Updaterer : Mia Freedman (The boy who cried ‘racist’, mamamia, May 16) reckons:
“Blackface IS racist, no question. But to me (admittedly, a white girl so I welcome comments from those with a different perspective, please leave them below), there is a huge difference between painting your face black to mock an entire race and painting yourself black to respectfully dress up as someone who has black skin.”
Precisely how Mia arrived at the conclusion that the bloke in the photo was respectful rather than mocking is unknown, but necessarily, according to her logic, any person who dresses in blackface but claims to be doing so respectfully must be hugely different – ie, not-racist – to someone who does so simply in order to engage in (racist) mockery. What her case seems to boil down to, in other words, is intent: if someone using blackface does so without intending to mock blacks, it’s a kosher activity (possibly one even fit to reappear on our TV screens, who knows?).
Update : The Voice coach Delta Goodrem distances herself from Twitter blackface scandal, Cameron Adams, news.com.au, May 13, 2013.
D’oh!
A Child of the Universe… x
SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD
See also : Hey Hey It’s Not Racism! (October 11, 2009). [Aamer Rahman stuck it on his tumblr too.]
http://youtu.be/FrQueZY1prY
What is I don’t even.
It’s the young’uns I feel sorry for; the little blackfellas who will continue to cop shit because of the inane drivel spouted by the likes of Goodrem.
And anyone who criticises is condemned as “politically correct”.
So it’s 2013 and it’s as if nothing has changed in the land of Oz since 1983.
Yeah it’s unfortunate; yeah the response is usually to condemn for ‘correctness’ (ie, rational concern for appropriate and respectful forms of culture and communication). On a more positive note, it may also be an opportunity to raise the issue of racial representations and to inform Delta’s fans why blackface is inappropriate. To do so would probably require another Harry Connick Jr to emerge however, and given the obscurity of the issue, this seems unlikely at this stage.
I am baffled why some people are not able to see it as racist ? is it lack of cognitive processing abilities ? I mean it is not hard to see that the above video and the tweet Delta is a bigot and worse of all she is ignorant to her actual point of view. I mean that video above is cringeworthy. Mia Freedman is a ignorant bigot as well on many levels. It is not political correctness it is just plain out right racist, having people smile or even suggesting that Delta did not really mean it :/ . She did but she feels that she is so cute, so loved, so famous that she is not and can’t be a racist bigot I mean she is the girl next door right ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oxDAbLuMU0 on the subject of blackface but nothing at all to do with Delta or Mia.