Blackface

It is black history month in the UK and so as in February in Norh America, stories of 'black' history and racism abound in the local media. One story I happened on today, talked about how modern examples of blackface (the business of painting someone to look black). The article goes on to talk about how this kind of race impersonation is disrespectful and highlights how we us race, wrongly, for our entertainment.

The article even suggested that you would never find the opposite happening for entertainment. But there are heaps and heaps of examples all over the place, that are either truly benign or wrongly ignored. There is the classic, Legolas from The Lord of the Rings. I don't know Orlando Bloom's bloodline, but pale skinned, straigth blond hair with blue eyes is not it. I remember feeling quite dupped when I learned what Mr Bloom really looked like (having not known him before the LOTR films).

Of the perhaps even worse examples of Zhang Ziyi, a native Chinese, playing Sayuri in Memoirs of a Geisha. In this case it is very possible that most of us didn't even realize how we were being deceived, or worse that it was a deception...that there are infact differences between Chinese and Japanese.

Like Hate-crime laws, I find it really difficult to face things like black history months. Aren't all crimes, hate crimes? And isn't all history worthy of highight. Would it not be better to have "Hypocracy" history month or "racism" history month or "revolution" hisotry month in which all forms of hypocracy are studied, in which every kind of racism is faced, discussed and worthy of air time, and in which revolutions of every nation are put on equal footing, are explored together to help us all understand how and why we are different, and where our borders overlap and share common ground.

I think this theme based approach, rather than subject based approach would do far more to help us learn about black history...but also about all our histories.

Then perhaps we wouldn't stand for blonde children playing the role of Annie, or of white people playing russians, or french staring as italians...or humans playing the roles of elves...