
[Recently, photographs have come to light with the governor of Virginia in black face in his college year book from the eighties. A lot of people are angry about this so… When is black-face okay?]
When you go to a costume party in the eighties dressed as your favorite rapper and you also want to have some sort of political catastrophe bite you in the ass in thirty-five years.
When you are a white reporter in the 1950s attempting to write an expose’ on what it was like to be black in America’s deep south. Spoiler alert: It sucked.
When you’ve got no face at all and the only ones available are black ones.
When you are Robert Downey Jr.
After you’ve just put on some white-face, thought better of it and so are trying to cover it up.
When you want to alienate a very large group of people all at once and there aren’t any children around for you to molest.
When you are trying to make a satirical point and want to fail at it utterly.
When you work in musical theater and it is 1910.
You are producing Shakespeare’s Othello and every black actor is either dead or working on Medea’s Arbor Day.
You have to get rid of a can of shoe polish right away and eating it my kill you.
You want to get a photograph of a large group of people with their mouths agape and speechless…
I hate Robert Downey Junior even more now 😡
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It was a very eccentric performance, Deb.
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He’s a tosser 😛
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That got an LOL out of me, this morning, Deb…
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This is my biggest concern with assimilating the black horseman of the apocalypse into my essence. I’m not black. I’m yellow.
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If you look at my tribal membership, I guess I’d be red…
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Do you have a membership card?
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I have a roll number.
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I read Black Like Me and was always surprised no one picked up on the painted face. By the end of the day in the deep south – didn’t he wipe sweat off his face at least once?
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Well, I cheated a little on that one, Robyn: He used UV tanning and B vitamins also, so it was more than a paint job.
Sure was a gutsy thing to do…
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It’s been awhile since I read it – forgot about how he did it. But yeah, really gutsy!
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Your natural face is half black/half white and you just want both sides to match.
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Like that guy on Star Trek?
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Ha ha. I had to google him, but yes.
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