White trick-or-treaters in blackface: C/D?

actually maybe the main aspect that makes me skeptical is that it would be really easy to be Lil Wayne without doing anything about skin color -- I mean it's Lil Wayne, there are like 50 billion identifying characteristics about the dude's head that supersede "he is black" ... it's not like if you dressed up as a white Lil Wayne people would be all "wait, who are you supposed to be, the guy from Jesus Jones?" that's possibly the bit that makes me wonder.

yeah I kind of totally disagree with that, actually; you would get as many guesses for "thugged-out Parappa" as you would Lil Wayne if you remove skin color from the equation

Laurel, this is kinda interesting, although I suspect most of it is bullshit: http://journal.davidbyrne.com/2006/05/4506_you_belong.html

Parappa & Jesus Jones...

well that's next year's costume sorted: whiteface parappa

actually I think the best easy costume I saw this year was a woman of medium skin tone who'd just put on big shorts and painted Mike Tyson's face tattoo around her eye

I would vote for that costume too because based on your description, she was topless

also I GISed Weezy to get a picture of him to contrast with Parappa and found the one of him kissing someone who looks like Cee-Lo on the lips

Yeah, I was chatting to a bunch of people who are going to a thing I'm djing in a couple of weeks, which is 80s fancy dress. One of them was going as michael jackson (unimaginative, yes) and was planning on wearing blackface 'because it's funnier'. Now, leaving aside the sense that of all people jackson requires no blackface, I told him if he did I wouldn't let him in. It was, of course, pointed out that as a dj I couldn't stop people coming in blackface. But I'll find some way of punishing them.

And I think the point isn't Jolson vs Lil Wayne, but that people feel they can't dress up as a black celebrity without without painting their face. They still insist that the defining characteristic of the person is their blackness, not their talent etc.

To be fair, to dress up like someone generally involves treating their appearance as their defining characteristic, rather than acquiring the same talents as them.

Yes, sure, but hen one aspect of dressing up as them has a history which is less than noble, perhaps it's best just to leave that aspect out.

totally.

it's sort of a ratio thing, really, like how much your costume involves dressing up like the person and how much it's just "hahaha look I have painted myself like a black person, which is inherently hilarious"

basically dan's posts are otm x 1000000

(also the ratio of "I have actually tried to create a subtle, realistic reflection of this person's skin tone" versus "hahaha black shoe polish gettit I'm black")

can i just: http://www.zeit.de/2009/43/Wallraff-43

video is amazing, especially the last ten seconds

germany is so weird

Although they tend to get what they deserve - burnt cork or black shoe polish hurts like hell, as Groucho Marx costumes have proved for generations.

xposts

Incidentally Billie Holliday was made to darken her face with burnt cork, for fear that the audience might think she was a white woman singing with a black band. Caused her all kinds off skin problems, spots etc. It's an intersting example of a person who would have been considered black by her society having to use blackface to impersonate their stereotypes of herself.

German reporters are idiots. Same dude also spent some time made up as "Ali the Turk" for some IMPORTANT SENSITIVE reporting. No mention of "Black like Me", of course.

of all people jackson requires no blackface

My friend (who is black btw) and her white husband both dressed as MJ this year. She was 70s, Jackson 5-style and her husband was later-model MJ. Last Halloween they dressed as Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama.

Oh, I meant that he has so many cultural signifiers that makeup doesn't come into it. You could probably be recognizably
Jackson with a glittery glove.

http://www.noahsow.de/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/journal_partykiss.jpg

http://www.noahsow.de/blog/?p=1743

Trick Or Treat!

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/w_Iowa320x200.jpg

http://18.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ksns8iLRAc1qz70oto1_500.jpg

Russian Aboriginal Ice Dance Tribute Causes Offence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtXWE1CfbcM

Shoe's on the other foot, Australia!

Fancy Men's Magazine Jumps On Blackface Trend

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/39/2010/02/500x_officiel_1.jpg

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/39/2010/02/500x_officiel_2.jpg

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.tvsquad.com/media/2009/07/the_state_louie_mtv.jpg

Ummm... was Katie Brand sort of in blackface just now on the Sport Relief dance thingy?

I didn't see it but she's always in blackface, so probably.

example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zocDYlHBqyY

also she's always shit

what the fuck is katy brand?

british TV shows make Mad TV look like a mensa meeting

they're not all that ba oh who am i kidding.

this shit is like a one-note joke without an actual joke.

mad tv had its moments. (it was no three's company tbf, but still. . .)

http://www.youtube.com/user/WalnutMeat#p/a/u/0/EctCrzwXvRo

One thing I love about fancy dress is the way you can dress up as a zombie, without anyone thinking you support the eating of human brains, but if you dress up as a Nazi or member of the Klan then people will assume you support the actions of said groups.

Not sure about the blackface thing, but I am sure that some people would be offended by it.

Pro tip: Zombies aren't real.

lol

also at least zombies don't discriminate when it comes to brains

pro-tip- neither is fancy dress

i started to try to imagine some scenario where there's a stigma attached to dressing up like zombies because of lingering memories of a zombie epidemic a couple generations ago in which millions died and then i was like oh fuck i'm writing a george romero movie aren't i

hahaha

write it and be damned imo

ok i'm setting up some pitch meetings for Reich of the Dead

Reparations of the Dead, tense 4 hr b&w examination of the zombiegeist