Justin Trudeau

Reading the news this evening, and how he 'blacked up' not once, but several times, I found myself reaching similar conclusions to CanadianGran, and for similar same reasons.

I withdraw my previous post.

I remember being in a school play when I was about 8 or 9 years old. The general storyline was about how we are all, no matter what size or colour etc, the same as each other. I can quite clearly remember being dressed up in a tunic and cut off trousers, a san pan hat that had a long black pigtail stitched into the inside and which hung down my back. And my face was dusted in yellow chalk and makeup put on my eyes to make me look Chinese. The rest of my classmates were similarly dressed and made up to resemble other nationalities.

The whole aim of that school play, back in the 1950s, was to try to demonstrate why diversity is a good thing and, no matter what colour skin you have, we are all the same underneath that skin. How depressing to find out now, 60 years later, that what me and my classmates did is now considered racist and offensive. And worse yet, there are photos of us.

Your posts are particularly helpful CanadianGran thank you, as you have more insight into the political situation over there - especially at a time of electioneering!
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As a Canadian, and someone who voted for the Liberal party, I cringed when I saw the photo. He was raised in the spotlight, being the son of a long time Prime Minister and celebrity mother; so even in 1990 he should have known better.

Having said that, he has promoted multiculturalism and women's rights in his cabinet since he was elected. I see this as something done in bad taste, but with no deliberate racism intended. He has apologized.

We have just started a campaign, with the vote being in November. This will indeed hurt his poll figures, especially since one of the leaders of an opposing party is a turban wearing Sikh.

Stupid indeed, but I think the Liberal party may overcome this.

Indeed- different world now. And we do do daft things when we are young. Our generation should be so so grateful that none of it was recorded in any way, not even photos.

He has acknowledged that with hindsight it was wrong, and has apologised.

I think everyone that has ever worn a fancy dress costume that is now regarded as not correct should put their photo on social media in support of Trudeau #imspartacus.....

At tmes this kind of over sensistivity makes me sad, because it stirs up annoyance against a particualr group. There was a lot of fuss about wearing poppies a few years back and on our local news many people of mixed race, persons 'of colour' (if I can say that without being barred forever from the internet and having to ritually disembowel myself) were asked about the supposed 'offence' and without fail they were either bemused at the suggestion or regarded it as a nonsense. One Asian man said that he understood poppies were a mark of respect for the fallen, so why should he or anybody else be offended by that? Nonetheless the bigots were out in full force shouting about 'immigrants trying to stop the nation showing respect '. This seems so often to be the end result of such hypersensitivity - which does make me wonder who really generates such doubtful news. The girl who didn't like the Morris dancers said that the more she watched it the more upset she got. Why then watch it and get upset ? Better perhaps to find out what the origins of this custom are.

Rosina I will be alongside banging my head as well.

I agree with you, lemongrove. What a ridiculous state of affairs when people are called racist for attending a fancy-dress party, and darkening their skin colour.

Who cares?

The fact that Trudeau apologised makes the complaints seem legitimate, when of course, they are not.

I wouldn't give a toss if a black man whitened his face and dressed, say, in a pin-striped suit and bowler hat for a party! Why would I?

Isn't it about time we all just ignored these stupidities, and learned to laugh a little?

Real racism will continue if people keep making such a fuss over nothing at all!

I thought Trudeau made a mistake in apologising at all.
He should have said, for heaven’s sake it was a dressing up event at the school, akin to acting, or a nativity play ( children with teatowels on their heads.)An Arabian nights theme so we all dressed up ( get over it!)
Being a politician of course, he did the usual dead eyed apology.

Trudeau was young - he did something that was OK then but now considered unacceptable. Why do we need to even know this?

EllanVannin. I was like your relative. I bore no resemblance to my sister at all. She was all pink and blonde and I was dark and swarthy. I didn't look like either of my parents. We had the endless jokes about coalman/milkman and we all smiled. But it wasn't really very funny at all. I think my mother was quite hurt about it at times. Think about it ... you're basically saying that Mum's had an affair o-0

LondonGranny "Darkie Day" has nothing to do with race. It relates to an ancient pagan celebration of the winter solstice and involves people disguising themselves by painting their faces black and wearing dark clothing (the name has now been changed to Mummers Day to avoid causing offence)

I've said this before---that I have 7 GGC, one is flaxen-haired and blue-eyed, the others are fair but one of them is dark, tanned skin and green eyes like Sabu in the film of the same name. Same father for all children and my GD has been stopped in the past thinking he'd been adopted or jokingly the coal-man's child but instead of my GD being hostile, she's laughed about it.
How would others react ?

When the boy was younger my GD was approached by a Spanish lady who was an artist and made a pencilled drawing of the boy, which has been framed and is on the wall in her house. Brilliant artwork.

Dunno where this idea that blackface wasn't considered offensive 20 years ago comes from. I remember in the 60s when my mum was guardian to four black overseas siblings who attended a private school here how deeply offensive it was. I think it just wasn't on most white people's radar because they didn't bother to think about it.
Also the idea that Morris dancers blacking up has nothing to do with mocking black people is mendacious. Why is it called 'Darky Day' in Padstow if it's nothing to do with race?

How many of these " anti's " whingers go abroad or even sunbathe here ? What is the purpose of their sunbathing ? None other than to change the colour of their skin ! Laughable
You greet these sunburnt people by saying, " my word you're nice and brown !" Would you answer by saying it's a racist remark ?
Double standards,eh ?

So many PC phrases to remember now - so as not to offend:

Mixed race - not half caste
People ‘of colour’ - not black (but at one time they themselves wanted that rather than being called ‘coloured’) - hard to keep up since we’ve almost but not quite, reverted back.
Asian - not ‘paki’ - but a lot of Indian people who don’t like Pakistani still use the term.

Remember we used to say ‘crippled’? Now it’s ‘has mobility issues’ (I think)

And now it’s Down syndrome - not mongoloid.

We have to learn to keep up and not offend.

Why should people be made aware ? We're all aware of the skin colours of various humans of this world, why should we be reminded all the time ? We also know, those of us who aren't ignorant nor uneducated, that we address these humans in the same way so what's the damn problem with everyone that we have to tread on eggshells all the time ? With everything ! It gets on my wick !!

This anti-business of everything has caused untold trouble !!

In the case of Justin Trudeau, it was insensitive - and he is right, he should have known better - but it was 20 years ago and to suggest that he should resign seems over the top to me.

The Black and White Minstrel Show is a different thing entirely. I watched it too when I was young but I had no awareness of how hurtful and insulting it was to black people - or why it was so. It is deeply offensive and I think it was quite right to drop it.

As for the Morris dancers, no racist motives were, or are, intended by the blacking of faces. However, as a black panellist on Jeremy Vine said, blacking of faces has some very degrading connotations for black people. I agree with Giles Brandreth who said that if it hurts people's feelings, why do it? Why not use another colour to signify the need in past times for workers to hide their identity?

This is an extract from BBC's Children's Newsround:

"Blackface was a practice in which black people were mocked for the entertainment of white people, and negative stereotypes were promoted across the US and Europe.

"In the early 19th Century, white actors called minstrel performers used to paint their faces black and do comedy routines about black people, which were racist.

"They would do insulting impressions of black people in very exaggerated ways - for example, mocking their accent.

"These depictions were inaccurate, hurtful and deeply offensive, but many white people saw it as an acceptable form of entertainment.

"Ben Holman, a campaign worker for the organisation Show Racism the Red Card, told Newsround: "This practice in particular came at a time when black people wouldn't be allowed on stage due to their skin colour."

When black people are directly asked if they find certain things offensive, they often do not reveal their true feelings for fear of being labelled "touchy", "over sensitive", "having a chip on their shoulder", etc, etc. I have recounted in previous threads how, when my husband first came to the UK, his white colleagues said they would change his name to make it easier for them to remember (he has a very simple name but they wanted to impose a typically English name on him). He refused and was labelled "awkward". Most of his non-white colleagues went along with this re-naming because they didn't want to be similarly labelled.

Agree Rosina. Unfortunately there is an election coming up in Canada and the opposition parties will use this for all its worth to discredit Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party. The irony is, the main opposition, the Conservative party, are much more likely to have racists in the party (my Alberta brother-in-law and his friends for sure!).

If they ban Morris dancers from blacking up, which traditionally was done to disguise their faces so that they couldn't be identified by their bosses, please can we also ban 'hoodies' which are far more sinister and often used to conceal the face of somebody with criminal intent.

There was an item on This Morning yesterday with a young woman complaining that she had seen Morris dancers with their faces painted black. There was a Morris dancer on explaining the tradition of it which goes back hundreds of years and is nothing to do with racism. For goodness sake.

EV, they sure do now!

FGS, what about the wonderful singing of the Black and White minstrels in their shows ? Nobody complained one bit !!