Is 'blacking up' racist?

Russinating

Russinating

Russinating

Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2005
Posts
17,317
Location
Bristol
As per title, is blacking up racist for fancy dress?

Assume that you have to go as a black guy as part of a group (ie BA Baracus from the A-Team), and that without the skin colour you could be anyone (ie sticking a pair of boxing gloves on doesn't make it obvious that you're Ali and not Tyson).

I think not and I'm sure black and mixed race fancy dressers would 'white up' if it was as easy. And if I saw a black guy dressed up as a white person, 'whited up', I wouldn't take offence.

Discuss!
 
Racism is personal perception

I would not be offended that a black guy "whited" up for fancy dress but some others probably would.
 
If you call it blacking up it probably is.

If you know anyone that will take it badly, or you think might take it badly, just don't do it and dress up as someone else.
 
There are probably some people that would view it as racist.

Although I'd like to hope most would see it for what it would be as part of the costume.
 
Every thing is racist these days, apparently........

If you do it just dont start singing "I'd walk a million miles for one of you smiles" that could lead to all kinds of trouble :D
 
If it's part of a non-offensive costume (as you say, BA Barracus foo') then I don't see how anyone could get offended.

However if they're wearing a black and white suit with bright red lipstick and going "Good Golly Miss Molly!" or talking like the Crows out of Dumbo, then yeah, that's pretty racist.
 
Depends on context I guess... just dressing up as a black person isn't really racist.

However if your outfit consists of cotton and watermelons, then maybe it would be.
 
Joshct said:
If you know anyone that will take it badly, or you think might take it badly, just don't do it and dress up as someone else.
Click to expand...

It's going to be in public :p.

For the full picture, myself and 3 friends are dressing up as the Left 4 Dead crew on Thursday for a zombie tag game.

If you're not familiar with L4D then you've missed out and these are the characters:

KgdN0.jpg


I've got Louis and as you can see without the bald head and dark skin colour it's basically just me after work.
 
if you do it properly and its for fun i cant see a problem, if you black up and paint around eyes and lips white expect to be beat up..

ive seen a black woman white up, she looked Asian
 
Another question is, should we actually be defining people as black and white in the first place, I always found that prejudice in itself. Do we really need to do this, I think this should be phased out, it's as bad as whoever coined the word racism in the first place, all it does is divide people unnecessarily.
 
jsmoke said:
Another question is, should we actually be defining people as black and white in the first place, I always found that prejudice in itself. Do we really need to do this, I think this should be phased out, it's as bad as whoever coined the word racism in the first place, all it does is divide people unnecessarily.
Click to expand...

Yes but in no different a way as blonde/brunette/ginger, tall/short, fat/thin etc etc. It's a massive determining feature, especially if you're a minority.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom