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Liberal leader in blackface controversy
Justin Trudeau, leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Prime Minister, has been photographed in blackface twice in his life. Once in a high school performance in which in blackface he sang “Day-O”.
Then much more recently in 2001, he attended a party with an “Arabian Nights” theme in blackface.
And although not being mentioned in this controversy, there is also the 2018 official trip to India. Where Justin Trudeau made a fool of himself on an international stage with his Bollywood wardrobe:
Is Justin Trudeau’s wardrobe malfunction also racist? Does he think that this is formal attire in India?
All of these incidents not only expose Justin Trudeau’s complete lack of judgement but his continual surprise at the criticism he generates. It’s as if his liberalism protects his behavior from media criticism. (If it where just the incident in high school I would let it go because we have all done things in high school, that we would not repeat today.)
Published in Elections
So some politician went to a costume party almost twenty years ago. This is news, because. . .?
On Fox they were calling it “brownface.” I guess that’s less offensive.
I remember Mitt Romney’s high school controversy in the 2012 election. If these photos where of say Andrew Scheer we all know what the media’s response would be, and 20 years ago, Justin Trudeau was an adult, from a politically active family – who presumed himself to have a political future.
Couldn’t it be said that he merely takes a rather expansive view of the shared cultural heritage of the British Empire and later Commonwealth? I’m sure Yellowknife has a great deal in common with Cairo, Kingston, and Bangalore. They…uh…
These controversies are proof certain people actually think less of themselves and their heritage than they should. They always feel they are being ridiculed.
Others have some outsized pride and a weird possessive selfishness and call it “cultural appropriation”.
Is this what being a racial or ethnic minority for does to people over time? Or is it being stoked by race-mongers and marxists? I think we know the answer.
To me, the only time dressing up in a costume or changing your complexion is wrong is if the intention is to make fun of that group. Dressing up like Michael Jackson with one glove and doing the moonwalk is not making fun of black folks! Even if done badly.
Conservatives should push back harder rather than take pleasure when they do it to point out the double standard, because it perpetuates their goals.
Trudeau is a left-wing joke. But I really don’t care that he dresses up in costumes for bad talent shows.
You must understand that Trudeau is a Canadian and therefore is inherently morally superior to you and I. Accordingly he’s allowed to do worse things than you and I are allowed to do. This is what is known as cognitive dissonance.
I’m distantly looking forward to the upcoming Federal election up there. Black/Brownface controversy aside (as you mentioned, if this had been Andrew Scheer he would have been fed to the polar bears by now), Canada seems to have become even more regionally polarized than the US.
I have a large number of Canadian friends on Facebook – all of them residing in BC, Alberta, and a few in Saskatchewan. There are a couple of folks in Vancouver that spend much more of their political ranting on US politics, but I’m 100% sure they’ll be voting Liberal. Other than that, I see a LOT of screaming that Trudeau needs to go. I know, however, that BC, AB, SK, MB and even the Maritime provinces could fill every one of their seats with a Conservative but if Ontario and Quebec for the Libs (QC is a given) it won’t matter. Even saw a meme yesterday saying that if Trudeau is re-elected the residents of ON and QC will need passports to visit Alberta. Ouch!
No Stanley Cup for a Canadian team has led to a lot of angst and foolishness in Canada. Perhaps if Mr. Trudeau dressed like Mao the Chinese will allow shipments of Canadian garbage to resume.
This is the Federal election. This just came out in our 10th day of the election.
Let’s see . . . we had Eddie Murphy do an SNL skit in whiteface, and the Wayans make a movie called White Chicks where they dress up as white girls. Both were funny, but there was no such “crime” as cultural appropriation back then.
I don’t really care what happens to Trudeau . . .
Perhaps if he dressed up as Maurice Richard he’d win in a landslide. Oh wait! That would just give him the Quebec vote, which he’ll get anyway.
When Democrats do it, they call it “brownface.”
When the Dems do it, they are showing solidarity. Yeah, that’s it. Completely different.
Remember when the University of Northern Colorado, in response to the then-burgeoning Native-American school-mascot controversy, decided to give white-people a taste of their own medicine by naming their squad “The Fightin’ Whities?” They thought white-people would be totes triggered…they thought wrong!
From Wikipedia: “At first, the team’s T-shirts used “Fightin’ Whites” as the name of the team, but various media reports referred to the team as the “Whities” instead of “Whites.” The team’s popularity skyrocketed. In response to customer demand, the team eventually began selling shirts under both names…The team sold enough shirts that they were eventually able to endow a sizeable scholarship fund for Native American students at Northern Colorado.”
Become? Canada has a much longer history and deeper divide in terms of regional alienation. Primarily because we dont have an electoral college type system (although I dont know how it could be drafted into a parliamentary system). As you said, living in Alberta we typically vote for the opposition, if Quebec or Ontario goes solidly Liberal they could form a government without winning a seat anywhere else. This has happened many times in the past, Jean Cretien’s governments in the 90s where formed without a single seat in the west and only a few from Atlantic Canada.
This leads to a much stronger regional alienation – particularly if the parties in power surrender hope of winning opposition seats. Meaning they’ll pursue policies like the “National Energy Policy” of the 1980’s that broke Alberta’s economy. Driving thousands into unemployment and bankruptcy.
To be fair, Trudeau and Harry Belafonte pretty much have the same ideological beliefs, and Harry got there way before Justin did.
Roger Doucet would kill on both the Canadian and the American national anthems at the Forum in Montreal. Maybe Justin could try that to improve his image…
Another instance of Justin Trudeau in black face in the mid 90s.
3rd Times the charm. Is this a normal part of his life? At this point do we have to wonder if he’s a member of the Klan?
The Beaverton
For those unaware – the Beaverton is a parody site.
Just a thought – would it have been better if he painted himself blue or green? Like the cartoon Genie?
Agree wholeheartedly OCDN. We were up in Calgary a couple of weeks ago visiting some very good friends. They’re in real estate and while they still do okay it’s nowhere near their success during the boom years. I grew up in Southeast BC and even though we always made snide comments about Albertans inability to navigate curved roads, there was a strong solidarity with them. You’re 100% correct in the regionalism – I remember a HS social studies teacher explaining that Canada is split into thirds – 1/3 Quebec, 1/3 Ontario, and everyone else. That’s still roughly accurate, isn’t it?
Keeping my fingers crossed for y’all.
Bobby Orr was my hero when I was a kid. For road hockey games I wouldn’t play unless I could be Bobby Orr. I HATED the Habs!
The best thing about it is it’s making liberals say blackface – oh excuse me, I meant brownface – is no big deal hahaha! They crack me up. Here is an actual comment from a lefty on Reddit:
Think he’d be saying that if it had been Trump? Hah.
Couldn’t agree more. I’d like to hear any of the talking heads say something like: “I don’t think that Mr. Trudeau did anything wrong. Sometimes a costume is just a costume. I only hope that the next time he is tempted to jump on Twitter to virtue signal in a similar situation about behavior that was not intended to offend, he will remember how it felt to be on the receiving end.”
But Harry Belafonte is actually talented.
That’s why we call them “double standards.” They expect us to be kind and lenient and excuse these youthful indiscretions. That’s the standard they hold us to. They will never do the same for us.
You must force them to play by their own rules: “Trudeau-CANCELLED!” until they beg us to change the rules. We do not win by demonstrating kindness.
The rule has to be mutually assured destruction. It’s the Share or Steal game. You must keep playing STEAL until the nitwits on the left finally back down.
Tim Pool’s commentary on this has been spot on. We should all decry the double standard but conservatives are just too sensible to really care about this. Brown and black people aren’t suffering in the Canadian streets from Trudeau youthful foolishness and they probably don’t care all that much. We conservatives and classical liberals simply won’t be able to pretend that we care about this nonsense.
You don’t think having a conservative come to his defense won’t make his head explode?
I never thought that my handle would be abbreviated down to OCD… If you could see my place, you would know thats not true.
I like to think of Canada as being quartered. The West, Ontario Quebec and Atlantic Canada. But like the “Animal Farm” example not all quarters are equal.
Constitutionally Canada is divided into provinces and also into regions. Ontario and Quebec are described as both provinces and regions so their grip on power is constitutionally enshrined. Further demonstrating the flaws of the Canadian constitution.
The recent interview on Netflix, these incidents and the India trip debacle, will probably cause Ontario to dump Trudeau. Toronto views itself as a world crass city – and anything or anyone who tarnishes or embarrasses it in front of outsiders (particularly Americans) gets dumped. Toronto seems to think its in a rivalry with NYC, you know, Bay St vs Wall St. Naturally this news would surprise New Yorkers.
The left happily accepts grace from the right. They do not return it.
I dont care about this nonsense at all. I do however hold him to the standard that he holds others. We all know that if the leader of another political party, had photos leaked out of this nature. Justine Trudeau would be leading the lynch mob, calling for resignation, and further for an RCMP investigation of a hate crime.
Conveniently these photos surfaced during an election campaign, so I suggest the simplest thing to do is not vote liberal in this election. I’ll let him skate on the hate crime, but will demand he be investigated for bribery and obstruction of justice.
Let’s see, blackface, then brownface. Is there no culture Justin hasn’t painted his face as?
Oh look. The Left is now even moving away from saying “brownface”: