Saturday, October 12, 2019

Trudeau, Blackface, and Racialized Masculinity

The article linked below offers a really interesting take on Trudeau's blackface scandal, arguing that he re-enacted the historical stereotype that black men are lecherous. For those who don't know, it recently came out that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has a history of wearing black and brown face. Specifically, some pictures surfaced of him at a party during his years as a teacher dressed - and made up - as Aladdin. This article traces how blackface was used by various racist organizations and institutions, including the KKK, to perpetuate the stereotype that black men are hypersexual, immoral, and driven by instinct to attack white women. By wearing blackface, the article argues, Trudeau is perpetuating this stereotype. Another way of thinking about it is that Trudeau donned blackface as a way to temporarily cloak himself in the image of a sexual, dangerous black man, but was able to literally wash that image away and return to his privileged status as a white man. In this interpretation, blackness is thought of as little more than a sexy costume. Trudeau was able to think of being black in this way because of his privileged race and the fact that he never had and never will face racial discrimination himself. He has, of course, since apologized for his actions, but this scandal provides an opportunity to reexamine the problematic issues of blackface in our time.

https://nowtoronto.com/news/canada-election-2019-blackface-trudeau-george-elliott-clarke-/

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