The Pnyx: Blackface

Michael McShane
Staff Writer

I don’t know how or why the use of blackface as lived past the early 20th Century, but for some reason there are people who think this is still a good idea – it’s not.

Blackface is just simply and morally wrong. Where is the humor in it? 

Where is the punchline in painting your skin black or brown for a costume that at the end of the day could potentially ruin your life?

Images stay on the internet forever. That is an everlasting fact about the internet, and so when a picture of blackface is put on the internet it will stay there indefinitely.

Family members could see it, friends could see it. Your boss could see it and there goes your career out the window.

This is a joke that has the jokester losing their reputation. Why, just to get some cheap laughs and potentially out yourself as possibly racist?

Nobody likes to be called racist, yet a picture of you wearing blackface is all people will need to confirm it. 

Are there people who have worn blackface but aren’t necessarily racist, yes, they just have bad judgement and made a mistake.

That mistake however has consequences that could take years to fix. 

The whole premise of blackface is a mistake that needs to end, yet with each new picture on the internet we allow it to live.

As horrible and offensive as the act is, there will always be people who are ignorant of how bad blackface truly is at a historic standpoint.

This belief that blackface is an “okay” thing to dress up as seems to come from all social classes and backgrounds – from a bunch of drunk college students to the prime minster of a country.

We as a society should have ended this practice half a century ago, but it lives on through the stupidity of a few who think that blackface won’t come around and bite them in the future.

College students should know by now that such a thing is inexusable and offensive. While no MNSU students so far have done this, we should make sure it never does.