What do you get when you add a historically racist practice, domestic violence, and three white teens? You get idiotic, offensive behavior.
With faces painted black, three white male students reenacted a 2009 domestic violence incident involving pop singer Chris Brown and then girlfriend Rihanna during a pep rally at Waverly High in New York. The skit was in an attempt to win “Mr. Waverly,” a Waverly High tradition that awards the title to the performance that garners the most applause.
School tradition or not, this act was insensitive and incredibly racist.
History, blackface and the subject of domestic violence are no laughing matter.
Blackface is the act of applying black makeup to create a stereotypical characterization of a black person. Though the origin is unclear, some say the displaying of blackness for enjoyment began in the 1400s when the Portuguese began capturing African slaves and shipping them to Portugal.
Through the centuries, the act became widely accepted with popular minstrel shows and theatrical productions featuring white actors dressed in blackface touring the country.
The actors depicted blacks as lazy, uneducated, athletic and forever jolly, thus reinforcing commonly held stereotypes at the time. Some of these stereotypes haunt the black populous to this day.
Though the act was condemned during the Civil Rights Movement of the ‘50s and ‘60s in America, it’s still popular in foreign countries such as Germany and Mexico, where the black population makes up less than 10 percent of the total population
like Waverly.
With Halloween around the corner, it wouldn’t be a shock to come across a few blackface sightings.
“I don’t think every instance is racist, it depends on the context,” said Albert Blount, chemical engineering senior, “I would never do blackface.”
Blount added it is never OK to joke about domestic violence because of the sensitivity of the subject.
When the Waverly High students performed in blackface, they were essentially participating in racist activities of America’s past, activities we should move beyond. When they reenacted a scene of domestic violence, they mimicked a disturbing reality that exists in America today.
Domestic violence is a pattern of behavior in a relationship that is used by one partner to maintain superiority over the other. These abuses can be physical, psychological and sexual. Domestic violence affects men, women and, all too commonly, children.
Statistics on domestic violence are mindboggling. According to domesticviolencestatistics.org, every nine seconds, a woman in the U.S. is assaulted or beaten. Another statistic states nearly 10 million children witness domestic violence yearly.
I, too, witnessed the effects of domestic violence in my family. The subject is certainly not a laughing matter.
In a culturally diverse country, we sometimes overstep our boundaries when it comes to socially accepted behavior. Though almost any act can be deemed offensive, it is best to be mindful of others.
Blackface serves as a reminder of America’s racist past. Planking, the recent fad where people take pictures of themselves lying face-down can also be considered racist in the eyes of some.
Though not racist in my eyes, I do see the act as foolish.
A suggested origin of the craze is that it was a way to transport slaves during the slave trade. Slaves were forced to lay face-down on plank beds, chained and sometimes stacked on each other.
You’re walking a tight rope when attempting blackface. Adding domestic violence to that mixture is a disastrous mistake, a mistake that could have been avoided by these three teens.
