Friday, October 09, 2009



Blackface row over Australian TV show



Must not use black faces to portray Michael Jackson's backing singers apparently. I kinda thought they WERE black. Shows how much I know!
"An embarrassing row has erupted during the second Hey Hey Its Saturday reunion special, after a a Red Faces skit featuring singers in blackface performing a Michael Jackson tribute.

American singer Harry Connick Jr, who was appearing on the segment as a guest judge, led a chorus of criticism over the Jackson Jive skit, prompting an apology from red-faced host Daryl Somers, the Herald Sun reports.

The singer gave the troupe a score of zero and said the act would not have gone down well in the US. He said he needed to "speak up as an American" to say the skit was in bad taste.

But the man who dressed as Jackson in the segment, which was an encore of the skit first performed on Red Faces 20 years ago, said the group had checked with the show's producers on whether it should go ahead. Dr Anand Deva said the act was meant to be a tribute to Michael Jackson and if Hey Hey staff had expressed concern, it would have been axed. "It certainly was not meant to be racist in any way at all," Dr Deva said. "I think he (Connick Jr) is taking it the wrong way."

Dr Deva, whose face was painted white in the skit to portray Jackson, said he and his friends came from ethnic backgrounds and were all too aware of racism. "Two of us come from India and one of us comes from Lebanon so we can't afford to be racist to be honest," he said. "If we did offend him (Connick Jr) we truly didn't mean to."

Source (See also the video there)

Conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG is not much impressed by the role of Harry Connick Jr, in the matter.

Update

The skit has made it big on American TV news and other media. Americans find it hard to accept that their neurosis about race is not universally shared. Even Australia's Leftist Deputy Prime Minister has defended the skit as being innocuous and most Australians have said likewise in online polls.


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder if Mr. Connick's very liberal sensitivities were also upset with Jackson for trying to portray himself White. Besides, if Mr. Connick wasn't such a nitwit, he'd be far more upset with an event honoring a child-molesting freak.

Anonymous said...

Harry Connick is not all that. Michael Jackson before he died was not a black man for 30 years. Connick needs to keep his stupid ass opinions to himself and just sing.

Bobby said...

"I wonder if Mr. Connick's very liberal sensitivities were also upset with Jackson for trying to portray himself White"

---Worse than that, Michael used a white surrogate woman with blond hair and blue eyes to have kids with. In fact, rumors are he didn't even use his own sperm for the conception of two of his kids.
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b132021_whos_really_father_of_michael_jacksons.html

Personally, I think Michael Jackson was a closet racist, I can respect teh skin disorder he had since I've read about other blacks going through the same thing. But using a white woman to breed is unacceptable unless we're talking about love.

Toejam said...

"Americans find it hard to accept that their neurosis about race is not universally shared."

You think the Americans are bad?
The Yanks are pussy cats compared to the Micks when it comes to defending the down-trodden, especially those from the Dark continent.

Try putting on that skit in Ireland and the sanctimonious holier-than-thou Leprechauns would beat you to death with their rosary beads.

Anonymous said...

Harry Connick Jnr was not offended own his own behalf, not offended even for African Americans - BUT FOR THE ENTIRE USA!
Why?
There is a saying:
'He who takes offense when offense is intended is a fool, and he who takes offense when no offense is intended is an even bigger fool.'
No offense was meant here. Why all the fuss?

swassociates said...

The same entertainment tards that are offended by this are likely defending Polanski since he didn't really anally "Rape" that drugged and drunk 13 year old girl.

Anon 2:32 said...

Bobby, first of all, MJ didn't have a "skin disorder". He became White "voluntarily" after many years of medical treatments designed for that purpose. The people you refer to, who have that disorder, always have blotchy skin. He did not.

Also, MJ never had sex with a female. He bought and paid for those kids, like many Commiewood freaks do today. The women he was with are all very wealthy now for keeping the myth going.

David W. Hunter said...

Anon 3:16,
What evidence do you have for this? No citing the National Enquirer or Entertainment online.

If you look at his kids, my personal opinion is they share features with their father. They look like him (or at least how he would look without all the plastic surgery).

There are so many people who just "know" what Michael Jackson did or didn't do. However, the fact that the parents of these "victims" were known scam artists and that Jackson was acquitted of all charges is nicely swept under the rug. So much for due process...

Yes, he was a weirdo, but there's no law against that.

Back to the original topic, we as a country are neurotic when it comes to race. Mr. Connick needs to relax a bit and take the skit for what it was, nothing more than a bit of fun.

Bobby said...

"Bobby, first of all, MJ didn't have a "skin disorder". He became White "voluntarily" after many years of medical treatments designed for that purpose. The people you refer to, who have that disorder, always have blotchy skin. He did not."

----What I read is that he used bleaching to get rid of those spots. There are also cases of blacks that lose their entire black pigmentation and look completely white. It's quite tragic actually, since they always stand out in the ghetto even though they where born white.

"However, the fact that the parents of these "victims" were known scam artists and that Jackson was acquitted of all charges is nicely swept under the rug. So much for due process..."

---I don't deny that, HOWEVER, Michael did say he likes to sleep with boys in the same bed, while that doesn't make him a pedophile it certainly makes him weird. Besides, pedophiles are famous for having houses full of toys, video games, etc. In other words, even if Michael was innocent he didn't do himself any favors.

David W. Hunter said...

Yep, in a lot of ways I think MJ was his own worst enemy.

Robert said...

I noticed in the video when the show host was apologizing to Harry, Harry mentioned American sensitivity to non-black actors making themselves black and acting like buffoons, thereby depicting blacks as buffoons. I wonder, if the actors had been able to do a VERY GOOD impression of the Jackson Five, if there would have been the uproar, or if Harry would have even applauded a good imitation.

Putting the pieces together, I think it would be fair to say that when black entertainers can do comedy equal-opportunity buffoonery without condemnation, we will know then that they have arrived with all the self-confidence of achievers in our society.