http://www.local6.com/news/5395314/detail.html Stetson University Women Under Fire For Blackface Costumes Players Painted Bodies Black, Wore Fake Gold Teeth POSTED: 11:22 pm EST November 23, 2005 UPDATED: 9:14 pm EST November 24, 2005 Several women on Stetson University's softball team are under fire over blackface costume photos recently posted on the Internet, according to a Local 6 News report. Members of the Stetson team dressed up as school basketball star Grlenntys Kicking Stallion Sims on Halloween by painting themselves black, wearing cornrows and fake gold teeth. Some players wore the blackface costumes to a contest to a Deland bar, according to the Stetson student newspaper. The blackface photos some how ended up on a Web site this month and have since outraged civil rights activists at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama, Local 6 reporter Tarik Minor said. "I can see why people would consider it offensive," Sims said. "They said they wanted to dress up as us but they didn't say they were going to paint their bodies or anything. We are real close with the softball team and we didn't think anything of it. We gave them our jerseys." Some people on campus are angry with the photos, saying they remind them of the humiliation and mockery blacks suffered before desegregation, Minor said. "Not too many people know the history of blackface, student Cameo Humes said. "It was a form of basically mocking African Americans by painting their faces black and giving them exaggerated features, such as big lips." Sociologist Leonard Nance said the students did not realize their costumes would spark controversy. "It could be offensive to some people and could not be offensive to some people," student Kevin Gallagher said. "The thing is that if they go out in public like that or they go to a bar, they are going to offend somebody." The women who wore the blackface costumes are required to read a book written by Tim Wise called "White Like Me," write a reflection paper and have conversations with the school's diversity council. ----------------------------------------- My thoughts: If Dave Chappelle and Eddie Murphy can dress up and put on white makeup why can't these students put on the blackface?
If it's Halloween and I'm going as somebody who is black, I will probably wear some makeup. My wife and I were thinking about being Morris Day and Jerome for Halloween. We are pasty white so we would of worn makeup. I think if someone get offended by it, that's their problem. Dressing up a just a "black guy" is lame though, a specific one is not. If your name is "Grlenntys Kicking Stallion Sims" then you are Halloween bait, like it or not. These girls should probably be left alone. They were not trying to offend anyone. I don't think this is racist, just racial. We should be past this by now.
this will end up in d&d soon enough...but my take is... who really cares. people need to quit being so sensitive. let's all make sure we never make fun of anyone.
I think it's the history of 'blackface' that is the problem ~ something that a college age person wouldn't know much about. Looking at from the other side if a black person painted himself or herself white no one would care at all. The girls should have painted themselves brown so they wouldn't open up the 'blackface' controversy.
I'm on Robbie's side! Offending people is a sacrosanct right! I enjoy wearing my aborted fetus bra when I stage mock gay marriages outside of my local Baptist Church. It's so much fun! Next week me and some friends are going to go clubbing dressed as Holocaust survivors!
Black Folx Offend. . . White folx don't care . . . Same story different day in America. . . . Carry on Rocket River
and black folx can take shots and make jokes about white people all day and white people can't make jokes about black people.... same story different day in america...
not sure if you are mocking me or just making a joke...but... i would venture to say dressing up as some ghetto black guy with a gold grill isn't as bad as dressing up as a dead ex-slave or something like that. lets just keep things in perspective...they painted their faces black and made fun of some one being ghetto fabulous with their gold teeth. it would be just like a black guy dressing up as a drunken irishman or a white hick or something like that. i guess its just one of those things were people just decide you can't go there.... making fun of drunk irish people is ok....making fun of a drunk indian is bad making fun of poor white trash people is ok....making fun of ghetto black people is bad
Non African Americans: Damn Sambo or Al Jolson, or Amos and Andy (crowd laughs) African Americans: This is offensive. Non African Americans: We're not offended by by it. We didn't mean to offend and therefore it's not offensive. Non African American Chorus: Exactly. This country is too sensitive. I changed it to non-African Americans as a pre-emptive strike for Hispanics, Asians and other minorities who is itching with the "Im not white and I don;t find anything wrong with it"
Shouldn't we be moving towards a society where a white person can dress up as a famous black person for Halloween and not upset anyone? Who in that case is not moving forward? You are the one being racist.
i guess you've never heard about how its an insult to a black person if they act "white" or bougie or whatever you want to call it. don't just gloss over stuff and act like black americans don't do "offensive" things and make fun of white people with stereotypes. i have no problem with it but you gotta look at both sides.
What kind of a racist statement is that? It's like the pot calling the kettle black. Oh wait, I didn't mean to say that, sorry, it just slipped out, I didn't mean to offend anybody, my apologies.
Black face is offensive. Period. I don't give a **** about what you think I shouldnt be sensative to. You know what I get tired of, white people like robbie telling me what I shouldn't be offended by.
