Did anyone notice that Rocketman95 has like 98.7 % of all posts in this thread? RM95 getting access to a D&D topic is sort of like an alcoholic stranded on an island who had had no acess to alcohol for years and then suddenly finds a barrel of whisky...can't stop drinking from it .
Thanks for the compliment, being as how I live my life depressed when a sports team loses a game or imitating sword moves from Oblivion while bored out of my mind shopping with my fiance. I don't think my life is filled with strict rules nor am I one to complain about much, of course certain issues warrant serious conversation while others most think are important I'd rather not get into it. Race is one thing in my life that I am serious about, civil equality to be exact. I'm not the type that you may think I am.
I will tell one (possibly you?) and I know people, albeit a few, that chose not to be Jewish while the family is. I was expecting this response, although there are many who recognize being Jewish as an ethnicity/culture there are converts to Judaism out there that have changed their beliefs. Race can not be changed, one may identify with other races, but race in regards to American ideology is still black and white, possibly even the 1-drop rule is still considered when it comes to race in USA (that even a person who has dominant white/european features is still considered black if the father/mother is).
If you are white and want to dress up as a black person that you admire for Halloween or a costume party, is it offensive to put on blackface?
the thing that bugs me about blackface even if you are trying to celebrate someone, is that you are probably not celebrating that person because they are black. in otherwords, when black kids dress up in a costume of superman, they don't paint their faces white. because they aren't celebrating his race, their celebrating the qualities that make him superman. there's just something inherently insulting about black face. if these kids want to mock the style of hip hop culture, that's fine with me, because if black television excecutives are going to put the rappers on television, then don't get mad when they get mocked. but the black face is not needed. because when you paint your face, then you're not just making fun of the style, you're making fun of the race. and then you've crossed the line.
Yes. I think you know that, though. Not sure why you are asking. 1. Blackface is not just about making your skin darker - it is using shoe polish, circles around the lips, etc. so it would not be an attempt to make yourself look African-American. 2. Pale people usually don't change their skin tone for olive complected costumes - you are never going to match skin color so why does it matter? You generally just go with clothes/symbols of that person's life (or wear a mask). 3. Blackface has a loaded, highly negative history that is only a generation or so removed from our present. Why do people seem so interested in bringing it back? 4. Black face does not represent any person - it represents a fictionalized caricature of a stupid, big lipped, poor speech, clumsy, sexually aggressive (he comes to rape white girls!!!!), animalistic, simple fool. How about a white person go to a Haloween party as "Jim Crow" or "Zip Coon". Would that be offensive?
I didn't see the pictures - did they use 'blackface' in the historical sense you are referencing or did they paint their face black. Is MLK is celebrated purely because he was a advocate for advancing the rights of an oppressed class? If I show up to a costume party in hornrimmed classes and a black suit is anyone going to know I'm Malcolm X, and is it racist for a white person to dress up like Malcolm X? Is this ok? In the form that rimbaud references, I would agree. It is at a minimum in very poor taste. If you go to a party where you are supposed to be imitating hip hop/gangsta rap artists, why is it making fun of the black race to look black, after all the majority of hip hop/rap artists are black? Would it be less offensive to wear a mask of Dr. Dre?
Why did Mike Jackson have to remove his album from the shelves? Cause he said K*Ke [sp?] in one of the songs [a song against discrimination mine you] where people being hyper sensative then? to change millions of albums? How many of these parties do you see people dressed like Hitler and the SS? Heck . . . When was the last 'Mexican Themed' party? Native American? Rocket River
You know what would solve these debates and future ignorant redneck theme parties with ugly people? Have them all throw an Al Qaeda party. I keed. I keed.
The blackface is offensive, but the rap/hip-hop stuff, on their own time and outside of my view when I'm not expected to react to it, really, truly isn't. I'm black and I think any other blacks in my age group (20s-30s) should be honest about the movies we watched and music we listened to: as well as the clothes we wore and the personae we affected as teenagers, often under the guise of black empowerment or racial self-expression.
