The New Face

In the previous weeks I have heard so much about blackface. The big "NO-NO" when it comes to racism. Previous events featuring blackface include but are not limited to Vogue painting white supermodel Lara Stone black and then calling it art , Tyra Banks, herself, promoting blackface by making a majority white model cast into a biracial conundrum ,Harry Connick Jr. standing against blackface in an Australian game show and lastly this weekend's spooky black faced Halloween costumes. The antics seem to be on a roll this year. Which is why it is so important to comment on the implications of blackface.

Even though each incident is tied to sad history of 19th century minstrelsy, its re-immersion through these various forms, justifies it in the 21st century. I believe that many young people today might see someone in black face, know they should be offended, but not really undersand why they should be offended. I believe even young black Americans feel this way. Many people would like to believe that we completely rid ourselves of racism in 1965, with the Civil Rights Movement. However, it is clear that racism has come in inconspicuous forms, lets say Halloween costumes. Many white Americans think its funny to dress up as Lil Wayne or  Flava Flav (read just coloring your face black and giving yourself a different name). It's all done in the spirit of Halloween and is taken as a joke. However, the fact that Halloween is the time to hyper-express yourself as something you could never be in everyday life,makes it downright offensive. What it says is that people like Lil wayne or Flava Flav are not normal, heck they are not even real people. They are like zombies, vampires, and fairies. In this sense African Americans are mystical creatures, they are the "Other". In actuality dressing up in blackface doesn't bring you closer to expressing black culture it just hyper-extends the cultural, class, and racial separation. This type of black face makes racism even worse because it proves that white americans are the only ones that can drop that mask of being "black" or "other" on the dawn of  November 1st.

Let's turn to the world of fashion, High Art in other words. The funny thing about this avenue of expressing black face is that it make being black/or any other ethnicity a trend. You're either in or you're out at Heidi would say. Nevermind the fact that these racialization is connected to a group of people. This shows the nature in which the "Others" are disposable, which actual links this form of black face closer to white privilege than to "ethnic ambiguity". It is funny to note that the only individuals free to move between races are white individuals. Also, photography directors want models to embody the attitude of the subject they are supposed to be. How do you act black? Do you rely on stereotypes? Do you study that culture? What would seem difficult on ANTM is that these models were to embody biracial individuals such as Tibetan/Egyptian, Greek/Mexican, and Moroccan/Russian to name a few. Now I look at these combinations and I'm like "how do you do this, how can this make sense ?" That is just at a glance, however the real problem is that each model is suppose to pinpoint the individual's cultural expression without knowing the individual. Each person of Tibetan/Egyptian mix will not have the same cultural experience and if they did it would not be expressed in the same manner. They are suppose to come up with characteristics of a racial mix without knowing anything about that individuals that make of that ethnicity, and then they must embody these characteristics. Does that sound familiar? Maybe it's a demonstration of how stereotypes were started a long time ago. I'm sorry I wouldn't have given so much responsibility to 18 year old girls, who have no real idea on how to strike a pose.

I close this blog with saying that black face is harmful, the ramification of that act are more harmful than taken at face value. Many people don't see the harm in it, black, white, Hispanic and Asian. I think its time for all of us to delve into our history books.

Note: Black face is not exclusive to darkening ones self to resemble African/African American person, it includes dressing up as a Asian person (read geisha, old Chinese man, king fu character) ,Hispanic person (read Chiquita banana, illegal alien, etc) and those of east Asian decent (Arabian man or woman, sheikh etc) just for the heck of it.