a hall pass was something needed in grade school to roam the halls during class time. I’m sure today there’s a hall pass tablet or something, but in the ancient days of the 1990s, we had handwritten hall passes which gave proof to any authoritative figure walking around to see we had a legitimate reason to be in the hallway.

A hall pass or a “pass” seems to always be given by Black people to those who have done blatant wrong against them or their people. On the latest episode of Oh That’s Racist, a few incidents have transpired, and as quickly as they became news people were defending the actions of the accused racists.

Stop! Please for the sake of decency and respect, stop defending wrong.

Liam Neeson

The English actor recently confessed that he wanted to seek revenge against ANY Black man after learning that a female friend of his was sexually assaulted. For the simpleton Hollywood crowd and fans of the “Taken” movie series stop defending him! 

His mentality lines up with the same psyche that escapes every other group of people in the world… except White men. And that psyche is to classify an entire group of people based on the acts of one. White men have done everything from running Ponzi schemes to the creation of domestic organizations that have burned homes, churches, and killed thousands of people including children… yet no one attributes that behavior as a cause to kill any White man. White men are judged as individuals, if at all. Never as an entire group of people. So no pass on this. 

Blackface

For the elected officials caught with pictures of themselves in blackface, there’s no such thing as “youthful” mistakes regarding your actions. A youthful mistake is signing up for an 8 AM class during your first semester at college. There’s nothing youthful about blackface. Nothing. There was never a time when blackface was an “innocuous” thing to have fun with. When these elected officials were younger they knew better and didn’t care. Why? See the previous paragraph. No pass again. 

Gucci Blackface

The blackface sweater Gucci attempted to promote and sell is a learning lesson for Black people who overvalue so-called “designer fashion.” First, the fact that an idea of a blackface sweater went from idea to drawing board to presentation to approval to production to promotion to the public, shows at no point in time did anyone with power within Gucci understand the historical context of blackface as highly problematic. That’s VERY telling. Secondly, yet another “designer fashion” brand has little to no respect for Black consumers, nor use for their cultural perspective, only their dollars. I hope this example encourages some Black people to stop placing such high values on material items and brands produced by companies and corporations that literally place no value on them as consumers. 

Class dismissed!