Late one night this past weekend, students walking in the University Forest Apartments area witnessed a young white man wearing “a painted black face, a dreadlock wig, baseball cap, big pink lips, and aviator sunglasses.” This example of “blackface”—when people wear black makeup in racist caricatures of African Americans—represents a painful part of our nation’s history and culture.
For more information on the history of blackface and current-day racism, click here.
Instances of blackface on college campuses seem to be on the rise, with some white students going so far as holding “ghetto fabulous” race-themed parties. And it’s not just parties. In recent months, African Americans have been terrorized by public displays of
nooses—most notably at Columbia University; Jena High School in Jena, Louisiana; the University of Maryland, College Park; and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.
As a community that values inclusion, we should reflect on the implications of these trends in general, and how these trends are playing out on our campus in particular.
Eric Lott, author of the book Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class, has said: “I think the stereotypes that emerge from the 19th century minstrel show circulate to the present day and are crucial in defining white people’s sense of who black people are, I’m sad to say.”
What do you think?
What does it mean when someone dresses in blackface?
What should we do about it?
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