Bear in mind that the humor of Father Ted is heavily driven by priests doing deeply inappropriate things. They even lampshaded it in one episode.
The film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is highly recommended although be warned that viewers will be overstimulated by the end of the opening credits.
But without the blackface it’s just a Donald Trump costume.
The USA is a wonderful place to live. I have all sorts of freedoms, both large and small.
I can move to anywhere in the country that I want. I am free to pursue any career that I want. I can associate with anyone that I want.
I am also basically a kind and empathetic person. If I become aware that my first choice of Halloween costume is something that a lot of my fellow citizens might find hurtful, I’ll pick another costume. I don’t need to analyze the details. I don’t need to complain that I’m being censored or that my freedoms are being abridged. I don’t need a history lesson. It just doesn’t rise to that level of importance. It’s an incredibly minor moment of self-censorship borne of basic human kindness, akin to deciding not to lecture a total stranger on their weight or personal appearance.
So when I see someone protesting strongly the idea of self-censoring their Halloween costume I think something else is going on. It indicates to me that they have, at best, an indifference to inflicting pain on certain members of their community, if not an actual desire to inflict that hurt on their fellow citizens. Because my “right” to wear any Halloween costume I want is incredibly unimportant to me. It would be different if it were my choice of career or partners that offended other members of my community. But it doesn’t come close to rising to that level.
Now some of you might be tempted to respond…”You are a liberal hypocrite, Ann. You constantly insult Trump and his followers on Twitter. Some people might find your use of the#fat#microbic#orangeasshole#daughterfucker#treason#federalprison hashtags very offensive and hateful.”
To which I will say, “Hell Yes!”. I hate that Donald Trump asshole and my freedom to express that is very important to me. Fuck his feelings and fuck the feelings of his supporters. I’m not necessarily proud of this but I will be honest about it.
Now, if the people that feel they really need the freedom to wear offensive Halloween costumes would be equally honest about the motives behind their strong need to exercise this freedom, then we can have an honest discussion. But as long as they hide behind the disingenuous “I just need to fully understand why those people find it offensive, why should their feelings abridge my rights, how come Famous Actor X could do it in Big Movie Y but I can’t…, I need to understand the history” there will not be a truly honest discussion.
Agreed.
Freaking autocorrect ruined my best line.
#microdick
Although he is a toxic microbe
That’s all well and good if you’re ready to accept whatever you’re told.
In that case you can’t wear wigs outside your ethnic group or play a video game character outside your ethnic group because that offends people.
It’s also convenient if you happen to be someone who naturally understands social interaction as opposed to someone who had to be tutored for years to understand what facial expressions mean.
Thanks for being dismissive though.
but regardless, that is still people putting on black make-up in order to represent black people. Therefore we can agree it is not inherently racist to do so.
Eh? that’s a bit “Roger Irrelevant”
Without the history, and seeing it around so many times it would never occur to me why any attempt to look like someone else, typically taken as flattery would be offensive.
So sorting out what is sensationalism and what is actual real world concensus is actually kind of important in a number of ways.
Anyone else get the sense the OP isn’t quite as puzzled as they initially stated? Seems to me they already know which side of the argument they’re coming down on.
Did not know that. Although the one I’m thinking of had entire armies. Still that kinda cool.
What movie is that?
There’s not really a side. As I’m actually trying to determine the dividing line.
Though I think I’ve come to a conclusion.
Which is basically skin paint bad.
The rest is sensationalism.
You’re welcome?
I wanna say King Arthur legend of the sword…
My question is, how far removed from blackface do you have to be to be disqualified from political office? (sans a profuse apology)
Is the entire cast and crew of Tropic Thunder disqualified from public office, or just Robert Downey Jr? How about if you saw it, and enjoyed it? (a past facebook post dug up proving so).
You realise a movie with a giant magic snake is not exactly a period piece, right?
Bad example, because no, that’s not her natural hair.
As an aside, the comic strip Sally Forth recently had both Sally and the mother of one of Hillary’s friends cosplaying for a con, as two characters from their favorite (fictitious) 80s cartoon. We later see an excerpt from the cartoon, and it turns out that the character cosplayed by Sally (who is white) was black, while the character cosplayed by the other mom (who’s black) was white.
This is the most compelling, relatable explanation I’ve read on this subject; thank you. I’ve always understood why what we usually think of as blackface is abhorrent but I still wasn’t quite on board with vilifying people who are using it to portray a particular person- the first thing that came to mind is Julianne Hough as Suzanne from Orange is the New Black. Now I get it. I still think many people are doing or defending it out of honest ignorance but if I can change my view, so possibly can they.
Would you perhaps consider going on tour?
As it got mentioned in the OP but mostly dropped in the thread, I want to throw out a few comments about “digital blackface.” When people first threw that term around in the past year or so, I thought it was goofy or knee-jerky, but I’ve started to see it a lot more. The problem is that it’s not a very good term for what it describes.
It’s not about using a black avatar in a game or using black emojis – it’s about using those things as a way to play with stereotypes. It’s not uncommon to see “edgy” white teens playing black avatars in games and using it as an opportunity to do their best impression of “ebonics” or throw around racial slurs.
The most common form is actually people posting reaction gifs or memes, especially of the “tough black woman giving side-eye” or “black rappers performing for a camera” variety. And, like, that can be fine. But there’s definitely a pattern I’ve started to see where some (white) folks have started using those as their go-to reactions and I can see a very good argument that it contributes a lot to reducing black people to a handful of white-approved characteristics. The parallel to minstrel shows where a few black characteristics were isolated, heightened, and played for laughs by white folks isn’t as much of a reach as I originally thought.
I think you’ve over-explained some of your views in this thread, though to be fair it’s always going to be near-impossible to explain offense. But the quoted paragraph is one of the best explanations of anything ever posted on these boards.
-RNATB, brown person dressed as a brown person.