Blackface furore in Australia
[Black footballer] Nic Naitanui has spoken out after a Perth mother’s Facebook post of her son dressed like the AFL star sparked widespread outrage.
Taking to social media, Naitanui wrote that the kid was “merely attempting to emulate his hero”, saying it “hurts my heart. Especially when that hero is me!”
The original post, made on commentator Constance Hall’s public Facebook page, shows the West Australian mother’s young son dressed as Naitanui — his favourite footy player.
The problem? She painted his skin with head-to-toe brown paint.
The post prompted widespread outrage.
Last night, Adam Briggs, an Indigenous rapper, comedian and actor, slammed the woman in a Facebook post about blackface.
He described it as an “obviously reckless, racist thing to do”, said he “thought it was a set up”, and went on to invalidate a series of common arguments that support blackface.
“She seems to have disappeared now, gone to ground, I hope she stays there for the sake of her son.
SOURCE
4 comments:
No person should admire or emulate one of another skin color. To do so is racist. At least, according to the race-baiters among us.
To black or red or yellow or white up and demean people of that color is obviously racist and should be banned.
If done to show admiration for a specific person - no problem.
If the mother did not watch much TV then I might give her apparent naivety the benefit of the doubt. But she admits she has seen the kafuffle's about black face makeup in the media. She even says she discussed it on facebook. So in painting her boy's face I suspect she was stirring the possum a bit. If so, then I don't think she shoulc have used her little boy to do it. But then, if the boy really did want to dress as his hero, then it raises the question of how can he possibly do so without being accused of racism? I think that in society's current state of collective neurosis, he can't.
Specialist? Specie-ist? Not sure what you're getting at but chimps are not a different species to us. Maybe since we're all the human race, our "racism" is actually breed-ism?
Neither Nic Nat nor Adam Briggs are 'black' in the sense it is normally used.
Nic Nat is of Fijian ancestry and Adam Briggs is Australian Aboriginal.
Yet the furore continues.
Neither of those two groups have the same history of 'blackface' issues as African Americans claim but no-one seems to care.
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