Was jolson racist or was he paying homage. I really don’t know. What did they think In the 20’s?

I would like to counter with a question of my own: is an act made racist by how it is perceived or by the intent of the person commiting the act? It seems that intent is no longer of any consequence, and that we are allowing it to happen at our own peril.

A clever person whose name I have lamentably forgotten once said that tyranny is the deliberate suppression of nuance. The idea of removing context and simply calling all blackface racist and therefore inherently sinful seems rather tyrannical to me.

OK, here goes my public admission. I trust the IDW crowd will not be too quick to judge me.
I've done lots of fat cartoon characters for Halloween over the years.
Technically, this means I have done:
White face - Krusty The Clown (twice, nailed it)
Yellow face - Homer Simpson (once with a bald cap, once I even shaved my head, full face neck and arm makeup!)
Marker face - Peter Griffin (easy, just had to draw balls on my chin!) & Comic Book Guy (Worst.Costume.Ever.)
Grease face - Bob from Bob's Burgers
Plastic face - Cartman (full-head rubber mask) & Homer again (yes I had to buy one, I already had the rest of the outfit!)
Pale face & Tattoos - Ozzy (he's kinda fat & cartoony)
Brown scruff face - Fred Flintstone (even had a Barney with me that year, with Water Buffalo hats!)

And yes, I've done full on Brown face as Fat Albert and Chef (Southpark). At the time, years ago, I remember specifically declaring I was doing brownface not blackface. I don't think that distinction is drawn anymore, but in my defense I grew up looking up to a lot these characters, especially Fat Albert & the Cosby kids who always ended episodes with a great life lesson, even bought the DVD set for my kids. I wasn't mocking black people, I wasn't doing Al Jolson and I certainly wasn't singing "Mammie!" all night - I was saying "Hey! Hey! Hey!!!" (I also do a great Krusty laugh!)

To be honest, the only thing I am personally embarrassed about doing Fat Albert is that Cosby turned out to be a goddamn serial rapist, talk about shattered childhood icons. It still breaks my heart, first and foremost for his victims, but also for everybody that he let down, including all of us kids, decades later. What a piece of shit. (Are we allowed to swear on this site?)

Otherwise, I wasn't being racist, I was honouring some of these great characters that influenced me in so many ways. Chef was the only adult on the show that the SP kids looked up to, he taught them real lessons, even if he was a horny bastard! I was so sad to see Isaac Hayes pass away.

Having said that, I wouldn't dare do something like that nowadays. My kids are right into Halloween, and it is very clear that blackface is off limits. Not sarcastically pining for the good old days, but just out of sensitivity to not offend anyone and a desire to not even 'go there' anymore. I've done that, no one got hurt, now I need new ideas. I've also been a Hari Krishna, Chilean Coal Miner, Father Guido Sarducci and The Dude, so there are more characters out there waiting for me to step into.

It, like most things, depends on the intent behind it. That said, simply painting your face black to imitate a celebrity or in general, as a white person, is not "blackface", as is often accused. Blackface is a particular style or application of makeup that's meant to exaggerate or mock black facial features.

If the person in blackface is next to a guy wearing a KKK hood then its racist. However, if the blackface is under the KKK hood that is appropriate mockery of racism and should be enjoyed by everyone.

I believe in freedom of expression. My only issue with the blackface controversy is the hypocricy. A friend of mine was a cameraman for Megyn Kelly, he lost his job when her show was cancelled over merely questioning blackface but meanwhile Kimmel has his despite performing in blackface. It just proves to me that if it wasn’t for double standards, the left would have no standards at all.

Couldn't give a fuck less about black face.

I know it was invented by jews, not that theres anything wrong with that

It's racist. But there's far worse things than dressing up in black face in the 1980's... like maybe publically supporting infanticied in 2019.

It's racist in the mind of the observer that is convinced that it is racist. If the person wearing black face has a racist mindset, then it's racist. A person who allows the media and culture to convince them that it's racist, then- in their mind it will be racist to them as well. It's not racism if the individual wearing black face is not racist. Somebody, somewhere is always going to be offended with just about anything, no matter what anybody does..Personally, I have no issues with colored faces.

From this point on, it's not funny anymore. Before this time, who cares.

I've been thinking about this lately, and Tropic Thunder is a good example of how something which is obviously blackface can be harmless and basically appropriate, or at least humorously transgressive.

I also try to recognize black people have good historical reason to be concerned about blackface, and it was not truly all that long ago. There are people alive today who witnessed genuine minstrel shows and Jim Crow-esque performances specifically intended to feed off of and spread racist attitudes tow as red black people.

At the same time virtually none of what present day people do to get accused of blackface bears any similarity to those shows, beyond the basic physical reality of putting black pigment on white faces. The Covington kids wearing blank paint for a blackout game, and children dragging up for Halloween seem like good examples of something which technically may be reasonably called blackface, but which is completely innocent and no one with any sense should discourage or find seriously offensive.

There is a broad gray area as well (Ralph Northam fits in here I think) where it is difficult to say what the intent was at the time, but it is certainly reasonable to find it offensive if the context is uncertain. The problem is that most of this is not able to be discussed, because to the extremists who control one side of the discussion are convinced it is all bad, and like many other topics, they believe people who disagree in this are evil or so ignorant as to be beneath disgust.

It can be both just like the reaction or judgement of it. It is about why the person is doing it, just like it is why the person is judging it the way they are.

It wasnt racist when people were doing it. The proof of that is how long the outrage took over it. I understand ideology changes over time and i even understand being behind a bit. Im from alaska...always a decade behind the trends! But outrage over 40 yr old percieved offenses is not something that can be defended nor should it. God help me when mullets make you a racist.

Personally, I see no harm in it. It's little different than dressing up as a Native American, Mexican, German (lederhosen), etc. While there is a historical element to it, that was so long ago, I would no longer consider it relevant. That said, for some people, it takes very little to be offended.

It is taboo, maybe insensitive, I wouldn't exactly call it racist though. It could be based on the intention in which its used. I don't think that it should be banned for acting or Halloween costumes. Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder was hilarious.