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Just months after a now-infamous blackface incident, a couple of Maties students have made headlines for blackface once again.
When two students made headlines for dressing up as black domestic workers for a party, many couldn’t seem to understand why young white girls painting themselves black and padding their backsides in mocking imitation of black female bodies wasn’t OK.
Why the big fuss?
These girls were lucky enough to be born into families that could afford to send them to University, while the women they were mocking were black domestic workers: Women who, due to the systematic oppression of black people during apartheid, still suffer from circumstances that has caused them to rely on cleaning the houses of others for very little compensation for a living.
Yet still many didn’t understand what the big deal was.
Even those who could understand why blackface is hugely offensive felt sympathy for the women. People thought, what if they didn’t know? What it they didn’t mean to offend? Everyone was jumping to defend their ignorance.
This is why we have such a dismal situation in our country, a land full of well-meaning but still offensive and often unintentionally racist white people.
Blackface is recognisably offensive.
Blackface has a lengthy historical context. It is not just about dressing up in a fancy dress and then playing a character in a gently teasing way. If that were the case, ‘White Chicks’ would be as bad as blackface. It’s not.
This list explains it best:
Most people know this. It’s not hard to understand.
So why do people keep on doing this?
Considering the historical damage done, and the painful memories blackface brings up, and the offensive message it sends, surely asking white people not to cross that line isn’t too much to ask?
But apparently it is, if the rage-filled comments underneath my original article about blackface are anything to go by. It’s almost too much to even expect white people to be aware that the line exists.
You would think that a country with a history of institutionalised racism would create a generation who wants to heal, to discard old racist habits, and to be more aware of their fellow human beings and what is and is not hurtful behaviour towards them.
Instead, we have a generation demanding, with tears in their eyes, to be coddled.
White coddling.
We’re not allowed to be angry at the young ladies who, in a country like this one, where racial tension is still high, donned blackface.
We’re not allowed to be angry at the young ladies who grew up in a post-apartheid era, were taught that racism is wrong, taught that white South Africans are not the only South Africans who matter, and who still were so oblivious of their fellow human beings that they actually thought blackface was OK.
No, we must coddle them, and make allowances, and be understanding, and make excuses for their ignorance.
And no doubt now we’re not allowed to be angry at the young Maties students in blackface.
The photo caption reads, “Hanging out with the Williams Sisters [sic] last night at the Boli’s 21st. Let’s hope they don’t get kicked out the varsity for this one!”
Don’t tell me these students didn’t know exactly what they were doing. Not mere months after the previous blow up at Tuks. Don’t try to tell me these students are not racist.
But we just don’t expect them to understand, and we protect them and make excuses for them, because they’re white. Any attempt to educate us white people on why certain behaviour is no longer acceptable is met with shrieks of “why are you trying to make us feel guilty!”
We are so ridiculously coddled, we’re guaranteed to be allowed to dismiss any attempt to try make us stop actively hurting our fellow human beings with thoughtless racism as an attempt to make us feel bad for who we are.
When do we stop coddling the precious little white people who can't handle being told when their behaviour is offensive and harmful to others?
White feelings.
It’s all about placing ultimate value on white feelings, and protecting them at the cost of everyone else.
We can’t explain why blackface is offensive, damaging and hurtful, because that hurts the white feelings of people who want to dress up in blackface without ever being criticised for it. “We don’t see the problem! How dare you suggest there's a problem when we don't see it!?”
We can’t talk about how blackface is and always has been used to dehumanize, belittle and degrade, because that brings up history, and white feelings just can’t cope with any mention of history. “Oh get over the apartheid and the slave trade already! We’re so sick of hearing about it!”
We can’t discuss the privilege that keeps on coddling white people, keeping us oblivious and unaware, because that, again, hurts white feelings. “Why are you trying to make me feel guilty!?”
And as long as we have that attitude, South Africa will never fully heal from the wounds caused by our history.
Follow Laura on Twitter or visit her blog.
Follow Women24 on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
When two students made headlines for dressing up as black domestic workers for a party, many couldn’t seem to understand why young white girls painting themselves black and padding their backsides in mocking imitation of black female bodies wasn’t OK.
Why the big fuss?
These girls were lucky enough to be born into families that could afford to send them to University, while the women they were mocking were black domestic workers: Women who, due to the systematic oppression of black people during apartheid, still suffer from circumstances that has caused them to rely on cleaning the houses of others for very little compensation for a living.
Yet still many didn’t understand what the big deal was.
Even those who could understand why blackface is hugely offensive felt sympathy for the women. People thought, what if they didn’t know? What it they didn’t mean to offend? Everyone was jumping to defend their ignorance.
This is why we have such a dismal situation in our country, a land full of well-meaning but still offensive and often unintentionally racist white people.
Blackface is recognisably offensive.
Blackface has a lengthy historical context. It is not just about dressing up in a fancy dress and then playing a character in a gently teasing way. If that were the case, ‘White Chicks’ would be as bad as blackface. It’s not.
This list explains it best:
Most people know this. It’s not hard to understand.
So why do people keep on doing this?
Considering the historical damage done, and the painful memories blackface brings up, and the offensive message it sends, surely asking white people not to cross that line isn’t too much to ask?
But apparently it is, if the rage-filled comments underneath my original article about blackface are anything to go by. It’s almost too much to even expect white people to be aware that the line exists.
You would think that a country with a history of institutionalised racism would create a generation who wants to heal, to discard old racist habits, and to be more aware of their fellow human beings and what is and is not hurtful behaviour towards them.
Instead, we have a generation demanding, with tears in their eyes, to be coddled.
White coddling.
We’re not allowed to be angry at the young ladies who, in a country like this one, where racial tension is still high, donned blackface.
We’re not allowed to be angry at the young ladies who grew up in a post-apartheid era, were taught that racism is wrong, taught that white South Africans are not the only South Africans who matter, and who still were so oblivious of their fellow human beings that they actually thought blackface was OK.
No, we must coddle them, and make allowances, and be understanding, and make excuses for their ignorance.
And no doubt now we’re not allowed to be angry at the young Maties students in blackface.
The photo caption reads, “Hanging out with the Williams Sisters [sic] last night at the Boli’s 21st. Let’s hope they don’t get kicked out the varsity for this one!”
Don’t tell me these students didn’t know exactly what they were doing. Not mere months after the previous blow up at Tuks. Don’t try to tell me these students are not racist.
But we just don’t expect them to understand, and we protect them and make excuses for them, because they’re white. Any attempt to educate us white people on why certain behaviour is no longer acceptable is met with shrieks of “why are you trying to make us feel guilty!”
We are so ridiculously coddled, we’re guaranteed to be allowed to dismiss any attempt to try make us stop actively hurting our fellow human beings with thoughtless racism as an attempt to make us feel bad for who we are.
When do we stop coddling the precious little white people who can't handle being told when their behaviour is offensive and harmful to others?
White feelings.
It’s all about placing ultimate value on white feelings, and protecting them at the cost of everyone else.
We can’t explain why blackface is offensive, damaging and hurtful, because that hurts the white feelings of people who want to dress up in blackface without ever being criticised for it. “We don’t see the problem! How dare you suggest there's a problem when we don't see it!?”
We can’t talk about how blackface is and always has been used to dehumanize, belittle and degrade, because that brings up history, and white feelings just can’t cope with any mention of history. “Oh get over the apartheid and the slave trade already! We’re so sick of hearing about it!”
We can’t discuss the privilege that keeps on coddling white people, keeping us oblivious and unaware, because that, again, hurts white feelings. “Why are you trying to make me feel guilty!?”
And as long as we have that attitude, South Africa will never fully heal from the wounds caused by our history.
Follow Laura on Twitter or visit her blog.
Follow Women24 on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
