For Halloween, yes, it is not respectful. My kid’s school certainly looked down upon it. Like everything else, it depends on the context. My kid’s school had a thorough, respectful study of Native American Culture. They made their own Native American clothings, not costumes, and conducted fairly authentic ceremony at the conclusion of the themed term.
Wearing Swedish costumes on a World Day is a great way to celebrate a different culture. Dressing up in a Chinese costume on Halloween feel different to me.
“BUT - my point - even with that very simplistic upbringing, this I knew - blackface is mocking and cruel.”
Are you saying that you knew that someone who dressed as Diana Ross or Michael Jordan because they thought they were cool and wore darker makeup to look like them woukd have been doing something g that was considered wrong even though dressing as say Dolly Parton with overdone rouged cheeks was just fine? I find that hard to believe. There is a difference I think between dressing in the way the person in the first photo in issue here did ( next to the KKK dressed guy) and dressing as a specific person one likes.
Wearing blackface for either is not right. In the first instance one should intrinsically kniw it because it is mocking and cruel. But in the second case one needs to be educated about the history of blackface or I don’t see how one would realize that it’s wrong.
Going to dive in here and probably raise some ire, but…
I think things are out of control. I have had black boyfriends, Hispanic boyfriends, etc… I do not recall at all that it was taboo in the 80s to dress up in a costume with blackface, and I am from super liberal SoCal. An ex and I attended a party dressed up as a topical couple at the time, using dark brown foundation to make our skin dark. We thought we were being satirical. We weren’t being racists, we were attending a party. No one cared. We didn’t care when two black actors dressed as white women in the movie White Chicks.
Holding everyone accountable for every tastless thing they did 30 years ago is getting ridiculous. Now, of course, it’s a different story. It should be. We can agree that now it’s unacceptable, but my goodness, if everyone lost their job because of a stupid thing they did in their youth, there would be a lot of unemployed people.
I 100% appreciate NOW that it’s off limits. It is nowhere near the same category of sexually harassing someone. That’s always been wrong, then and now. The problem is,how far back do we go? When do we stop being outraged? Thomas Jefferson had slaves. Al Jolson wore black face. What about Black Like Me, by JohnHoward Griffin? What about, more recently, Rachel Dolezal? Do we only ask people to resign for wearing blackface 30 years ago when they did it as a costume? Enough is enough. Everyone knows it’s totally taboo to do it now, but 30 years ago? We need to give people the benefit of the doubt.
I’ll just add that the photo of Northam shows him standing next to an apparent Klansman. Why isn’t everyone trying to figure out who that person is? THAT I find to be completely offensive, even 30 years ago.
It’s not just the cheeks. 
Northam now claims that neither of those people are him, which makes me feel like he must be the one under the Klan hood. How could anyone ever prove it or disprove it?
I agree that that photo and what it represents are a far cry from dressing up as Diana Ross or any other famous person in a way that is meant to be positive. But remember how many people “dressed up” as Obama in ways that were not meant to be positive, and also threw in racist and even more horrifying elements, like a noose around his neck.
Any attempt to wear a ‘funny’ costume is not an attempt to be positive. The only safe costumes now are fictional fantasy characters or superheroes or animals.
Did I miss something? I didn’t think we know for sure which of the characters RN is portraying. I really don’t see much distinction between dressing in blackface in the traditional minstrel type dress and standing next to a person in a KKK outfit or being the person in KKK outfit. As others have said, in 1984 it should have been pretty obvious that that was extremely offensive.
That being said, the history of how a person has lived their life in the interim should be more significant than one really repugnant lapse in judgement. The way he handled the whole incident was not good and leaves his honesty in question at this point. partyof5’s response in post #33 was perfect and succinctly clear.
Now it seems RN was smart to wait. With more and more examples of blackface among politicians and celebrities coming to light, either they all get a pass or they all retreat into retirement. That won’t be happening.
In the end context is everything. A photo is a snapshot in time and 30+ years later, short of a photo caption, how does anyone know what the context was. I am sure it is not the case with the RN photo but what if this was taken at an event that was protesting the racist blackface and KKK legacy and the costumes were a “working demonstration” of why it is wrong. Far fetched sure but possible and without that first hand knowledge could be taken very out of context.
I heard an interview with David Alan Grier last week, before any of this came out. He told a story where he was in a dance group with Madonna, before she was Madonna. They were back up dancers and the group did not have, and could not find, enough African American dancers. The solution was some of the white female dancers darkened their skin to give the artist the video they were looking for. One of the dancers that darkened her face was Madonna. A photo of this dance group could very well surface today with no back story and Madonna would be labeled racist while I think most everyone can agree, based on her actions over the last 40 years, she is far from racist.
Pretending to be a minority to enrich yourself and gain power is just as offensive as dressing up as one…Elizabeth Warren should probably sit this one out rather than demanding people resign.
@Iglooo , who has deemed it disrespectful to wear a costume dressed as an American Indian? Where is the rule book? Why is it okay to dress up as a geisha, or a princess, or a genie, or a football player? Is it only okay to dress as a white American? It’s too much, and when everything is suddenly verboten, we all become fearful.
Of course racism is terrible and unacceptable. The N word hasn’t been acceptable for close to a hundred years I’m guessing. NOW, I think EVERYONE understands that blackface in this era is a big no no. In the 80’s it was not seen as mocking and cruel. Using the N word, definitely not acceptable. I do not think that every single person who has ever worn black face is a racist. Was Mark Twain a racist, or was he writing in the context of the time in which he lived?
I find myself thinking that I hope no one has a photo of me at that party. Will my entire life be in ruins because of a costume I wore 25+ years ago? Will all my charity donations, my volunteer hours, my job working with kids, the money I’ve given to help family members, the vegetables I grow, the recycling I am fervently committed to, the literal days’ worth of helpful advice I’ve given to friends, family and strangers here on CC, the town initiative I created and chaired to improve town roads, the healthy eating campaign I was part of for three years in my kids’ Middle school, the time I’ve devoted to raising my kids to ensure they are good citizens, the hours I spend every single April clearing other people’s trash from the roadside, and every other good thing I’ve done in my life be destroyed because I went to a party with dark brown makeup on my skin over 25 years ago?
Btw, I am a Democrat and extremely liberal. These calls to resign though, at least in the case of Northam, are disproportionate to the “crime.” And again, we should all be more concerned about the Klansman costume next to him in that photo. We should be focused on real issues, not things that happened decades ago that are viewed in today’s context. (And I am not including bonafide sexual harassment in that, which has always been wrong.) The current fervor to pillory people for “wrongs” viewed through today’s lense, is, IMO, a backlash against the current climate of racism and division that has intensified in the last couple of years. In our zeal to distance ourselves from the alt right, or whatever they are called at the moment, many people have jumped on a search and destroy mission to show their disgust and intolerance of racism, real or perceived. Racism should not be tolerated, but I don’t think we can try to turn back the clocks and make accusations against people who were not doing much worse than displaying poor taste decades ago.
Alright, now do your worst…
Whoa. Speak for yourself here. Dressing up as Michael Jackson, in a way that made it clear you admired Michael Jackson, might not have been seen as cruel by many in the 1980s, but minstrel-show style blackface was seen as mocking and cruel because it was clearly mocking. And this is one reason the Northam picture is so offensive: the blackface guy is dressed in Stepin Fetchit attire. That’s way different from someone dressed up as Michael Jackson to do a moonwalk.
Is it @“Cardinal Fang” ? Is it more okay to dress as OJ Simpson, or a minstrel, or Michael Jackson? Who gets to decide if it’s racist, or amusing, or just a costume? You? Me? Society? What is it about that costume, worn decades ago, that makes it racist for that time? I was an 80’s girl and the 80’s I lived in wouldn’t have though much of that costume. Heck, there was a Sambo’s coffee shop right near my house until about 1979!
I do not think the person in the alleged Northam picture, obviously from decades ago, is any more offensive than anyone else wearing a blackface consume from decades ago. Minstrels were supposed to be entertainers, if I’m not mistaken. We admire entertainers and emulate them all the time. I do not agree with you. I do not think just because he was wearing a minstrel costume that he’s a racist. If that was last week, or probably even 15-20 years ago, yeah. But not 30 years ago.
Was Stepin Fetchit himself immoral? If I recall correctly, he was the first African American actor to earn more than $1M - back when that was a lot of money!
I do agree of course, though, that minstrel blackface today - and in the 1980s - is wrong. I’m still much more bothered by the juxtaposition of the blackface and the Klansman robe.
I think many people are also forgetting that there is a big distinction between exhibiting poor taste, and being a racist. Guy in blackface, tasteless. Guy next to him? Horribly unfunny and offensive.
Was there ever an explanation for why Northam’s nickname was “Coonman”?
He said that two people at VMI called him that. He didn’t know why and he said he didn’t know how it got into the yearbook. I haven’t heard any of his classmates say anything about the nickname.
He liked to hunt raccoons of course. Good eatin’ for a medical student.
/sarc off
(But seriously, what about Daniel Boone and his coonskin cap. Can kids learn that piece of historical iconography anymore?)