America The Biased: Modern Day Minstrel Shows

For those that do celebrate this holiday, I’m sure most of you have already have a Halloween costume in mind. For those that are still on the fence about what you should be for Halloween, do yourself a favor and do not follow the trend of idiots that have been doing blackface this year.  This is completely offensive to anyone that has any human dignity and to Black Americans in particular.

Media Take Out, a blog that posts pictures and stories of celebrity gossip, posted a recent picture of two young white men, William Filene and Greg Cimeno, as George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin for Halloween.  The man dressed as Trayvon Martin is in complete blackface makeup. I wonder where they got this idea from? Julianne Hough from Dancing With the Stars? Hough also

Courtesy of Huffington Post

dressed in blackface makeup for a Hollywood costume party when a group of friends dressed as the cast from the new hit NetFlix series, Orange is the New Black.  She was dressed as the character “Crazy Eyes,” played by Uzo Aduba (a real Black woman). She apologized later for her offensiveness.

Is this the new trend? Blackface in the 21st century? I do not expect these “special” individuals to know anything about minstrel shows or the history behind it because they think this is “okay” to do. The level of offensiveness with these costumes is beyond disgusting, as Media Take Out put it, it is inhumane.

Similar to slavery, the history of blackface and minstrel shows runs deep into our history.  Minstrel shows consisted of White and Black actors in blackface makeup mimicking stereotypes of African slaves with music, dance, and shivaree for pure entertainment. This is where all racist Black stereotypical characters, such as Mammy, Jezebel, Jim Crow, Pickaninny, Coon, Buck, and Uncle Tom, had originated. Minstrel theatre was  introduced back in 1828 by Thomas Dartmouth “Daddy” Rice, a White minstrel show performer, dressed in tattered clothes wearing the burnt cork makeup singing “Jump Jim Crow.” Rice toured all over the United States and England profiting off of this character. It soon became the most popular form of entertainment from the 1840s to the 1870s.  This form of entertainment also transcended into Hollywood where movies, shows, and other performances displayed the same racist stereotypical roles of Blacks. Some of these roles are still depicted in the entertainment industry today.

So next time anyone has the bright idea of dressing up in blackface, do yourself a favor and go hang a noose on a tree…..for yourself.

The Government Shutdown: Aftermath of Bigotry

I wanted to see the end results of the shutdown before I wrote about it. Honestly, the aftermath of the shutdown has left an

Picture from theunboudedspirit.com

impression of who can the American people trust? I know that is the impression left with me. Generally, when it comes to the government I am skeptical, but Mr. Capitol Hill can’t even perform the basic function of his job.

Everyone wanted to blame the Republicans, which I agree is most at fault, but it is the Democrats too. Their job is determine a budget for the year and implement it not bicker. No one was willing to negotiate anything. I just felt like the shutdown was meaningless and it was all tactic to try and repeal the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, to issues about raising the debt ceiling. I think the only reason why the shutdown ended was due to us about to default on our bills which would have been even more chaotic. This outlandish scheme of political games acted by Congress at the expense of the American people is outlandish. If this shutdown lasted more than it did, we would have went into another recession. What little of this economy that has been rebuilt down to crumbles once again. We as Americans cannot afford to go through that again.

According to TIME magazine, the government shutdown actually costs the American people $24 billion. There were about 800,000 federal employees without work for 16 days. Regardless the shutdown still took its toll on the economy costing us $24 billion according to TIME Magazine. All of this because some old guys on Capitol Hill want to treat politics like its sport while they were the ones who still got paid.

We need to start lobbying for ourselves rather than trusting these politicians with taxpayers money. We elected them and as representatives of our districts we have every right to complain and make sure that our voices are being heard. We can say go Independent but until those candidates can get endorsed for millions of dollars who is really “listening” to them anyway. This is America where green is a color that no one can debate. The more green you have the better off you are. But the question still lies: Who can you trust in this land of greed?

Extra! Extra! Update

Hello World!

It’s so nice to finally find time to write again! I started my first semester of grad school so I have been a busy bee. This post is long overdue.

The premise of America The Biased started as an idea to be a two-part piece speaking about the Trayvon Martin case (Part I) and its aftermath with the public.

Since it has been so long since I have been writing I have decided to change its direction.  America the Biased will be a forum of posts where its focus will be on racism issues in America. I feel that there are so many issues related to race in America that it goes beyond the Trayvon Martin case. This tragedy harboring over us is still relevant to our daily being as American people of color.  There are so many other cases similar to Trayvon Martin’s story that does not get the same media attention, and I want to address those issues too. Racism is a form of apathy. Why not address it?

So when you see America The Biased you know you are reading my review, thoughts, beliefs, and opinions of current events related to racism in America.

I do have some new posts for you that I am working on. Most likely they will be posted by the end of this weekend (Sunday is my goal).

Also, Extra! Extra! will be posts about updates for the blog when I’m in the middle of posts. I do not like leaving my readers in the dark.  I feel so bad that I haven’t been writing. Not to worry because you will be cured of your apathy sooner than you think!

-Virago Kemet