It’s practically universally recognized in the present day that blackface performance by white people is not OK. In fact, it’s now regarded as thoroughly abhorrent. When it comes to brownface, I can’t think of any way it would be any more acceptable. But it’s a subject I don’t think I’ve ever seen.
What made me think was—this is hard for me to write, as I’ve been a huge fan of 1971–1975 classic Genesis ever since back in the 70s—but recently, thanks to youtube, I’ve finally gotten to see videos of the stage shows from Genesis concerts back in that era. The era of theatrical rock. I agree that The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is a fantastic pinnacle of artistic creativity and a unique achievement at the end of the period of theatrical rock. But I noticed… Peter Gabriel in brownface. I.e., a white guy made up to look like a Latino guy. I love PG and so I’m really conflicted about this. In the present day it can’t be seen as OK. But the real collective consciousness-raising about why blackface is not OK probably came about in the 1980s and thereafter. As much as I love early-70s music, I don’t think the same conscientiousness about authenticity in racial performances had yet taken hold.
Of course, Peter Gabriel himself has done tremendous work in the decades since of introducing a great many African and Asian musicians to western audiences, he spoke out strongly against apartheid, and there’s no way I would implicate him with racism. I’m also confident that if PG went theatrical again there’s no way he’d do brownface or any other face of color. So that’s why I’m so conflicted around this and don’t think there’s any pat answer to it… It’s just hard to believe that classic Genesis was 40 years ago!