Why wearing blackface or brownface is considered 'reprehensible'

Dressingin blackface or brownfaceis ahurtful, racist and offensive actthatmocks, dehumanizes and belittles other cultures whilefeeding into some of the worst stereotypes of people of colour, community leaders and experts say, reacting tothe actions of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.

Their comments followrevelations Trudeauwore brownfaceas part of a costume at an Arabian Nights-themedgala in 2001, and his admission he wore blackface makeup at an event during high school.

"I think that they're both reprehensible in the sense that the idea is that these communities can be replaced," saidTariq Amin-Khan, an associate professor of political science at Ryerson University in Toronto.

People with brown or black skin may feel demonized, "andI think thatthat's something that should be quite upsetting for anyone," he said.

On Wednesdaynight in Halifax, Trudeau apologized fordressingup in brownface and a turban for a 2001 gala at the Vancouver private school where he was a teacher.He also admitted that at a talent show when he was in high school, he woreblack makeup and sang The Banana Boat Song(Day-O),a Jamaican folk tunemade famous by black American singer Harry Belafonte.

The 2001 incident was brought to light Wednesday evening with the publication ofan article in Time magazinethat showed a picture of Trudeau, with darkened skin and hands, dressed up like the fictional character Aladdin. A second picture later emerged of Trudeau at a talent show atLe collge Jean-de-Brbeufin Montreal.

Speaking to reporters on his campaign plane Wednesday evening, Trudeau apologized for his actions, saying he now recognizesthey were racist.

Trudeau apologizes for 2001 brownface

5 years ago

Duration 11:31

"I shouldn't have done that, I should have known better but I didn't and I'm deeply sorry," Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says to reporters about brownface incident.

'Unacceptable' mythology

Carl Everton James, a professor of eduction at Toronto's York University who researches race and racism, said those kinds ofactions are significant because of what brown skin and black skin havecome to mean in society.

"Are we doing it because we're saying brown skin or black skin are a noblesse skin colour and therefore we are going to imitate those people?

At one level it shows that JustinTrudeau's understanding about race and racism doesn't seem to have deep roots.- Tariq Amin-Khan, associate professor, Ryerson University

"Or do we see it as a way in whichcertainkinds of people are not quite like the 'white skin colour'and therefore, we do that," he added. "So it becomes offensivebecause of what it represents."

In an emotional statement, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh talked about the racism he has endured in his life, saying that seeingthe image of Trudeau in brownface jarred him. He said it's "going to bring up a lot of pain, it's goingto bring up a lot of hurt.

"The kids that see this image, the people that see this image, are going to think about all of the times in their life that they were made fun of, that they were hurt, and that they were hit, and they were insultedand they were made to feel less because of who they are."

Singh reacts to Trudeau's brownface

5 years ago

Duration 2:28

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh responds to Time Magazine's article of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau appearing in brownface and turban at a gala in 2001.

Although he thanked Trudeau for his apology,Mustafa Farooq, executive director of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said in a statement that Trudeau's actions are "deeply saddening," andwearing blackface and brownface is "reprehensible."

"[It] hearkens back to a history of racism, slaveryand an Orientalist mythology that is unacceptable," he said.

Blackface's dehumanizing history

In the early years ofHollywood, embracing brownface or blackfacewas common.

"For [Trudeau]not to recognize the deep racism underlying this brownface imagery is quite revealing for me," Amin-Khansaid. "At one level it shows that JustinTrudeau's understanding about race and racism doesn't seem to have deep roots."

But Rinaldo Walcott, a professor anddirector of the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto, said a distinction needs to be made between brownface and blackface.

"Of course to brown up yourface and to dress up as a fictional Arab is troubling and disconcerting," said Walcott, who specializes in studies of black culture.

But blackface has a long enduring deephistory used todenigrate and dehumanize black people, he said.

"And that's whyit's really important to distinguish that history from the way in which white people have often imitated other people by using some of the same techniques but not with exactly the same kind of intent."

Blacks, for example,were not allowedto appear in theatre,so many white men painted their faces black and recreated some of the worst racist stereotypes, Amin-Khan said.

They would use burnt cork or shoe polish to paint their skinblack, leaving wide areas around the mouth that would variously be left uncoveredor painted red or white to give theappearance of oversized lips,Philip Howard, assistant professor of integrated studies in education at McGill University in Montreal, wrote in a piece for The Conversation titledThe problem withblackface.

"Once in blackface, minstrels would use exaggerated accents, malapropisms, awkward movements and garish attire to further ridicule black people," he wrote.

It became a popular form of racist entertainmentin the U.S. in the 1820s with the first minstrel shows, Howard wrote. But it also was popular in Canada. Indeed, Quebec musician Calixa Lavalle, composer of the Canadian national anthem, O Canada, travelled as a blackface minstrel.

While the blackface minstrelsy endured into the mid-1900s, performances continued in other forms, and were found on universitycampuses or during Halloween or other events.

In 2011, for example, a group of white business students at the University de Montreal decideto pay "tribute" to Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt by painting themselves black. In 2014, students at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont.,, according to the Toronto Star,"won a campus pub Halloween contest ... after they wore blackface to dress as the Jamaican bobsled team."

As Howard notes, today's blackface wearers may claim they don't believe in the biological inferiority of black people, butwearing the dark makeup"is evidence of their ongoing, racist over-assessment of the significance of skin colour differences. In this way, blackface is dehumanizing.

"Thevery need to use garish makeup as part of the process of portraying black people reveals an attempt to establish an essential difference between black and white people," he wrote.