Racism...Forever?

And to follow on 'nutter's post... how did he not get this out there and apologize months ago when the Virginia's fracas broke? It's not like he's a political novice: he's the son of a prime minister, and his mother worked on TV, so it's a bit of a surprise he didn't get out in front of this.

 

I guess he was hopeful that nobody would find out.

The race is thigh over there.



https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/elections/poll-tracker/canada/


But seats projections look good.

 

That was totally dumb indeed. He should have put it out there and apologize. Having said that, I am pragmatic and like with Northam in Va, I would rather have Trudeau in power in Canada than a Harper's clone or anyone from the conservative party. He has been a staunch ally of minorities and a progressive on a number of issues and I am willing to give him a pass.

 

He admitted that when he plays dress up that he likes to go full boat on a character (he apparently also did blackface in high school for a talent show for singing the Jamaican Banana Boat Song), but, since becoming PM, he's grown. It's refreshing that he owned it, and admitted he shouldn't have done it, but he really should've known better because he was, y'know, 29 years old at the time.

 

While I'm wary of the idea of "cultural appropriation," the blackface issue is a pretty good reminder. But on the other hand, I came across this article today entitled "The Cultural Appropriation America Needs,"

https://unherd.com/2019/09/why-america-needs-cultural-appropriation/

Reading them, it’s clear that the US would gain culturally if these myths were as much a part of our tradition as European legends. They open up a realm of imagination that can be matched in Beowulf or the Edda, but with characteristics of a natural environment that is uniquely North American. The characters and stories are infused with this landscape, and much of the magic is derived from the connection that Native American nations felt to place.​

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That was basically the premise of a literary movement called "Ethnopoetics" in the 60s and 70s.

Britain has its grand tales of King Arthur and his Round Table, Ireland its “little people” and soul-snatching sluagh, while Scandinavia has more trolls than Twitter. In fact, most European nations have origin stories rife with magic, myth and creativity.

But the origin stories and legendary feats associated with the USA are cut off at the knees. We usually start with the pilgrims, and barely consider anything that came before. These tales – and those of our Founding Fathers – encourage us to worship hard work, initiative and enterprise. And so we celebrate Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier; George Washington, who could not tell a lie; and little Laura of the Little House stories, who’s full of moxie that sees her through any frozen prairie winter. There’s no hint of the supernatural in these stories.

It wasn’t always this way. The rich and varied stories of Native Americans are full of magic and mysticism – and insight into the human condition. In the 19th century, some Americans of European descent were anxious that these fables, myths and legends wouldn’t get lost. Anthropologists set out to record them – the last remnants of an oral tradition that had been destroyed by our push for westward expansion.
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Oh, speaking of Native Americans, has anybody asked them about this?

That Native Americans of New England might be reluctant to share these stories with the public at large is understandable. The United States public and government have not been even close to fair to the nations, their people, or their culture. It makes sense to want to keep control over their stories – to make sure they are brought into the broader cultural light in a respectful and dignified way.​

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Interesting, and I just realized I'm not ready to teach my 1:00 class, so...

 

Hey!

I'm a Mayflower descendant, John and Priscilla even, and he doesn't look anything like me. Looks more sorta Balkan to me...

 

I don't want to make excuses for the guy. It was dumb/insensitive at best. My only question is, "How dumb/insensitive?" A person in the 80s doing this in the US? Really, really dumb. It should be obvious to anyone why this is wrong, but in the US it's club you over the head obviously wrong. Career killing dumb and insensitive. At least it should be.

I don't know enough about Canadian social norms+ethnic and racial history to judge how dumb. But I will say, that if this was a French, Dutch, Australian, etc pol, I'd give them at least a bit more latitude. Because as a society they tend to be more ignorant about this type of thing.

He apologized and "owned it", which is good, but he should have been way out ahead of this.

 

My brother dressed up as Jimi Hendrix for Halloween one year when he was an adolescent 1990ish, complete with brownface. Kinda crazy that we didn't even think about it at the time.

 

I can see that not being offensive, as easily as I can see anyone dressed in 60s garb and hair with a guitar turned upside down immediately being recognized as Hendrix without the brownface. If I wanted to do Halloween as Evel Knievel, I wouldn't wear pale face cream- the jumpsuit and cane would do fine on their own.

What it boils down to is, the history of racism and racist imagery in this country is so deep and so ingrained that it's always going to be a minefield for anyone not associated with the imagery to negotiate. Price to be paid for the past and present, I guess.

 

Pics!
Edit: You can go as Evel Knievel one year


And with modifications, Elvis the next year

 

Well, I haven't actually done it. But he was too iconic for anyone over 40 or so not to recognize.

 

Note my edits: you can get a twofer...

 

I'd have to whiten up for Elvis, or I'd be mistaken for an Isley brother

 

Just don't export it.

 

I'm sure he has.

#BREAKING: A video — obtained exclusively by Global News’ @MercedesGlobal — shows a third instance of Justin Trudeau in what appears to be racist makeup.#cdnpoli #elxn43 https://t.co/IEyeLFY0xc

— Global National (@GlobalNational) September 19, 2019

 

Oh so yer saying that we whitewashed thousands of years of the NA experience in the Americas?

 

Full body paint, not just the face.

You got to give it to him, he commits.

Justin Trudeau’s blackface and brownface photos make for the worst #tbt imaginable. pic.twitter.com/RZ3wDuptN2

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) September 20, 2019

 

Too late. The US has exported a lot of particularly American forms of racism, the minstrel blackface variety included, all around the world.

The problem of course is that words and actions have meaning. You can't separate the caricature of blackface from its historic intent, and unfortunately people in other countries can't completely grasp the intent. Trudeau might be in that camp to some extent.

Harry Connick Jr was on an Australian comedy reunion program in 2009. Gotta hand it to him. He handled this about as graciously as he could while putting the issue to rest with no ambiguity on how bad this was. If you don't wanna watch the "routine", skip to his comments at 2:05 and 5:20.

 

Some of that was not exported, the locals came up with it on their own (not the video, in general).

 

While that is true, generally speaking, the practice of doing it in the US as a caricature predates its use about anywhere else in the world. The use of blackface in the US has also influenced its use in countries where it may have emerged independent of the US (like in Britain).

I don't think we need to waste our time determining if this is a 100% US export or a 75% US export with 25% British/Australian/German parts, etc.

 

https://www.al.com/news/2017/10/mis...xmVTQaeSRNvlbtHFOWxuSBgcR6qHEpAQM632X4afVOsNo

By The Associated Press
"To Kill a Mockingbird" is being removed from a junior-high reading list in a Mississippi school district.

The Sun Herald reports that Biloxi administrators pulled the novel from the 8th-grade curriculum this week. School board vice president Kenny Holloway says the district received complaints that some of the book's language "makes people uncomfortable."

Published in 1960, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee deals with racial inequality in a small Alabama town.

A message on the school's website says "To Kill A Mockingbird" teaches students that compassion and empathy don't depend upon race or education. Holloway says other books can teach the same lessons.

The book remains in Biloxi school libraries.

 

https://whnt.com/2019/09/20/school-...DA47mChAfHVxxkK7hc-sGC9JPbZAhUfRJoVMWfaf59koE

LIMESTONE COUNTY, Ala. - If you're planning on attending the East Limestone's home football game tonight, you may notice a sign on the scoreboard that is causing a bit of a stir.

Local businesses financing advertisements at local school ball fields is a time-honored tradition. Some owners put their business names and contact numbers on signs, but at East Limestone High School, the owner of Veep Electric added an extra phrase to his in honor of President Donald Trump.

"There's been nothing but nonsense, and people out there decrying his election. 'Not my president, wah wah wah,' so I thought that a show of support for the president was what was needed," said Skip Van Pamel.

 

How is this racism? The article doesn’t say what language is troubling.

I haven’t read it for like 30 years. I know there are rape references. Does the book use the N word?

 

Yes, in a key piece of courtroom dialogue...