Wednesday, October 23, 2013



Australian woman falls foul of America's race neurosis

For context, The High Court of Australia ruled a few years ago that the word "n*gger" is not offensive in Australia

Pix at source.  The costumes were obviously donned by people with only vague knowledge of Africa.  There were Red Indians, tongue-poking Maoris and the KKK portrayed  -- as well as simple blackface

The whole thing was obviously just naive fun with no knowledge of American hypersensitivity


AN AUSTRALIAN woman has been forced to defend herself amid accusations of racism by international websites.

The woman, named Olivia, threw a 21st birthday party with an African theme, in which guests were asked to wear costumes in line with the world's second largest continent and, as with most post-party photos, uploaded the shots to her Facebook page.

In the pics, some attendees have painted their faces black which have some up in arms.

The photos surfaced soon after on Tumblr user BlackinAsia's account and American websites were quick to pick up.

"This is what resulted … blackface, elephant and gorilla costumes, warpaint, Native American headdresses (?!) and more …. I'm at a loss for words," wrote BlackinAsia.  "And yes, this is from 2013.

"The girl posted the pictures proudly and flatly refused to take them down when confronted by another individual about how they were racist apparently. Pictures were reported to Facebook weeks ago and they still have not been taken down. Wow.

"In case you ever wanted to know how white folks saw us black Africans … here you go."

Buzzfeed have since deemed the party pics "incredibly offensive." Meanwhile, Jezebel, whose story runs with the headline, "Racist 21st Birthday Party Gleefully Documented on Facebook" describes the pictures as "ignorance, insensitivity and racism ahoy!"

In a response on Tumblr, which she has now deleted, Olivia defended herself, writing, "It was my 'African themed' party and it was honestly made that theme because I have always wanted to go to Africa (to teach English) but haven't made it there yet. In no way was this party intended to hurt anyone's feelings or upset anyone at all.

"However, some guest (sic) did decide to paint themselves, although this was in no way my intention or encouraged in the slightest. I understand that this has offended some people and I have no idea how these photos have even been seen, they were simply put on Facebook for my guests to see the photos of themselves.

"I am 100% sure that parties would be held that would be 'Australian themed' or American themed or even countries of the world, and in that instance I don't believe anyone would be offended. People wear Oktoberfest costumes to parties and no one cracks it that they are not German? So what I am saying is I do understand the people who have painted themselves have offended people, although none of them intended that …. but how can people be annoyed that the majority of the people at the party were celebrating another countries culture."

She continues to describe a Mauritian friend who painted himself white for the party, but interestingly those photos did not make the cut in BlackinAsia's post.

She maintains she never received a request to take the images offline.  "To be honest I am not a racist person at all so I didn't think anyone could possibly take it that way."

SOURCE

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its all 1984 and newspeak. They cant suppress free speech so they are slowly taking away words and actions by calling them racist. Its a long slow spiral into the pit of conformity where no one will be allowed to say or do anything that isn't approved by the ruling party.

Anonymous said...

One is now forced to see the whole world through the PC eyes of everyone around the whole world, or be condemned by said global population as a "racist" etc.

Dean said...

" . . . I have no idea how these photos have even been seen, they were simply put on Facebook for my guests to see the photos of themselves."

The level of ignorance about how Facebook works is staggering. Not just Olivia, but the vast majority of users, despite all evidence to the contrary, still believe what they post to their friends goes no further than those friends.

Post a picture of a person in blackface in Australia and within hours, days at the most, some race activist in the U.S. will have it on their page.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to the looney left the word racists has almost lost all meaning.

Anonymous said...

Here is a site with a partial list of all the words that the left can consider code words for racism.

http://www.webster-dictionary.net/

Anonymous said...

Tell Olivia that the word (racism) is no longer relevant, seeing how it's been completely worn out, abused, and over-used to the point where now, it has no meaning except to identify the user as a racist.

Stan B said...

Racism requires intent. She cannot be both "ignorant" and "racist." Pick one, folks!

Racism also requires some sort of discriminatory behavior - and making oneself up as a member of another racial group is not "de-facto" discriminatory in the least. Again, intent is required.

As for the "American Indian" headdresses (or other regalia), at best that demonstrates "ignorance" and at worst "confusion" over the differences between traditional African Tribal Garb and American Tribal Garb.

Anonymous said...

The word (nigger) is not offensive in the US either. Only when there's a chance at a huge settlement ($$$) does someones "sensitivities" get aroused. If the word were truly offensive, blacks wouldn't use it every 3rd word.