Dartblog

In a recent email, Saybrook College Community Issues Committee Chair Akina Younge ‘11, asked students to avod using blackface makeup when creating their Halloween costumes because of its racist connotations. This email was reportedly responding to outrage from the campus over several blackface costumes last year. Blackface makeup was originally popularized in 1830. In minstrel shows and other theatrical productions, this makeup was used to bring African American culture to the world, though in a distorted lens. While I certainly understand the sentiment of African Americans who cringe at portrayals of happily ignorant “darkies”, I also worry that sometimes we go to an extreme in regulating rather than educating.

One of my favorite Bing Crosby movies, Holiday Inn, features a blackface routine entitled “Abraham” celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation. Often left out of televised versions of the film, the routine uses several antiquated stereotypes, but is entertaining and very much a product of the time period in which the film was made. I have always believed that by removing scenes that might bother the most sensitive among us, we are attempting to white wash a period of our history. I believe that this is just as counterproductive as constant reminders of our past. We should acknowledge that we struggled with slavery, but then move forward with the mutual understanding that we are in a better place. I naturally bristle at the idea that we should police costume choices or speech, but perhaps if students understand the history and talk openly on the subject, they can make their own decisions. Educated choices are always preferred in my book to rules that are more likely to encourage rather than prevent unthinking behavior.