Updated: Forum on Thurs. to discuss blackface incident

This may sound a little harsh, but anyone who finds this offensive is a mindless drone. The only reason to think that this is offensive is because you have been programmed to think it is offensive, and accepted without thought that blackface is automatically a bad thing. Please learn to think for yourselves instead of simply accepting things by rote and then repeating them ad nauseum.

Blackface was once upon a time both discriminatory and racist. It was discriminatory because rather than hiring black actors they would just pay white actors to put on makeup whenever they needed a black role. It was racist because it was used to stereotype blacks. This Halloween costume has neither of those aspects. To call it discriminatory is a lack of knowledge of what discrimination means. Who was discriminated against? All the black people who wanted to dress up as bob Marley, but couldn't because this white guy did? To call it racist is simply foolish, this person was not mocking blacking people, he was supporting bob Marley.

I know a young kid who so much admired Obama he dressed up as him for Halloween. To bad you weren't around you could have told him that that's racist. Or is a black mask on a white person not racist? Would a white man wearing a bob Marley mask be racist? There is of course no substantative difference between the 2 except people have been programmed that they just hear the word black face and think bad, evil, racist. I once dressed up as homer simpson and painted my body yellow. I didn't realize at the time I as disparaging my favorite TV show, I thought I was supporting it.

These students were trying to live a post-racial society, one where the color of your skin doesn’t matter. Isn’t that the direction we were supposed to be headed? But clearly their skin color is the only thing that matters because if a black person had worn the exact same costume it would have meant nothing. Clearly society is not ready to forget about race. These students were ready to be post racial, but all those who criticize them cling to race as being desperately important. Many people will never be interested in a society where a man is not judged by the color of his skin.

JJ--
The reason why it looks like the Daily is biased is because it is biased. All papers are biased. All media sources (gasp) are biased. And some are biased more than others. Journalism is generally biased toward liberals and people who are so obsessed with political correctness that they've stopped using adjectives altogether (except when referring to conservatives or people who disagree with absolute political correctness, because you're allowed to judge those people in our society). You can see how a complete lack of adjectives would result in bad writing. Lol, that was a joke, for those readers who might have missed it.

But seriously, I'm glad that at least one NU student has seen the double standard and rejected it. Let's let everyone have a voice! If you're for equality and sensitivity and political correctness, look in a mirror before you start accusing others. Don't leave the minority (conservatives) on the wayside. If you do, you're just another bigoted majority member!

Wow, your right to dress up in an offensive costume is so sacrosanct that when someone calls you on it it's "trying to tear peoples lives apart?" Hilarious. A+ for reactionism, D for actual thought.

I think what the writers of this letter and the organizations they represent are entirely missing is the CONTEXT of what happened! Halloween is a silly holiday one day a year where people dress up as silly characters. I've seen guys dress up as rabbis, priests, women and homosexuals (ex: Bruno from the Ali G show). Are these costumes too offensive as well? What happened to freedom of expression? Clearly the purpose and intent of at least the person who dressed up as Bob Marley (I don't know what the other person was) was not too show disrespect. He was Bob Marley (a symbol of peace and respect)! Not Hitler, a Nazi, or a KKK member! Had the student dressed up as just a black man emphasizing stereotypical characteristics then I could completely understand the reaction. Or had the person wore a swastika, where the symbol speaks for itself, then I could understand the reaction. Or had it been on any other day outside of Halloween then I could understand the reaction. But dressing up as Bob Marley on Halloween and painting your face black, to resemble Bob Marley's character more, does not merit the reaction of the writers of this letter and the organizations they represent. I am not advocating that painting your face black is an appropriate Halloween choice, because clearly it has offended some people. However, the way in which the students offended handled this situation was very poor and I question their motives. Rather than confronting the "blackface" students and voicing their opinions and concerns, the offended students living in “the racist world of Northwestern" where there is “hunger, homelessness, sexism, and racism” wrote letters to the President of NU and to the daily calling for Town Hall meetings and a call to action. With all the other problems and places in the world where racism IS ACTUALLY an issue, these writers and organizations are blowing the whistle on something that IN CONTEXT was just a poor choice of costume. I encourage these whistle blowers to go find and fight real problems and real racism in our society. Handle the small stuff responsibly (which is what you haven’t done in this situation) and blow the whistle when you really need to. Otherwise, you simply lose credibility.

-A concerned NU student

P.S. I bet this “call to action against the injustices and racism on NU’s campus” is going to look really good on your resumes. I hope it was worth your credibility.