Blackface has been making a lot of headlines lately, as it always does around Halloween:
http://bossip.com/846938/racist-or-n...-in-tennessee/
http://gawker.com/fashions-elite-got...n-m-1453039552
http://gawker.com/actress-julianne-h...stu-1452660905
http://gawker.com/mere-blackface-was...tie-1452924995
For those of you who live under rocks, blackface is when a non-black person paints his face black to pretend to be a black person, usually as a part of a costume. (Brief explanation so we don't have a bunch of ignorant kids who don't know the background of this issue.) This started in the early 20th century/late 19th century when white Americans would unwittingly make fun of black people by painting themselves black and making black people look like fools. The wikipedia link up there has a lot of good examples showing this, like so:
Now remember, this was riding on the backs of slavery and racial prejudice in America which made it even more insensitive at the time.
But when you look at recent examples of blackface coming out of other countries, such as this Australian African-themed party and this Thai Blackface Dunkin' Donuts commercial, both of which have been heavily accused of racism online, both parties share the same excuse:
The CEO for Dunkin' Donuts in Thailand, which is operated as a franchise, was initially bullish about the marketing. "It's absolutely ridiculous," said Nadim Salhani. "We're not allowed to use black to promote our doughnuts? I don't get it. What's the big fuss? What if the product was white and I painted someone white, would that be racist?"
Salhani said his daughter was the model used in the advert. He dismissed criticism as "paranoid American thinking", saying: "I'm sorry, but this is a marketing campaign and it's working very well for us."They were not intending to be racist and were simply trying to associate themselves with black culture. "Paranoid American thinking." And I think I agree with them. It's not racist or insensitive if the intention of racism is not there. The racism of blackface is purely an American thing; if orthodox Hindus were the loudest voice on the Internet, would they be shouting and calling everyone else insensitive every time we post a picture of a hamburger? And if they did would we not find them ridiculous? And even in the US, I still believe that if the intent of racism is not there then it should not be considered racist. We are being way too sensitive and PC about this and it's come to the point where we're just accusing everyone who paints their face of racism. We shouldn't be ignorant of our past, but neither should we let the past dictate what we can and cannot do for as long as time goes on. If the intent is not there then neither is the racism."In fact as you can tell from the photos I dressed up as cleopatra, whilst MAJORITY of my guests came as animals, that can be found in africa or wore traditional african clothes or even dressed up as famous people who come from africa. If anything this was to celebrate the amazing country and people. "
So the question in the poll is -- is blackface, by itself with no racist intent, racist?