Ralph Northam, a government official, specifically the governor of Virginia, incriminated himself when pictures of a scandal from his 1984 medical school yearbook resurfaced. The pictures featured a young man in blackface and another young man in a Ku Klux Klan outfit. Suspicions have risen that govern Northam is the young man sporting Blackface. However, he denies this claim.
Very popular international clothing brands, Prada and Gucci, showed how out-of-touch and insensitive they were when they recreated Blackface stereotyping through their clothing and accessories. Specifically, Gucci debuted an $890 balaclava black-knit women’s sweater that covered the bottom half of the face of the wearer and featured a mouth cut-out with bright red lips. Not to mention in December, Prada developed bag charms and window displays that resembled Black Face characters. When questioned about their racist antics Gucci said “they deeply apologize for the offence caused and are using this experience as a learning experience for the Gucci team as a whole”, while Prada said they “abhor all forms of racism and the creatures weren’t meant to mimic blackface caricatures.” Even popstar Katy Perry pulled shoes off of her line because the tip of the shoes resembled blackface, once again.
In a society where racial tensions are at their highest, it is only routine that popular designers and government officials, use their platforms for good. But instead, designers like Gucci and Prada and government officials like Ralph Northam have taken it upon themselves to accidentally-on purpose embarrass and bully Black Americans to push their social agendas.
Unfortunately, according to Ralph Northam, Gucci, and Prada their blackface antics were not to be confused with Thomas Dartmouth Rice’s Blackface minstrel shows. If they aren’t to be confused, why do the motives, visuals, and stereotypes parallel one another?
Spike Lee is protesting both Gucci and Prada saying that they “don’t have a clue” about racist blackface imagery. Blackface began as the Irish, who lived in the slums with Blacks, wanted to show whites that they were more like them than they thought. The irish were thought to be on a lower social ladder than Blacks at that time. However, around the 1830s the Irish had to find a way to be more connected. The Black Face shows distorted images of blacks and amped stereotypes in the form of caricatures. They normally used burnt cork and shoe polish to color their faces black. They portrayed Blacks as lazy, ignorant, superstitious, hypersexual, cowardly, thiefs, etc. The first popularly known Black Face character was Jim Crow, who unfortunately is still being used today. Black face was commonly used to show superiority, but was a confusing concept to understand. In the early Black Face years there were claims that it was a mix of admiration for black culture and disrespect; meaning that there was mocking and praising at the same time.
It’s unfortunate that so many people in our society are seemingly out of touch with reality, and out-of-touch with the history of communities other than their own. The clothing brands that we attempt to support the most by wasting our last dime lack inclusion, and care for their biggest customers. I applaud Spike Lee, TI, Waka Flocka, and many other black artists for protesting and refusing to accept the apologies of these “prestigious” clothing lines. Those facing scrutiny for blackface performances and broadcasting always state that the malice and race hatred was never intended. However, we support if we have to guess if they care or not. I implore the Black community to stress the importance of black business. Look into black owned fashion businesses like Amir James and ServedFresh that meet our financial, social, and ideological needs, while serving us fashion at the same time. Unfortunately, some black issues only require black skin to understand and some issues are important enough for others to adopt an empathetic approach.