Any Day Now

Although I should love Halloween– and indeed, it is just about the best non-Holiday there is– it is a constant reminder of unrealized potential.  I tend to be a little ambitious in my ideas and costumes are no exception.  The only problem is that this is an area of my creative universe that I can’t seem to get myself to put a lot of effort into.  I mean everything I wanna do takes so much darn time!

Still, I won’t reveal to you my ideas because one day I’ll get them done.  I think.

Speaking of costumes, what do ya’ll think of this story about America’s Next Top Model?  Tyra Banks apparently thought it would be great to celebrate Hapas– biracial folks that I affectionately refer to as Halflings.  So of course the logical thing to do was make up the girls to appear half-African and stick them in a field.  XD

I’m not sure about the blackface part but I actually like most of these photographs.  Is this not racist because it’s tasteful?  Was Charlie Chan racist?  Were Marlon and Sean Wayans racist for appearing in whiteface and chickface in the movie White Chicks?

I’m not sure, but I feel like blackface stories have been cropping up more and more lately, and even though everytime they do there’s a mini-controversy, the frequency of its appearance must mean that it’s really not that bad anymore, especially when the term blackface now applies to what would more appropriately be called “brownface” rather than the classically racist pure black, white lipped minstrel look of the 19th century.

Of course whenever you say something there has to be a contradictory instance appearing right about now.  Oh look, there it is!  Australians on the featured TV show appeared in classic blackface as the Jackson 5.  Is this racist?  It’s a step closer, in my opinion, if this was actually a good performance then maybe I could think differently, but as Harry Connick Jr put it, we’ve spent so much time trying to “not make black people look like buffoons” and this performance is pretty much all buffoonery.

But here’s something else that bothers me about the Australian story.  While the commenter at the end of the video I linked is in definite agreement with Connick Jr, I can’t help feeling like Connick played the asshole American telling “foreigners” how to do things.  The irony here is that Connick Jr himself has been a part of a blackface act on Fox’s Mad TV.  Furthermore, the featured YouTube commenter spends a decent amount of time talking about “those clueless Australians” as he breathlessly stands up for racial harmony.

Laugh.  Out.  Loud.

Anyway, just had to get that out there.  It’s Halloween.  Go have fun!

This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 4:13 am and is filed under Blog, Chapter 4, Comics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.