Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Another example of how one doesn't have to paint themselves black to dress up as a black celebrity. Plenty of people dress up as Michael Jackson with similar garb. No matter their ethnicity, people know they are dressed as Michael Jackson.
What I find odd about this whole thing is the fact that plenty of non-white people dress up as white celebrities, especially Elvis or superheroes, one rarely sees a black Elvis in white face or a black superman with white face.
When you put on a costume of a well known celebrity or pop icon, people know who you are no matter the ethnicity.
FWIW, I always remember my favorite superman I ever saw was in Atlanta a couple years ago for the Dragon-Con convention. He was Asian and was very good looking as Superman. Dragon-Con is a cool event in Atlanta and everyone is dressed up. I have never seen anyone there in black face to dress up as the Green Lantern or any other black iconic figure or celebrity.
I understand what you are saying. Believe me, I do.
But I wonder if painting faces black in order to be a more realistic Michael Jordon is somewhat acceptable. ( I personally think it is acceptable)
years ago, my friend (he is white) dressed like Denzel Washington on Halloween. Don't ask me how a white person can have the facial structure very similar to Denzel, but he did. In order to be more realistic, he painted his face a little darker, and everybody thought he looked exactly like Denzel washington, that is the "wow, this is great" moment for a lot of people.
Like I said, I don't disagree with you because like another poster pointed out, no one gets to tell another person when and how he or she should be offended. Perception is reality. But I think Halloween is one of the those days people just want to have some fun or even show off their make up abilities.
I think if one wants to be a specific celebrity from another race, painting their faces a different color or alter their facial features in order to be more realistic is acceptable. It is just my own humble opinion.
Back in the 90s I went to a Halloween party dressed as Andy Warhol. I dyed my hair grey and put tons of gunk in it to make it look spiked like his wigs. Procured fake glasses and dressed all in black. Received many compliments except by one guy who said I looked like Phil Donahue.
Now granted, if you're dressing up in blackface with the intention to be offensive, that's different. But, lets say you're white and you want to be Stevie Wonder or Michael Jordan for Halloween, Are you not allowed to darken your skin?
How is that offensive.
Seriously, some people need to quit making it their life's work to search out ways to be offended.
Lol, so.etching occurred to me about this. People drew as other "races" on Halloween as a matter of course. Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, and all manner of things. Oh...I know that's not the point, but come on...its Halloween. Its mainly for the wee ones, but many adults enjoy costuming , as well. As long as a costume is tastefully and respectfully done, I see no problem with ....trans racial...expression. I guess "blackface" should be removed from the equation, in deference to its controversial nature. But costuming as , say, a character a certain celebrity , of any given skin tone, has played in a movie, seems OK...to me.
Say, someone wants to costume as a character Will Smith has portrayed.... no biggy. Or maybe a black person wants to dress like a John Wayne character. I have no issue. So long as its all in good fun.
I dont see how darkening your skin to portray a character who is of dark skin is the same as blackface.
Even if one did go as blackface its freaking Halloween. You are suppose to dress as something taboo, scary, offensive, controversial, something that you are not.
This is what I don't get-why do you have to paint your face to match the race of the person you want to be for Halloween? I remember as a little girl I was everything from Cinderella, princess jasmine, beauty from beauty and the beast and not once did my mother paint my face white or try to make my skin look more like a white person's to be the character. People still knew what character I was when I went from home to home. It's just not really necessary the majority of the time and it also doesn't look right 100 percent of the time. While I can understand painting a face green to match Frankenstein or something to that effect the black face paint looks nowhere near the actual complexion of the person they are trying to become. For instance that guy that tried to be Kanye? It looks like he smeared literal black paint on his face and said "heya buddies I'm black like Kanye" ugh no dude your not, you just look like you smeared s*** on your face. Kanye is not the complexion of black paint, matter of fact I have yet to see a person use paint in a Halloween costume that really portrays the actual complexion of the black persons skin tone. It's so simplistic and silly to use black paint as if that makes one look black or gives them the complexion of a dark aa person and really it just looks like dark paint on the face with an outfit to match. In other words nah they don't look black just silly.
I'm not sure why they need to paint their faces with dark paint that does not even look like an actual black person skin tone to take on the role of the character, instead of dressing the part and acting the part. It's just a silly "extra" that doesn't look right. I'm sorry but whites do not look black with black paint, they look silly, and obviously like they have a bad paint job on the face.
I don't get offended when I see it, I just think they look stupid and still don't look much like the character, it literally adds nothing to the costume, without the paint or with it it's obvious they don't look black. Why not just buy a Kanye mask or something and put that on? That makes more sense to me smh.
But the other thing that someone pointed out is the history of blackface and the response that people always get when wearing black face no matter the context of it-it's sort of a known thing by now that a lot of blacks get offended when you wear a blackface and yet people still do it and then get upset when they get called racist or get treated unfairly. It's sort of like the whole social media thing-you know that what you post is public and that there are repercussions but you have little snowflakes that think they are exceptions and post dumb s*** and then wonder why they no longer have jobs. People already know the backlash that is received when someone does the blackface so why do they do it and then get surprised when people get angry with them? If they don't give a f*** then that's one thing, but a lot of people seem to wear it and yet they don't want others to be offended or to confront them.
If you really want to look like the black character just buy a mask.
The media is the problem ,giving attention, promoting them wanting attention, even if it destroys some one else in the process.
The new form of bullying .
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
