• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Russians parade in blackface ahead of Cameroon-Germany match

Deepwater

Member
Question from the outside, if someone wants to portray/cosplay a fictional black character, and uses a black face, it is considered racist?

I always wanted to know how sensitive is doing this in the usa, considering the historical background and context of white people doing black faces, it is clear to me why it is considered a terrible thing to do, but I always wondered if the problem is when you doing with the bad intention of imitating and mocking black people, or just painting your face is already enough

if someone wants to cosplay as a black/dark skinned character, they don't have to paint their skin (outside of facial/body markings that are specific to that character) in order to convey they are that character.

While I'm sure there are examples of black/brown people doing whiteface, I've never personally seen a black cosplayer whiten their skin when cosplaying a non dark skinned character.

If your costume is good, people should/will know who the hell you're dressing up as.
 
Question from the outside, if someone wants to portray/cosplay a fictional black character, and uses a black face, it is considered racist?

I always wanted to know how sensitive is doing this in the usa, considering the historical background and context of white people doing black faces, it is clear to me why it is considered a terrible thing to do, but I always wondered if the problem is when you doing with the bad intention of imitating and mocking black people, or just painting your face is already enough

Yes. You can cosplay as Balrog without mimicking his skin. Just wear boxing gloves and scream "my fight money!" I promise you, people will get it without you catching hell for it.
 

sibarraz

Banned
Don't know if my english is terrible, but I never said that I wanted to do a cosplay of a black person.

But point taken, I understand with the reasoning that doing a black face is using the color of the skin as a trait
 

IrishNinja

Member
oh no, not dirca and ray, .come back

dietracists0tsl0.gif

i love this but there's nothing diet here


underrated post

Nah, Colombia is part of earth. I know plenty of good Columbian folks. Best friend's wife is Columbian and fucking awesome, but even then. A family member shows up, and they show their ass. Start talking shit in Spanish, not knowing that I understand it completely, and get on that dumb shit. Always funny, because the word black in Spanish ain't something you can hide anyway.

it's even better when some folks just quietly do the thing where they rub a finger on their skin and look at you like "..you know"
 
Lemme first dismiss this. Not GAF..life.

Do you have any idea how much I've heard this? How much many posters here have heard this? In my face? Told it means nothing, but treated differently by those who claim it? Best part of growing up surrounded by different cultures? You learn a lot. Customs, recipes, games..the works. You know what sucks about it? Finding out that being black/mulatto means you have "traits" that you can't help.

A discussion of culture can always be had. The dismissal of wrong is the problem. Now, I understand. You grow up a certain way..perhaps don't see the wrong in things..that doesn't make it ok. It doesn't remove hate. It'll never erase the treatment of "the other" in any society..I'm assuming you'd agree here, although I know I shouldn't.

Truth is, the garbage term political correctness is the equivalent of "I'm being told not to do a thing" which boils down to "No" and as I ASSUME some of you are parents, you've experienced a child's reaction to that no word..tantrums. I expect it from infants..not grown men and women.

Racism wasn't born in America, and certainly won't die here. But almost all countries have that one thing in common. If you feeling lies than a human being goes against our beloved tradition? Fuck you, get over it. That's bullshit..from today until our great grandchildren. That's not how the world should work. Again, I'd assume you agree.

The age of technology and we act like Neanderthals..

Well said!
 
Lemme first dismiss this. Not GAF..life.

Do you have any idea how much I've heard this? How much many posters here have heard this? In my face? Told it means nothing, but treated differently by those who claim it? Best part of growing up surrounded by different cultures? You learn a lot. Customs, recipes, games..the works. You know what sucks about it? Finding out that being black/mulatto means you have "traits" that you can't help.

A discussion of culture can always be had. The dismissal of wrong is the problem. Now, I understand. You grow up a certain way..perhaps don't see the wrong in things..that doesn't make it ok. It doesn't remove hate. It'll never erase the treatment of "the other" in any society..I'm assuming you'd agree here, although I know I shouldn't.

Truth is, the garbage term political correctness is the equivalent of "I'm being told not to do a thing" which boils down to "No" and as I ASSUME some of you are parents, you've experienced a child's reaction to that no word..tantrums. I expect it from infants..not grown men and women.

Racism wasn't born in America, and certainly won't die here. But almost all countries have that one thing in common. If you feeling lies than a human being goes against our beloved tradition? Fuck you, get over it. That's bullshit..from today until our great grandchildren. That's not how the world should work. Again, I'd assume you agree.

The age of technology and we act like Neanderthals..

I'm not disagreeing with anything you said. But just because people actually use that line to dismiss racism doesn't really mean that everyone who uses that line is doing so just to excuse racism.

Recently I saw a picture that black Ukrainian wrestler (Olympic sport kind) posted on Instagram with the white guy in a blackface playing him on a comedy show (I believe both of them were part of the skit). I found it in very poor taste and was offended by it. Sure you can just dismiss it and call everyone an idiot in this case (even me), but it's a bit more complicated than that. Culture is definitely a part of this. And I'm sure that this wrestler had very tough time growing up as a kid without a single black person around him for hundreds of miles. I'm sure he has experienced racism in his life, but it is not necessarily the same racism that he would experienced growing up in LA for example. Culture has huge impact on what race relations are.

EDIT: Picture in question: https://www.instagram.com/p/BJvkZxxj8w2/?taken-by=zhanbeleniuk
 
Question from the outside, if someone wants to portray/cosplay a fictional black character, and uses a black face, it is considered racist?

I always wanted to know how sensitive is doing this in the usa, considering the historical background and context of white people doing black faces, it is clear to me why it is considered a terrible thing to do, but I always wondered if the problem is when you doing with the bad intention of imitating and mocking black people, or just painting your face is already enough

Mr T..


mr-t.jpeg



recaps-fresh-off-the-boat-1.jpg


I take it you're not American. Here's my questing. Please know, zero ill intent. Does the guy in the second picture look like Mr T?
 

Slayven

Member
Question from the outside, if someone wants to portray/cosplay a fictional black character, and uses a black face, it is considered racist?

I always wanted to know how sensitive is doing this in the usa, considering the historical background and context of white people doing black faces, it is clear to me why it is considered a terrible thing to do, but I always wondered if the problem is when you doing with the bad intention of imitating and mocking black people, or just painting your face is already enough

If you have to use black face, changes are your costume sucks. Your costume becomes about the weird shoe polic smeared on you and not the character.
 
I'm not disagreeing with anything you said. But just because people actually use that line to dismiss racism doesn't really mean that everyone who uses that line is doing so just to excuse racism.

Recently I saw a picture that black Ukrainian wrestler (Olympic sport kind) posted on Instagram with the white guy in a blackface playing him on a comedy show (I believe both of them were part of the skit). I found it in very poor taste and was offended by it. Sure you can just dismiss it and call everyone an idiot in this case (even me), but it's a bit more complicated than that. Culture is definitely a part of this. And I'm sure that this wrestler had very tough time growing up as a kid without a single black person around him for hundreds of miles. I'm sure he has experienced racism in his life, but it is not necessarily the same racism that he would experienced growing up in LA for example. Culture has huge impact on what race relations are.

Hmm..that word might be different between, I dunno, some Dominicans and Haitians? We aren't a monolith, man. Never claimed it. Just because that dude finds it ok, doesn't complicate things. It's fucked. LA (lol) has fuck all to do with this..and I don't know why you brought that place up..I'm in the south.
 
Hmm..that word might be different between, I dunno, some Dominicans and Haitians? We aren't a monolith, man. Never claimed it. Just because that dude finds it ok, doesn't complicate things. It's fucked. LA (lol) has fuck all to do with this..and I don't know why you brought that place up..I'm in the south.

No, I'm not saying that he (or anyone) should be OK with it. All I'm saying that culture has a lot to do with what race relations are. And I mentioned LA as a random example, I'm sure that there parts of LA that it's tough to grow up as a minority in the US but it's not quite the same as growing up in Ukraine.
 

Breads

Banned
My takeaway from reading the first few pages of this thread is that you can't prove someone is a bigot by their bigoted actions alone. You must first identify the context of their bigotry. Not giving their bigotry the benefit of the doubt reveals that you...

...you are the actual bigot for not being understanding.
 

Derwind

Member
My takeaway from reading the first few pages of this thread is that you can't prove someone is a bigot by their bigoted actions alone. You must first identify the context of their bigotry. Not giving their bigotry the benefit of the doubt reveals that you...

...you are the actual bigot for not being understanding.

Don't forget to submit a 100 page thesis paper describing the historical & social context of the racist act in question.

As a teaching aide of course.
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
So we still have to deal with people thinking that when you call something out as racist you're equating it to cross burnings...
 
No, I'm not saying that he (or anyone) should be OK with it. All I'm saying that culture has a lot to do with what race relations are. And I mentioned LA as a random example, I'm sure that there parts of LA that it's tough to grow up as a minority in the US but it's not quite the same as growing up in Ukraine.

It's rough everywhere..it's America/the world lol. Lemme stick to there. Would you believe that besides what folks call "Mexican" we also have black Mexicans? With their own history of racism? Or, rather, just racism..

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1178969

How long until we just call things what they are? I guess I get it. Folks don't want to be lumped into what The Americas have done. Here's the thing.."I LEARNED IT FROM WATCHING YOU"
 

Breads

Banned
Don't forget to submit a 100 page thesis paper describing the historical & social context of the racist act in question.

As a teaching aide of course.

Shit.

I'm stuck on the bananas and monkey noises part.

This needs further investigation...
 
It's rough everywhere..it's America/the world lol. Lemme stick to there. Would you believe that besides what folks call "Mexican" we also have black Mexicans? With their own history of racism? Or, rather, just racism..

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1178969

How long until we just call things what they are? I guess I get it. Folks don't want to be lumped into what The Americas have done. Here's the thing.."I LEARNED IT FROM WATCHING YOU"

I feel like topic of racism is larger than that. In reality racism is just based on biases that we have. You can find people in Mexico that would look like that one Russian guy who is wearing sombrero. It has nothing to do with the color of the skin in that case yet it is still very ignorant.
 

Fat4all

Banned
Someone should collect up all these "black face outside of the US" threads and create an algorithm to show exactly how it plays out.

Because got damn, it plays out the same way every time.
 
I feel like topic of racism is larger than that. In reality racism is just based on biases that we have. You can find people in Mexico that would look like that one Russian guy who is wearing sombrero. It has nothing to do with the color of the skin in that case yet it is still very ignorant.

Sure. Or we can see it as a pattern. Amazing that as human beings we can see things differently. The issue, for myself and others around the globe, is the dismissal, or rather, acceptance of the wrong as a default.

I'll have to ask again though, is this not a discussion? I was under the impression that we couldn't have those here. I'm not lumping you with the "What about Gordon" types *wink and a smile* or anything like that. Things we're discussing affect many around the world. Even within our cultures, things pop up that just aren't acceptable.

Not because of the internet. Not because of outage or PC culture. Because we're people. Human beings. Has it never crossed some (not yours) mind that you hear more now because we have a voice? A way to express our disgust that wasn't attainable before? What about those voices? Why is the majority, even when wrong, the group to consider?

Dude always trying to get me to come over and watch

e91924fa462035e492cbfdf0e8d19301.jpg

imagesCACWOEQQ-thumbnail2.jpg
 
Smdh, c'mon bruhs, we shouldn't have to send Harry Connick Jr. to every country to explain to them why blackface is wrong.

61-vHMmro3L._SX381_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


What page are black people are?

Black people didn't live in medieval European times, what are you talking about? That'd be historically inaccurate, but dragons and elves are all good.
 

LatvjuAvs

Member
Yeah, coming from north east Europe, everyone is racist, I am fine with that.
Of course people living in different countries will disagree, but for that there is different countries where you can safely be triggered :)

Have a nice day.
 

Derwind

Member
Yeah, coming from north east Europe, everyone is racist, I am fine with that.
Of course people living in different countries will disagree, but for that there is different countries where you can safely be triggered :)

Have a nice day.

Keyword here?
 
No but he does resemble a skinny Zangief

He doesn't look like Mr T? Zangief wears gold chains, so that's where you default? Serious question, because I've played Street Fighter for decades, and don't recall overalls or gold chains being part of his wardrobe. Please, correct me if I'm wrong..missed that hack..

Yeah, coming from north east Europe, everyone is racist, I am fine with that.
Of course people living in different countries will disagree, but for that there is different countries where you can safely be triggered :)

Have a nice day.

Gracias, mi hermano..
 

Calcaneus

Member
I can't buy the ignorance argument (it wouldn't have really mattered anyway) just based on the fact that they added bananas on top of the blackface. As many times as racist soccer fans have used bananas to specifically insult black players, I refuse to believe its all just an unfortunate coincidence.
 
Yeah, coming from north east Europe, everyone is racist, I am fine with that.
Of course people living in different countries will disagree, but for that there is different countries where you can safely be triggered :)

Have a nice day.

They out here sending missionaries now...send my regards to your fallen comrades.
 

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
Question from the outside, if someone wants to portray/cosplay a fictional black character, and uses a black face, it is considered racist?

I always wanted to know how sensitive is doing this in the usa, considering the historical background and context of white people doing black faces, it is clear to me why it is considered a terrible thing to do, but I always wondered if the problem is when you doing with the bad intention of imitating and mocking black people, or just painting your face is already enough
yes it's racist

Just wear the costume, don't use black face
 
Top Bottom