So...
I work in childcare (for now) and we basically have or host nondenominational holidays or no holiday at all, unless of course, the holiday is a part of our director's heritage (which is something I LITERALLY just realized...and now I'm pissed...anyway). For the Holiday season which overflows with religious holidays, I wrote an extremely nonreligious play/nursery rhyme. I created costumes, cast children as characters that I felt would best fit them, etc. I went as far as my creative mind would take me with a budget of $0.
Soo...
One of my coworkers does face painting and make-up for different events and a pretty big scale. I mean, big enough to travel and such. Anyway, she's the resident make-up artist and so I asked her to lend a hand. That being said, I cast multi-cultural actors in the play and so the snow bunny was Black, Frosty the Snowman was Asian and the gingerbread friends were White...
SOOO...
Blackface, right? Your opinion might be "they were little girls dressed as gingerbread people and they were White so they had to be browwwwwwwn."
So you should get your own blog and write about that over yonder I don't agree. When Miley Cyrus dressed as Lil' Kim for Halloween she was White with a costume on. No one mistook her for a Muppet or glittery prostitute. We ALL knew she was Kim. See where I'm going with this?
SOOOO...
The rest of the day I was uncomfortable. I didn't see the make-up until it was almost time to perform so it was too late to call it off. Now I sound like I'm punking out, and part of me felt like I did, but here we are. I waited until end of day, after I clocked out just in case I couldn't avoid the turn up. I pulled the young lady to the side while we were outside and calmly explained to her that a few people including myself were FIRST not upset because we did not think her make-up was done with ill intent or malice but we were offended because it was very reminiscent of blackface. Her first response was "ARE YOU F*CKING KIDDING ME?!"
SOOOOO...
Mentally, I've checked the surrounding area for children that might be in the way, thought about the fact that there aren't any cameras outside so it would be my word against hers and where the main pressure points were on the human body. verbally, I responded with "No, I'm not." We went back and forth for a quick 3 minutes before we both excused ourselves from the conversation before a lukewarm situation got too hot.
And then...
Long story short, over the weekend, the young lady had a chance to speak with her Black BFF and get my side of the issue and we had a chance to converse a little more in depth the following Monday. Anyway, I told this story not to shame anyone or expose whiteness or whatever. ESPECIALLY because we see it everyday. I decided to blog about this because, though blackface may not be a recurring everyday issue, Black people being offended by someone and that person being offended by our feeling that way IS an everyday recurring issue. Whether it be blackface or police brutality, excessive force or the exemption of Black suffrage at the hands of
lazy people who couldn't farm their own land and build their own country terrorists America's founders. EVERYDAY on a much larger, much more painful scale, Black pain is dismissed and covered in pictures of #newBenCarson. I wasn't pissed that this young lady had the audacity to be upset because she's an artist. And artists are sensitive about their shit. I was pissed because she heard me say that I was offended and got mad at me being offended.
Hell of an argument to have in a "post-racial society". This is America, not utopia. Don't get to fooling yourselves. There's work to do.
dig and be dug...
