Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
The Progressive Blackface Genre
On the one hand, it shouldn’t be surprising that the party of secession, slavery, segregation, internment camps – and more recently of the FBI and the CIA – would elevate blackface to a career-ending art form. But now, even our mild-mannered Friends To The North are not only getting in on the act but seem hellbent on outdoing the Major League Baseball of blackface, the Democratic Party of Virginia.
The top three elected officials in Virginia, you may recall, have been in a months-long Mexican standoff to hold onto their coveted positions. Gov. Northam first denied, then apologized for, then expressed uncertainty about, and again denied appearing in blackface in a school yearbook. In defense of Northam, he was only a 25-year-old medical school student at the time. Were Northam to go full-Republican and resign in disgrace, he would be replaced by Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax. The problem for the Democratic Party of Virginia, though, is that Fairfax (D) has been credibly accused™ of sexual assault. That leaves Virginia’s next in line to succeed Northam, Attorney General Mark Herring (D), who acknowledged his career in blackface during the fallout from the Northam controversy.
Personally, I find blackface funny. But progressives, by definition, do not. And political movements, like individuals, should be judged by the standards to which they hold others, let alone themselves. Enter part-time Canadian Prime Minister and full-time virtue signaler Justin Trudeau, the boy-man whose recent troubles serve to remind conservatives that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
Trudeau, a member of – wait for it – the Liberal Party of Canada – has spent his entire life surrounded by pasty white progressive hypocrites like his horndog father (and former Canadian Prime Minister) Pierre Trudeau. It is not known whether the elder Trudeau ever donned blackface, but I like to think he had the good sense not to go full-body shoe polish like his son. At least Justin hasn’t compounded the situation by saying things like “Some of my best friends don blackface.”
No, Justin Trudeau has played his hand about as well as one could hope, flatly saying that he could not say if, let alone how many, other photos might emerge of him dressed in blackface and a turban. He did not try to be funny by, for example, promising to atone for his actions by granting Canadians any three wishes.
But with an election only weeks away and new another new video of Trudeau in blackbody emerging only last weekend, for many Canadians, it’s enough to make them wish he’d crawl back into the magic lantern from which he emerged.
Published in Elections
All this from a man who one time corrected a questioner’s phraseology, replacing “mankind” with “peoplekind.”
What a smarmy little git.
Full disclosure: I once put bootblack around my eyes for a zombie costume at a Halloween dance. I discovered that bootblack is not hypoallergenic. I recovered. Now I only resemble a zombie when I am debugging (someone else’s) spaghetti code.
Resemble a Democrat is more like it!
The funniest thing about the whole “Trudeau blackface scandal” is that when he’s asked he can’t recall how many times he wore blackface. Just let that sink in for a second. It would be an acceptable answer if he was a minstrel in the 1920s looking back on a long career in the vaudeville circuit, but he’s the elected head of a modern developed nation. You would think he would at least be able to provide a ballpark estimate.
The Canadian commentator Rex Murphy refers to him “the Prime Minstrel.”
That’s funny, eh?
I don’t root for scandal (usually). But for these weaselly progressives I’m always a little heartened when they get theirs.
Justin is a big believer in the concept of “Social License”, that being the idea that if you’re sufficiently progressive in one area it should give you a free pass in other areas. For example, the idea that a national Carbon Tax creates sufficient Social License to build oil pipelines (even if local jurisdictions don’t want pipelines through their territory).
One might hypothesize that this principle also applies to things like blackface, unsolicited kisses and hugs, obscene inherited wealth, etc. etc.
“I’m Woke! That means I have Social License to be a jackhole occasionally!”
You gotta understand, in Québec blackface isn’t (necessarily) considered a big deal. They still do it on television from time to time.
So, is he Mr. Tambo or Mr. Bones?
Just a note to you white kids out there, if you want to be Michael Jackson for Halloween, stick to the 1997 version or later. Don’t even think about being a 70’s or 80’s Michael.
Pretty soon, Progressives will be advocating for the elimination of Halloween. I found this gem of a commentary on the Net:
remember ted danson and blackface in the 1990s?
WHAT the hell was he thinking?
@roblong : what the hell happened?
I foresee a black man accused of donning white face, only to explain that he was competing in a Michael Jackson competition at the time.
Why can’t our highest elected official don blackface, #LikeTheyDoInCanada?
Someone has to do it.
https://www.steynonline.com/9759/blackface-narcissus
That was good.