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Are Aussies Racist?
- Thread starter Luke.Walton
- Start date
Can someone please explain to me how a non-black person pretending to be a black person is racist? It seems like people think that it is racist purely because a non-black person dressed up as a black person - there were no racial slurs that I could see, no derogatory comments, nothing that I would class as racist. Is it purely the blacking up that is perceived as racist?
If a non-Jewish person pretended to be Jewish, would that be anti-semitic?
If a non-Jewish person pretended to be Jewish, would that be anti-semitic?
In the quote you had from me, I said that I did not think the skit was malicious so I was not calling Australians racist on the basis of that skit. Your country does have a history of racism, but it was not focused at my ancestors, but Aboringinal Australians who were pushed aside, and people from New Guinea who were employed in sugar plantation work in conditions approaching servitude as well as racially restrictive immigration policies. I have no desire to tell the rest of the world what to watch or make jokes about. I simply feel that we all should try to be mindful of things that are hurtful to others.
john turner
You don't want to do that. Trust me.
Oh and nobody said anything to Robert Downey Jr...
Like I said, it's a joke. Get over it.
there's a difference between stuff like that ----^ where the performer is attempting to accurately portray someone else, and the standard blackface performance, that exagerrated certain distinctive features of individuals of african descent in order to disrespect and lampoon them.
I don't think a white playing a black person is racist. There have been many fine white actors who played Othello, to give one notable example. Blackface is not really playing a black person. I have never seen a human that looked like the people who made themselves up for blackface. Blackface is all about exagerrated negative racial features and stereotypes that had their origins in disdain for black people.
john turner
You don't want to do that. Trust me.
Or a non-Mexican pretending to be a Mexican - Carlos Mencia anyone?
where do you draw the line in how finely you define ethnicity? he is of hispanic descent, is this insufficient for him to pretend to belong to a different "sub-ethnicity" than the one he does belong to?
Oh and nobody said anything to Robert Downey Jr...
Like I said, it's a joke. Get over it.
That movie comes from a very different place than the vulgar physical and social stereotypes that were the foundation of Blackface Minstrel shows.
So why is it that Dave Chapelle catches no grief for his skits (by your logic)?
Oh yeah, that's right, because it's a freakin' joke. I love Dave Chapelle and his skits and am not offended in the slightest.
Oh no he didn't!
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That was one of the dumbest movies of all time. If whites were offended by it, it would not bother me.
Oh no he didn't!
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I now have sweet tea all over my monitor. Thanks for that.
john turner
You don't want to do that. Trust me.
"by my logic"
chappelle received limited grief for his portrayals because they did not rely on exagerating longstanding derrogatory visual cliches directed at white folks to support their humor. he portrayed an individual, and used that individual's characteristics as a source for humor. see, now i thought you were asking me a question. i guess i was wrong. what was your point?
let me ask you a question. you don't see the fundamental difference between this...
and this...
?
do your realize what blackface signifies? what it was used for? usually black folks weren't allowed to perform in a lot of the places where this kind of performance would occur, so white guys would dress like them and engage in rampant charicature.
So basically, you see no hope of racial tolerance in the US, ever? If future generations cannot move forward from the past then that past will always be at present.
That is not what I said. We all have to acknowledge the past and own it to move beyond it. We don't have to wallow in it or make excuses for it. In fact wallowing in the past, and making excuses for it are the kinds of behavior that tend to perpetuate problems, IMO.
"by my logic"
Right. So taking this back to the OP, the skit was not offensive because they were portraying individuals (Jackson Five) and not just playing off of racist stereotypes.
