Why Is It Racist To Dress Up As Someone With Dark Skin At A Fancy Dress Party?

[dave50]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6328241/Tube-passenger-sparks-outrage-painting-face-black-Halloween-costume.html
It's ridiculous. He's not made any racist remarks or incited violence, all he has done is get dressed up for a fancy dress party. Anyway, I thought that imitation was the sincerest form of flattery?

[spathiphyllum]

the act itself may appear racist but are the actions racist? are the actions racist with ill intent

[New Judge]

Black people have been going to lengths to imitate their white counterparts for ages. Many of them straighten and dye their hair (into styles and colours which occur naturally in no black people) and others make efforts to whiten their skin. Nobody gives a toss about it. Nobody should worry about this either. Unless it's done to be deliberately offensive it isn't racist to emulate the appearance or mannerisms of black people.

[spathiphyllum]

[spathiphyllum]

that made me think of that video, NJ^

[ToraToraTora]

world's gone completely radio.

[naomi24]

More manufactured nonsense. Some people aren't happy unless they're 'offended'.

[Zacs-Master]

'ZM there is no question that the people(s) offended are the only ones to be able to say if they are or not.

That doesn't mean it isn't racist..'

erm....yes it does. How many people have to be offended before it becomes a racist 'act'? I wasn't aware there was a number where it was triggered.

[Zacs-Master]

Spice
'My Country, my rules, Zac.'

Which of the people in the story aren't from 'your' country?

[spathiphyllum]

If the person offended takes something in the wrong way, or personally, or misunderstands, or gives false connotations to whats in front of them, then that is their fault. That isn't to say the cause is racist.

[Zacs-Master]

It is if that person is offended. What can be miss understood about someone imitating your race?

How can you put yourself in that persons place and say how they should feel?

[spathiphyllum]

You can't, but you can tell them that they're not reading the situation correctly. Ie, dressing up like samuel L jackson and going blackface to represent the character you're trying to be isn't making a mockery of the entire race, they're not mocking anything. It just takes a someone to reflect that action to the blackface of back in the day

[spathiphyllum]

this isn't if the person is offended.. it's if the action itself is racist. It's not acting superior to any race, it's not throwing discrimination at all.. If anything it's doing the opposite.

[Zacs-Master]

It's not a matter of superiority. It's acting in a way that the person of the race finds personally offensive.

'if the action itself is racist' How are you quantifying that? I've already said YOU can't, only the person of the race being offended can.

[spathiphyllum]

"What can be miss understood about someone imitating your race? "

he's not, he's imitating a specific person, not a race. Also, that lady can't simply assume she's the same race as Samuel L Jackson simply because she's dark skinned.

[spathiphyllum]

So i'm white.. say you were black and i got offended by the way you spoke to me, that makes you a racist, right?

[Zacs-Master]

I think you're being disingenuous now. The lady is obviously of Afro Caribbean lineage.

[Zacs-Master]

Depends what you said.

[spathiphyllum]

So if that lady didn't find it offensive, then it wouldn't be racist?

[Zacs-Master]

That's a bit like asking the 'does a falling tree in a forest make a sound when no one is there to hear it'. But, yes it is 'potentially' racist.

[New Judge]

Q: “How many people have to be offended before it becomes a racist 'act'?”
A: One.

Recommendation 12 (of 70) of the report into the death of Stephen Lawrence:

DEFINITION OF RACIST INCIDENT

12. That the definition should be: "A racist incident is any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person".

That recommendation was accepted and has been implemented. So, if the lady who took umbrage on the tube believed she witnessed a racist incident, it was a racist incident.