This question is a bit different than the similar questions I've asked. Earlier I asked if dressing up as another culture (cultural appropriation) is wrong and on why it's more socially accepted that none-whites played white characters than visa versa.
But here I'm not talking about culture or movies. I'm talking about costume parties, Halloween, special occasions etc. Topic: #Race#Racism#BlackFace
Yes, it's racist (WHY)
No, it's not racist (WHY)
Not racist, but questionable/not a good idea (WHY)
Depends on the context (EXPLAIN)
Other (Explain what and why)
Select gender and age to cast your vote:
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Is Dressing Up as Another Race Racist, And Is It Black, White etc. Face?
People need to keep in my mind that blackface was a big part of U. S. history, so it is very reminiscent when people do it today. I think it's offensive, not really because I look that way, because I don't but it's very insensitive to pretend that painting yourself to look like a person of another race is ever a good idea. But, I know that often nowadays when people do it (THEY SHOULD KNOW BETTER) but it isn't ill intentioned. But you can totally dress up as a black person, just don't paint your skin. I once DM'd a young girl from Russia who painted her skin dark to look black, she didn't completely understand why that wasn't okay but she took my word for it. I only warned her to take it down because I knew she didn't mean to hurt anyone, and she was definitely going to get attacked for it, she did it as a compliment but again, buying dark foundation and saying you're black for the day is just not cool. We aren't all one black shade on brown. When it comes to dressing up as other races, I still think it's kind of distasteful. Because I think you can play a person of another race (like a rapper or actress) without painting your skin, if the costume is good enough, people will get it. I mean, we have White Chicks, which would NEVER fly today, but it's pretty funny, but I know that hypocritical, but "whiteface" doesn't have the same history either. Black people didn't put on shows and paint themselves completely pure white, draw on thinner lips and make money off of it by acting stupid.
But overall, don't do it, why would you need to. But also, if someone did a movie, playing someone who did blackface, it's different. If you're making fun of people who did blackface and mocking them, rather than black people, it's okay. Or doing some sort of role reversal whatever. Context matters is what I'm saying but it should be a known no-no, for everyone.
I'm black and I find anyone dressing up with a black face that isn't black racist, you can dress up as a black character from a movie but why with a black face? White women dress up as native Americans and pocohantis they don't blacken their face. I'm not native American so I can't tell you how they feel about that but dressing up like cowboys and Indians is a long standing tradition, doesn't make it right. I mean dressing up as Hitler or a Nazi is offensive. I don't know I just think there are so many other characters you can play why chose the most controversial, regardless of who you go as it will be memorable and a topic for discussion. I recently started university and there's an Italian guy who insists on asking me personal questions like, how often or do I wash my hair, and questions that make me seem different to other races. Also my financial status seems to be of interest to him also. When we discussed our Halloween costume ideas he insisted it would he funny to go as me. To which I offended I asked him why he thought he should go as me and he had no opinion, I didn't encouraged it discourage it because I wanted to see if he would be stupid enough to do it. I had already reported him to my tutor and should he dress up as me I would have taken a photo and reported his ass. Ignorance or not it's darn right fucking offensive and I don't find it funny that he feels the need to claim me as something comical or scary to go dressed as for Halloween.
hi, if you take a time travel back 30 so years my family dressed with my dad as an Arab full head mask my mother, myself and two sisters as females family members for bonfire night. it was what it was thats it simple but if you took that to now oh my what a stir it could create... my mother 76 uses a term coloured or darky, now this word to her world and time frame is the best respectable term in the world she grew in.. i do still remind her its mixed race... even in my early twenties the word half chap was used as a mixed race term.. my friend wanted a half chap baby because they are so utterly gorgeous... if i wanted to dress up as an indian see native American now to be p. c i would darken my skin, its not offensive to me.. if a black friend dressed up and whitened their skin in their costume design i wouldn't see anything in that.. if a person dressed up to even take the piss out of my heritage like an old country farmer i would take it, if i in return dressed up to take the piss out of their heritage the same... the world has gone crazy racism is when a person is actually being offensive to another in a degrading way in relation to their race or colour... xx
Yes... it is racist because a race is not a fucking costume.
Pictures like these become racist when white models are transformed into a black aftican, an indian, or Asian etc. using makeup. And same vice versa. It's fucked up.
There are enough diffrent raced people and models in the world that you don't have to bloody white wash pictures like this.
Using an African American model and turning them into an African isn't really racist because blacks originated from Africa. Using white American to portray any other white dominated country also isn't racist because they are all caucasian. It only becomes racist and offensive when you use a model, put makeup on them to change their race, and/or make fun of them by mocking them with stereotypes.
Interesting how different definitions we've on this. Nordic people tends to be way lighter than South-Europeans. Nordic often have blonde, ginger or hazel hair, blue, green or gray eyes and a very light pinkish skin. While South-Europeans at the other hands usually have black hair, brown eyes and can be very brown.
"Brown people dressing as white people" thoes people aren't brown, literaly every single on of thoes people are all caucasian. How is this relevant at all?
My point is that if it's wrong to dress up as white, Asian, black etc. if you're not that race, then a Nordic shouldn't dress up as a Southern and visa versa either. Either the rule applies or it don't.
Hunny, nordic is not a race. It's a national. The only races that exist are American Indian or Alaska Native, Black or African American, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and white.
@nicoleatanasova Did you mean "Turkish people aren't European Turkey is a Western Asia country with a very small part of it in the Eastern end of Europe."
Europe isn't a race, Africa isn't a race, American isn't a race. Thoes are nationalities. A nation to which someone belongs. Someone's nationality doesn't define their race. Ethnic groups and race are two completely different things.
America is broken up into 2 continents, north and south. North America (US) is the only country that doesn't share a common cultural background because Americans don't have culture. It's a melting pot of all diffrent races and cultures.
Indians looks different than Chinese like how Spanish looks different than Germans. I guess there's different races in all the continents; both Asia, Africa, Europe, America etc. explaining the diversity in appearance. Race is only about appearance and which features people have in common. Without these different appearances there wouldn't be any races.
Nationality is used about either a country or nation you're belonging to. In both Europe, Asia, Africa etc. it exists both different countries (states) and nations. I know there's a difference between race (how you looks) and ethnicity (Which cultural group you belongs to. E. g. share the same culture, religion, traditions, language etc. with your group). Most European countries are nation-states.
Japan is in Asia, Iran is also in Asia. However, Greece is in Europe. Let me ask you a question. Which one has more genetic distance? Greeks to Iranians or Japanese to Iranians?
Historically speaking it has been used for very racist things, making fun of people of the portrayed skin tone and stuff like that, making them seem like a joke basically. So it makes sense why many people are offended by it and I understand, but in reality, race is completely irrelevant, maybe genetics can find tiny irrelevant genetic mutations that are more prevalent in one human skin color lineage over another, but in the end we just weren't separated for long enough to divert to even different subspecies, so in the end despite past human history race is irrelevant. Now with that fact in mind, look at our current culture, a culture of humans who still care heavily about race, a culture that makes fun of race and gets offended by other people portraying their race, now obviously this is for understandable reasons, we have people alive today who were alive during shit like Jim Crow, and even today white privilege is quite prevalent, as a society we need to move away from race being considered a significant factor at all, if we are able to accomplish this then changing your skin color will be seen as hair color is seen today, something that can be changed whenever we want and can actually be a style choice. I know this may seem quite alien now, but our culture does seem to be heading that way, even if it may seem slow moving for now.
So basically if you're too lazy to read by thing there, it is seen as extremely racist to do it today, and it's likely your intentions are racist if you do it today, but in the future skin color will be seen as a style choice, meaning its going to become not racist given time.
Correction: it isn't even necessarilly a racist act today, for example, Robert Downey JR. playing a black guy in tropic thunder, but considering how its used today its very likely to be racist, and the person doing it is likely to have racist intent
I firmly believe that true racism must meet three requirements.
1st req. Racism requires a racist action.
2nd req. Racism requires racist intent on the part of the offender
3rd req. Racism requires acceptance and offense on the part of the offended.
Example: if a coffee shop happens to be out of something that an African-American requests, it is NOT racist because it lacks a racist act and racist intent.
My father was raised in a time when people didn't get offended as easily, the N word was commonly heard in passing, not as an insult or racial slur, but in normal speech. When my dad was a kid he picked up a phrase synonymous with "jury rig", that phrase was "N****r rig". My dad occasionally uses this phrase even today, it is NOT racist because it is not used with racist intent. (Additionally, where he was raised brazil nuts were commonly called "N****r toes", again NOT racist because used without racist intent, simply the name he was tought for brazil nuts.)
And lastly. To me (a Caucasian) being called a "cracker" is NOT racist, because I dont accept it, I dont find it offensive. And so, by refusing to be offended by potential racism, i am stopping racism on the receiving end of racism.
Exactly! I’ve grown up seeing people of color wearing costumes of white characters like princesses and nobody complained. You dress up because of the character not because of the race. Yet recently there was controversy over a Moana costume; “only darker skinned girls can dress as her”. SMH. The whole cultural appropriation thing is ridiculous, they ruin everything fun about Halloween. I think as long as someone isn’t hurting someone then they can wear whatever. Or what do I know? I’m pale and half Hispanic.
From what I have heard we white people can't say or do or dress up like anything that even remotely resembles another race, because it's racist apparently. But then again apparently we are automatically racist because we are white, so even if we don't do or say anything racist or about race, we're still racist by default I guess. On the flip side, minorities can do whatever they want and not be considered racist because they don't have the "privileges" that we white people do. It doesn't make much sense, and sounds kinda hypocritical, but I don't know.
Blackface is casting a white actor to play the role of an ethnic person, I don't think it really applies to Halloween and costume parties, but I can see why people would extend it there.
I think context matters. Dressing up as a historical figure of another race? Not racist. Dressing up as "Sexy Native Girl"? Probably racist.
It's racist because you are helping to strengthen a stereotype. Other groups try to get rid of that stereotype because it's creates culture bias.
The smaller the group and more established the stereotype the harder it is to get over that stereotype. So if you live in a country with mostly white people a white stereotype is more easily to get over because there is a higher change people have met enough other white people to realize the stereotype is not representative.
But if you are a minority people only learn from you culture through stereotypical situations and makes it harder for you to get over those.
Dressing up as mockery of someone of a different race/culture is racist. For example, white to black, black to Asian, Asian to Hispanic/Latino and vice versa. Also using it to stereotype groups of people, that’s racist. But while the act itself might be racist I don’t know if that makes the person racist. For example, the girls at Coachella who wear bindis or feathers in their hair or tribal makeup. Or MUA Bretman Rock who a couple years back dressed up with an Afro and disco clothes to represent a popular stereotype of a black woman from the 70s. I think that a lot of it is just pure ignorance and just doing things without a second thought. However, that’s not always the case.
It's a good idea to be aware of what you are doing because many cultural things have a special significance that they take seriously, especially if associated with their faith or traditional beliefs and you don't wanna come out as disrespectful.
In that case it depends. If it's just cosplay or disguise as a character of a certain race for Halloween that is not a big deal. But if you just dress up as another race for the sake of it, lol nope. That's not appropriate. You can't just dress up as a different race.
@curiousnorway it doesn't matter. At least over 50 percent of people dont know how to tell the difference between race and culture anyway. Let alone see it in person and react in an open minded way.. her comment makes sense. Even though you seem like you're already aware of what you're doing, be prepared to handle a situation if someone just might see it as disrespectful. I personally say go for it, be yourself and dont be afraid of others opinions.
@Famous1Day, I wouldn't dress up as another race. I think it's important to know the difference between race and culture. When I'm saying I'm Norwegian both nationality and culturally wise, some people gets confused since I'm not white.
@curiousnorway, OH so definitely go for it! As an open minded person that's a Great conversation starter and definitely a great way to promote the difference between the 2 :)
It's true that one race of people can be a part of many cultures. While I mentioned that dressing up as a character of a race is fine, it may not always be appreciated. If a Brown woman dresses as a character from a different race, suppose a Disney Princess like Elsa, it's acceptable but if it's a White woman dressing like a character from a Bollywood movie, like Paro from the movie Devdas then everyone will be pissed, because Paro is a Bengali character and as a Bengali girl myself even I wouldn't be very happy about it.
It would be double standard if brown people were allowed to dress up as the Norwegian Elsa, but whites weren't allowed to dress up as a Bengali character. That's unfair! Either both should be allowed or neither should be allowed.
I know, but there are other factors involved as well. Disney is popular among all children. Their stories are altered to appeal to the younger audiences and nor necessarily bothering about representing any culture. Bollywood, on the other hand have movies that are meant to represent a culture. Devdas is a movie from a popular classic Bengali novel and even though some things are altered in the movie to make it more appealing to the audience, it is still produced to represent one big culture.
Although Frozen has some inaccuracy, it's supposed to represent Norway in the past. The main inaccuracy is gender equality. The skiing and all the snow activities were something they did in the past in real life.
Younger children wouldn't really care. My little cousins all love Frozen and my niece has an Elsa costume but I wonder if any of them ever heard of Norway. But think of a Bollywood movie, anyone watching it would know it's an Indian movie and Indian culture.
999/1000 times its very very very racist. The only times I've ever seen a non racist blackface use was in scrubs with JD and Turk going black face whiteface Halloween party and Turk not showing up and JD suddenly getting into a horrific amount of, trouble or tropic, thunder
It really depends. If I wanna dress as Goku with my tanned skin tone, it wouldn't be racist. Any fictional character for that matter. I could dress like Jack Sparrow and that would be completely fine. However, if I dress as say, Morgan Freeman, it could be seen as racist. It doesn't even matter what your intentions are when dressing like a person from another race. Some may perceive it as funny, some may perceive it as offensive. Real people especially, should not be imitated. Just my opinion.
Its just clothes for God's sake people There is no such thing as cultural appropriation You can have any hairstyle you want You can wear whatever clothes you want Saying that its racist enhances segregation
I'm not talking about clothes and culture, but using makeup to look like another race. Example black guy painting his skin and hair white to look like white people.
Yes defenitley. There's so much appropriation of white culture and dressing up as white people these days. Someone needs to tell Beyonce to cut out the white face.
I think it always depends on the context. But most people can't be bothered to find out if there is a legitimate reason now, so its easier to not take the risk.
I also think that people make money out of click bait articles, so its easy for something to be pushed in a way that makes it look bad, when sometimes it wasn't. (This is not just about this, but about all these type of debates today).
No, even doing blackface isn't (completely) racist, but that depends on the context. If you are doing it in a degrading fashion, with the intent to hurt others, it is. But if you are doing it with respect to the culture, it isn't. As well as just wanting to dress up, that is fine too.
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I don't like it at all but I think people should have the right to do it if that's what they want. No I don't think high school girls should be kicked out of school for posting pics on Instagram of them wearing a CHARCOAL beauty mask as part of their skin care routine, and having people call it a damn hate crime.
No, it's not racist as long as you do it for fun like during Carnaval and not for mocking the other. In my country there's a Tv advertisement where a White man play Muslim man (darker face, with the traditional clothes) and is it not seen as racist.
Yes all mockerys were wrong. Saying you like watching White Chicks but not a blackface skit may be seen as a double standard although one is intentionally racist
Depends on the culture. Arabs love when non Arabs dress like them and they even incentive them to do so. They feel quite misunderstood and labeled as terrorists, so, by doing it, they feel it will change the wrong belief that they are and will make them look more loving and peaceful.
No, because its freedom of expression. Dont think people would consider drag queens sexist because they dress up like women. Also I think we've gone too far with what we consider racist now.
It all depends on how you are presenting the race you're playing as. Like If you're in black face and going around stealing bikes and eating watermelon then yeah that's racists
i noticed the connection of watermelon and black people, so because i am European i googled it and shortly after realised it all :/ quite weird but still funny
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