White trick-or-treaters in blackface: C/D?

-- Alfred Soto (sotoal...) (webmail), Today 10:18 AM. (Alfred Soto) (later) (link)

Explain to me how this is a bad analogy.

xpost There is at least one religion where it's sacrilegious to write the name of God fully. It might not be offensive to you, but it is to them.

Just unfunny like just about everything else on that show.

To be honest I think my annoyance has a lot to do with method. If someone's supposed to be a specific black person, and they've done a decent/realistic job with the makeup, that's not so bothersome. When people do their faces in all-around jet black apart from the lips, they look like minstrels and piss me off. When people just smear shoe polish around their faces like that's really, really hilarious, that pisses me off even more.

NB I sometimes think people who get offended by Apu are dipping into the backward-racist category: Apu doesn't really have any negative stereotypes associated with him! I mean, cooking him up for the purpose of running the convenience store is a little obvious, but beyond that they've made him pretty much the most dignified character on the show -- cf when his religion gets classified as "other" and he says "I am Hindu, there are nearly a billion of us."

the kid is obviously reacting to and absorbing the media he is growing up around. there are probably basketball player posters all over his room. maybe he is trying to inhabit that space, to bridge the gap between his white suburban existence and his black sports heroes.

This is completely, totally and absolutely OTM.

That's what the kids looked like last night. Good-natured Ben Wallace appreciation by kids who don't know any better, yes, but also troubling negligence/ignorance on the part of the parents.

that and his parents dropped $100 on a ben wallace jersey.

It's too easy to picture an SNL writers' meeting where all the funny scripts have been read and everyone's in a good mood, and then Hammond stands up to say, "Hey, what if Donald Trump made a guest appearance on a soap opera?", chilling down the entire room.

You know Andy, you could have avoided all of the fighting and nonsense on this thread by SAYING THAT at the beginning!

This whole debate could have been avoided if only the kid had carved a Ben Wallace pumpkin instead of wearing the costume.

dressing as hitler = bad
dressing in a KKK hood = bad
dressing in minstrel blackface = bad

White kid dressing in dark makeup as a specific popular black basketball player on Halloween = who gives a shit? It's Halloween, and it's not a stereotype! I don't see any connection between a halloween tradition of dressing up, and the stereotyped minstrel culture that had it's heyday in what, the 40's, and hasn't been popular or acceptable for generations.

I want to hear what you think about this one. I dressed as a mexican bandito for halloween. I did that because I just happened to have an inflatable cactus and an authentic vintage mexican sombrero laying around (that was in my grandma's basement.) I wore a rug for a poncho, a gun and a fake mustache too. I wasn't able to acquire a bullet bandolier. So I bought 10 cans of refried beans, cut off the labels and turned them into a bandolier.

Umm, he did make a guest appearance on a soap opera. Just, you know, sayin'...

Everything is offensive to somebody. Full stop.

In fact, my incomplete sentence above just offended the National Grammar Society... Oh! The horror!

I mean Jesus Fucking Christ, what is this world coming to. Oh, wait... I mean golly gosh, no, wait, I mean...

What happens next year if I go out trick-or-treating as Watermelon Hitler? I'll tell you what would happen: I'd be trapped in my Watermelon Bunker while my neighbors try to kick my ass.

"A passion of Christs"

One can yell "Chaplin! Chaplin!" when the mob sets upon you.

I mean, it's weird. I'm half Goan. 99% of the time I *hate* seeing white people doing comedy Indian accents. I'm not offended by Apu from the Simpsons - everyone in the Simpsons is a caricature and he's a more positive one than most of the others. Likewise, I'm not offended by Ben Kingsley in Gandhi - another tricky one, he's of Indian descent, he still LOOKS white most of the time, he's still blacked up in the role. They could have got a 'proper' Indian actor to play him. Where do you draw that line?

(Or words to that effect...)

I mean, who the fuck is anyone to dictate what other people can or cannot be offended by? It's a matter of common courtesy not to cross that line unless you have a very good reason (ie a serious political point to make). And "it's just a bit of fun" is not one of them.