Thursday
The latest buzzword is ‘blackface’. Blackface refers to a white person darkening his face in order to look like a black person. It is very upsetting to some people.
As a young boy, I watched the Black and White Minstrel show. I was not a huge fan but, at the undiscerning age of 12 (or thereabouts) it seemed perfectly harmless. Does the fact that about 60 years ago I watched blackface on television display a portal into my wicked mind? Possibly so.
If I understand it correctly from all the white people writing about it, people of colour are offended by blackface. Whether that is so, and if so why that is so, is not clear to me. Were I black, which I’m not, I would be more offended about being called a person of colour. As most know, black is the absence of colour and white is the blending of all colours (here). Thus, for a black person to be known as a person of colour can only be construed as sarcasm.
I would suggest that we call black people ‘black’ and white people ‘white’. I would also suggest that we stop wittering on about white people putting black on their face. Is black people putting white on their face also a thing? What about yellowface or redface?
Maybe black people should paint a white stripe on their face. Then we could all be people of many colours and get on with sorting out the real problems in the world of grown-ups.