Mary Elizabeth Williams: Is blackface the new black?
Earlier this season on “Mad Men,” Roger Sterling decked his face in shoe polish and sang about “the darkies” to an amused crowd at a garden party. It was startling and uncomfortable in classic “Mad Men” fashion, an illustration of how far we’ve come since those less enlightened days of the early '60s.
Or maybe not.
This week, on the Australian variety show “Hey, Hey, It’s Saturday,” a group calling itself the Jackson Jive appeared in a “tribute to Michael Jackson.” Out strutted five men in Afro wigs and blackface, shimmying like jumping beans to “Can You Feel It?” Then came the punch line – another member of the entourage stormed the stage in a red sequined jacket, sunglasses and heavy white makeup. There was also a flash of a big-lipped cartoon character with the caption, “Where’s Kahahl?” a reference to the venerable Australian entertainer of Sri Lankan heritage.
While the rest of the world was left to ponder if the word “tribute” means something different in the Australian language, one of the guest judges pulled the plug, giving the act a decisive, angry gong. The audience booed.
Another judge, Harry Connick Jr., then spoke up. After giving the act a resounding score of zero, he eventually said, “We’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons, that when we see that we take it to heart ... If I knew that was going to be part of the show, I wouldn’t have done it.”
But could the act truly have been a well-meaning tribute? Do we just need a little context? The Jackson Jive appeared on an earlier incarnation of “Hey Hey,” when they were college students 20 years ago -- and won. Oh, right, the late '80s, when minstrelsy was all the rage...
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Or maybe not.
This week, on the Australian variety show “Hey, Hey, It’s Saturday,” a group calling itself the Jackson Jive appeared in a “tribute to Michael Jackson.” Out strutted five men in Afro wigs and blackface, shimmying like jumping beans to “Can You Feel It?” Then came the punch line – another member of the entourage stormed the stage in a red sequined jacket, sunglasses and heavy white makeup. There was also a flash of a big-lipped cartoon character with the caption, “Where’s Kahahl?” a reference to the venerable Australian entertainer of Sri Lankan heritage.
While the rest of the world was left to ponder if the word “tribute” means something different in the Australian language, one of the guest judges pulled the plug, giving the act a decisive, angry gong. The audience booed.
Another judge, Harry Connick Jr., then spoke up. After giving the act a resounding score of zero, he eventually said, “We’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons, that when we see that we take it to heart ... If I knew that was going to be part of the show, I wouldn’t have done it.”
But could the act truly have been a well-meaning tribute? Do we just need a little context? The Jackson Jive appeared on an earlier incarnation of “Hey Hey,” when they were college students 20 years ago -- and won. Oh, right, the late '80s, when minstrelsy was all the rage...