White out Black Face

By Nadieda Dazile, Opinion Editor

The outrageous mockery of melanous skin has gone too far.

Blackface is defined as the makeup used by a non-black performer to represent a black person. During the 19th century, blackface was used by several performers to reel in white audiences through stereotypical black characters.

This racist “joke” has not only modernized itself but also has blossomed into being accepted and encouraged.

Several comedians, such as Tyler Perry, a black man in drag, and Sarah Silverman, a white woman in painted blackface, have brought new meaning to this form of coonery.

Tyler Perry, though praised for being a representative of the black community, has profited from mocking his own. And yes! Madea is a joke and was created for comedy, but I honestly see nothing but the stereotype of an angry, middle aged black woman.

Sarah Silverman, who performed a sketch for Comedy Central and felt like “a beautiful Queen Latifah,” not only joked about black people, but made an absolute ridicule of herself. She later realized and apologized for wearing the “most racist blackface.”

With or without approval, blackface shouldn’t be happening. We live in the modern world and allowing these things to happen only shows that we are regressing.

An argument may be proposed on the actual offensive level of blackface, but might I retaliate that being black will be the only way for you to really understand why it is not okay.

So how do we fix this issue? We can’t.

We can’t stop blackface from happening, since it has been embedded into our society, but we can minimize it to a point.

The solution might be Teaching the younger generation that it is not okay to mock the skin tone of others and that they should learn to love their own.

I know that it’s hard to feel unaccepted, but I’d rather be an outsider than an Uncle Tom.