For what is probably the 10th time in the past 24 hours, I’ve just been asked what I think of the current
Trudeau brown-face scandal. And every time I get asked about this I want to scream: are we all losing our minds? How did this become a thing?
At times in the past I’ve been accused of being too “politically correct”. Simple fact is that I just don’t like disrespect or lack of tolerance towards anyone’s culture, race, gender, religion, etc…. But at the same time I’m also a huge fan of balance and common sense. What we seem to have completely lost on this topic of black / brown / what-have-you face.
Don’t get me wrong, I am perfectly familiar with the historical significance of black-face, and as a brown person who’s had to deal with her own share of racism in this world, I do very well get where all the rage and frustration comes from. I think it makes perfect sense to say, “you shouldn’t wear black make-up to mock the ethnicity”. But Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ… now we are labeling a man racist because he dressed as Aladdin to an Arabian Nights themed costume party? What in the actual hell? Why is he apologising for this??
Every historical tragedy, every memorable fuck-up our humankind has created, has some historical imagery and elements surrounding it. If we were to start banning every element present at our past mistakes, what will we be still allowed to do? Actually hey, think about it, guns for instance have been responsible for a lot more tragedy than black makeup. How come guns have not been declared offensive and banned as yet? Hmm? Ask yourself, is this really about respect and tolerance? Or is it about finding some easy place to put the blame, to make ourselves feel better, since the actual issue of racism and xenophobia is just too big to do something real about?
As a brown person still grappling with racism today, I think people should be allowed to dress as Aladdin to their hearts’ desire. My black friends seems to not see what the issue would be with wearing dark makeup if you’re dressing up as Michael Jackson. And when a few years ago I dressed up as a Japanese anime character for a Halloween party, I wore makeup to change my skin tone and I don’t think my Japanese friend who accompanied me was offended one bit [were you Kyoko?]. Yes, the black- face history is complicated and one should be very careful of the image one creates. But celebrating another culture or ethnicity is exactly what our bloody divided world actually needs. In fact perhaps if more people would immerse themselves for a day in a character of another culture, maybe we’d have less xenophobia going around.
If you can’t see the difference between the content of this picture, and dressing up as Michael Jackson, you have a problem. A big one. This kind of thinking can’t be allowed to take over. We can’t allow our past mistakes to open even more gaps between us. Going too far today won’t change the past, it will just create us more tragedies today….
