{"id":14139,"date":"2009-10-12T10:36:44","date_gmt":"2009-10-12T15:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=14139"},"modified":"2017-09-16T19:02:08","modified_gmt":"2017-09-17T00:02:08","slug":"responses-to-blackface-why-blacks-may-not-trust-white-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2009\/10\/12\/responses-to-blackface-why-blacks-may-not-trust-white-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Responses to Blackface: Why Blacks May Not Trust White People"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Our intern, Velanie, forwarded us a link to a clip from an Australian variety show called Hey Hey It&#8217;s Saturday.\u00a0 In the clip a group called the Jackson Jive perform in blackface.\u00a0 Steel yourself; maybe skip it if you&#8217;re not up to being reminded, again, of white racism against blacks.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qEtjaZ8ZuNU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes people wonder why black people are not more open or trusting of whites.\u00a0 This is why.\u00a0 Harry Connick Jr., bless his heart, did what he could to try to make it clear that the performance was not acceptable.\u00a0\u00a0 And, to be fair, the producers (?) gave him an opportunity to object more articulately.\u00a0 Here is a part of what he said at the end of the clip:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I just wanted to say on behalf of my country, I know it was done humorously but we have spent so much time trying to not make Black people look like buffoons that when we see something like that we take it really to heart&#8230; if I knew it was gonna be a part of the show I definitely wouldn\u2019t have done it. So I thank you for the opportunity. I give it up cause Daryl said on the break you need to speak as an American. Not as a Black American or a White American but as an American I need to say that, so thank you for the opportunity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I&#8217;m sure that many people appreciated that Connick stood up against blackface.\u00a0 But he is the exception.\u00a0 The host of the show didn&#8217;t apologize, he just pleaded ignorance and felt bad that Connick was offended.\u00a0 The rest of the people, including the unrepetant performers, the judges, and (it appears) the majority of the audience, had absolutely no problem with the performance.\u00a0 Further, the majority of Australians are defending the minstrelsy.\u00a0 Mary Elizabeth Williams, at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/ent\/feature\/2009\/10\/08\/harry_connick_blackface\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Salon<\/a>, summarizes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In a poll on PerthNow.com.au, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.com.au\/perthnow\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">81 percent of respondents<\/a> said the sketch was not racist, with other newspapers clocking in with similar percentages. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepunch.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Punch<\/a> deputy editor Tory Maguire glumly asserted that \u201cThe 2.5 million Australians who were watching were looking for nostalgia, so a returning act like the Jackson Jive was always going to appeal to them.\u201d\u00a0It&#8217;s a sentiment echoed by the show&#8217;s host, Daryl Somers, who\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/news.ninemsn.com.au\/video.aspx?videoid=7f1a0a75-fe5f-472b-9a51-08d64ee0556a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told reporters<\/a> that Australian audiences &#8220;see the lightness of it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Anand Deva, who appeared as Michael in the sketch, told an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.com.au\/couriermail\/story\/0,23739,26182444-952,00.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Australian radio station<\/a> this week, \u201cThis was really not intended &#8230; [to be] anything to do with racism at all&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.news.com.au\/couriermail\/story\/0,,26187205-5003422,00.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Couriermail<\/a> decides it&#8217;s a great opportunity for a cheeky pun:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-14152\" title=\"sss\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2009\/10\/sss1.JPG\" alt=\"sss\" width=\"448\" height=\"403\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Williams continues:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>What should be obvious to anyone who isn\u2019t a complete moron is that a little something called the entire history of Western civilization &#8212; what with the slavery and the colonization and the genocide &#8212; disqualifies us from mocking people for their color as grounds for entertainment. It\u2019s just that simple.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It <em>is <\/em>just that simple.\u00a0 But so many white people still defend it.<\/p>\n<p>This is why black people don&#8217;t trust white people.\u00a0 Because they never know what kind of white person they&#8217;re dealing with and it&#8217;s not worth the risk because, a good portion of the time, they&#8217;re dealing with the host who is &#8220;sorry that you were offended&#8221; (as if the offense is your own personal defect) or the lady in the audience who is just really excited to be on TV.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-14146\" title=\"Capture11\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2009\/10\/Capture116.JPG\" alt=\"Capture11\" width=\"564\" height=\"316\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2009\/10\/Capture116.JPG 564w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2009\/10\/Capture116-499x280.jpg 499w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 564px) 100vw, 564px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Via <a href=\"http:\/\/shakespearessister.blogspot.com\/2009\/10\/hey-hey-its-blackface.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Shakesville<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.womanist-musings.com\/2009\/10\/hey-hey-saturday-night-white-people-in.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Womanist Musings<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n<p>Lisa Wade is a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/lisa-wade.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">professor of sociology at Occidental College<\/a>. You can follow her on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lisawade\/followers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Lisa-Wade-PhD\/174350419354908\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n<span class=\"ft_signature\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/lisa-wade.com\/\">Lisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/American-Hookup-New-Culture-Campus\/dp\/039328509X?ie=UTF8&amp;*Version*=1&amp;*entries*=0\">American Hookup<\/a><em>, a book about college sexual culture; a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Gender-Interactions-Institutions-Lisa-Wade\/dp\/0393931072?ie=UTF8&amp;*Version*=1&amp;*entries*=0\">textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/lisa-wade.com\/intro\/\">Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a><em>.\u00a0You can follow her on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lisawade\">Twitter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/lisawadephd\/\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our intern, Velanie, forwarded us a link to a clip from an Australian variety show called Hey Hey It&#8217;s Saturday.\u00a0 In the clip a group called the Jackson Jive perform in blackface.\u00a0 Steel yourself; maybe skip it if you&#8217;re not up to being reminded, again, of white racism against blacks. Sometimes people wonder why black [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[256,1765,285,1760,1757],"class_list":["post-14139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-humor","tag-nation-australia","tag-raceethnicity","tag-raceethnicity-blacksafricans","tag-raceethnicity-whiteseuropeans"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14139"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71153,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14139\/revisions\/71153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}