A city councillor in British Columbia says an online mob of “extremists” and “politically motivated hackers” is responsible for uncovering and publicizing a photo of him wearing a blackface costume to a Halloween party in 2007.
Colwood Coun. Ian Ward on Monday addressed the photo in a statement on his X account after the picture, which was originally published on a personal family blog, surfaced on social media in recent days.
Ward acknowledged he posed for the photo wearing a Washington Bullets basketball jersey, a gold chain and a wig, with his teeth coloured gold and his hands and face painted black.
“times change”
Bro thinks 2007 was the Johnson administration.
People are saying in the 90s but I know we had a guy dressed as a terrorists with a brown face on Halloween day when I was in highschool back in 2002 and no one cared, but maybe it’s because slavery isn’t part of our history and that part of US culture hadn’t influenced us yet… These days people like to act like it wasn’t accepted for disguises around here 20 years ago even though it actually was. Hell, I know for a fact we even had some on TV after 2005 and no one cared…
People still think Group X is funny and not problematic at all
Never heard of that
I’m not sure what year blackface became for reals not okay. Definitely after the mid80s but also definitely before 2000
We knew it was wrong in the 90s, which is why edgelords like this dude (and Trudeau) were into it.
I place the limit of acceptability somewhere around Soul Man (1986).
Seriously, was blackface such a rampant thing in the aughts? It seems like everyone was doing it, but I wasn’t aware of it at the time.
No it wasn’t. Even in the 90s we knew it was wrong.
Revisionist history tbh, we absolutely did not know better in the 90s or early aughts, certainly not where I lived. The world was different before widespread Internet access and your pocket of culture, if it really was the way you think you know and remember was certainly not universal.
In 1992 Alladin came out - wearing blackface in a costume for that was definitely not the norm. You’ll find tens of thousands of pictures of kids dressed up in poofy hats and sweeping pants whose parents knew not to face paint them to be more accurate (and these are kids who’d get facepaint to dress as the lion king or a ghost).
It may be that it was just Boston Massachusetts being a haven for the political correctness but if you know anything about Boston you’ll probably know we have a long sad history of being racist assholes (especially to PoC, Italians, Irish, Germans, Catholics… even Native Americans! So I guess pretty much everyone).
I’m happy to admit there are areas of the US where blackface is still normal… but I think the adults are still aware of how problematic it is.
I absolutely believe that in a large city the culture you experienced was drastically different than what I experienced. I didn’t grow up in a city, and yeah things were pretty different for me as a result.
It’s okay, it just means your pocket of experience and mine pool from different demographics and normative values.
I grew up in Kentucky and dressed as Pocahontas when the movie came out, but nobody painted any kids face and blackface was definitely known & not okay.
We even learned some very questionable ‘heritage not hate’ bullshit, but blackface would not fly by the late 90s.
Well, just a few years earlier than this guy’s black face, a movie called White Chicks came out… two black dudes playing white face in an entire Hollywood movie (coincidently, filmed in B.C).
I don’t ever recall outrage over it, though.
That said, I guess we’re lucky that our politicians are only playing black face during costume parties, rather than wearing white hoods during regular business hours! LOL
That’s called punching up vs. punching down.
That’s a terrible concept masquerading as equity. In the future I suspect we’ll know better, but the double standard crap in this era is awful. There is no correct way to have racism, you either fight all of it, or not.
This mentality of punching up / down simply leads to outcomes of acceptable / unacceptable racism and that’s not the way to combat racism and inequality.
To be fair, the entire issue of blackface and its sordid history is much more nasty and nuanced than this thread would suggest.
If you want to find out more, look into the racist nature of minstrel shows, and their role in maintaining hierarchy.
I mean, if you want to take the cosmic perspective, blackface is fine too. It’s only forbidden because it was used for really racist purposes in recent history.
Something something coconut tree.
Really…
How do you enjoy those “white lives matter” protests?
My dude, I hate racists.
I also have a sense of humour, so stuff like comedy and costumes aren’t places where I tend to judge people. If I did, I’d think that most black and brown comedians were racist, and that most white ones were pedophiles or rapists. But I don’t.
My comment was in response to the question about people using <insert colour> face during that time, and it seemed to be more common than some of us can remember.
I don’t know anything about the guy in question, and it seems silly to judge him based on a basketball player costume he wore on Halloween almost 20 years go. We should use some common sense here.
My comment was in response to the question about people using <insert colour> face
It was about blackface, which you know very well. No-one has ever been offended by “whiteface”, because of what fucking happened in history.
You’re trying to equate these things. Like a person who would go to “white lives matters” protests and still convince yourself you’re not racist. That it’s “the same thing, we’re just making sure white people don’t get discriminated against”.
Hating yourself is pretty common, btw.
It was about blackface, which you know very well. No-one has ever been offended by “whiteface”, because of what fucking happened in history.
Not all white people share the same history, man. If you think that any white person is the same as every white person, then you’re being a real racist.
Nazis brutalized my family, so fuck you for thinking I would ever be ok with som “white lives matter” cunts. You are an asshole.
And more bullshit “but no white people have been oppressed as well”.
And when did this happen to be black people oppressing white people, hmm?
I’m Finnish. We were under Swedish rule, then Russian rule. That wannabe gotcha there doesn’t make “whiteface” any more of a thing. You can’t come up with an example of anyone getting offended by it, yet thought to equate it to blackface.
Just like the idiotic “white lives matter” people.
Everyone already knows this is wrong in so many levels and I completely agree.
But also, how the hell is that 50 Cent?! 50 Cent isn’t known for having an afro or wearing a Bullets jersey. Wear the G-Unit tank top, wear a head band, wear a baseball cap with a durag. Wear a bulletproof vest. At least have a higher quality piece.
Dafuq is this shit?
He’s very racist
He was probably searching his memory for a cool black guy and he could only think of 50 cent
But he’s exposed how stupid and ignorant he really is being because 50 cent’s never had an afro
I don’t know who this guy is, but his response seems ultra shitty.
Wondering if everyone else thinks this would have been a reasonable response: “it was a different time, black face wasn’t seen as raciest in the circles i kept, i apologize for any offence i caused, it won’t happen again”
I grew up in Texas and was taught that shit like that wasn’t even remotely acceptable well before 2007.
Grew up in Virginia in the 90s and early 00s, and black face was definitely something people knew was racist.
However, my foster brother’s elementary school hosted a costume party for thanksgiving one year, where you had to dress as either a pilgrim or an Indian. :/
Yeah, Indians and pilgrams were more acceptable; and, tbh, I still think it could possibly be considered acceptable if handled correctly, however neither kids nor their parents would likely put the effort in to do it right, so maybe it’s for the better that “pilgrams and Indians” is dying out (I could also just be starting to get old and out-of-touch though, but I’m not that old; I’m trying to stay up-to-date I swear ;~;).
However, I also remember that painting your face to change your skin color for the purpose of imitating another race, regardless of your original color, was considered wrong (at least it was in my family) because it was a form of discrimination (this actually caused me a lot of confusion when I became aware of the idea that not all discrimination is equal, and that some discrimination is considered culturally acceptable if it’s “punching up” or meant to even the playing field between races, cultures, sexes, etc).
I don’t remember it too well, but I highly doubt it was handled well at all. On another occasion, I went as an Indian for Halloween one year*, but my parents were working that day, so I went to Awanas (a sort of church thing if you’re not familiar) for a few hours before trick or treating. Turns out, Awanas doesn’t allow costumes, but let me stay. As the only kid in costume. While the rest of them were super smug about not being in costume, and the main church dude spent the whole time talking about how Halloween is evil. No one even mentioned the racist ass costume I was in.
*Yes. With dark make up. I was 9. That was also the last year I ever dressed up for Halloween. My dad still doesn’t fully get why that wasn’t an okay costume. My mom didn’t understand at the time, but does now.
I was also a hobo one year. Maybe we should start vetting kids Halloween costumes. Or at least mine.
TBH I went to school in Mansfield and they were still doing “Slave For A Day” until the mid 90s until someone pointed out it was mostly Black freshman being picked.
It was supposed to be a “fun” way to raise funds for whatever school program, and also for freshman to see a senior classroom. When your school district has a history of being one of the last districts to be forced to desegregate, though…
If you did blackface after the release of Bamboozled, no pass.
assume your talking about https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0215545/, never saw it
That’s the one. It goes into great detail about how blackface was used during vaudeville, and is quite gut wrenching.
It was a different time… 2007 🤣
That response is certainly better. The type of person to wear blackface is also the type of person who wouldn’t apologize, though.
His response could’ve only been worse/better if he had said “sorry, I learned from my prime minister”.
Though at least JT acknowledged it was wrong lol
I think just about anything would be better than what he said.
I wouldn’t say that it was a different time, or anything about the circles I kept.
I’d go with:
Clearly, I was ignorant of the harm my costume could cause. In the seventeen years since that photo, I’ve learned a lot about Canada’s history of racism and how harmful stereotypes further marginalized racialized Canadians. If I had better understood the iniquity that racialized Canadians faced, and continue to face, I never would have engaged in what I now recognize and denounce as a gross and harmful caricature.
My detractors imply that people can’t change. They’re wrong. People can change, and our town can change. I work hard to make this a thriving, welcoming community and I know that we shouldn’t let anyone distract us from the important work we have to do.
Leftist extremists??? More likely someone he treated badly in high school finally hitting back.
It was on the ex-wife’s blog that was allegedly hacked. Something tells me it wasn’t hacked.
Lol 2007 wasn’t 100 years ago. We knew blackface was wrong in 2007
A guy I went to HS with did it in '05 on Halloween. Ironically also dressed as 50 cent which is supposedly what this guy was going for (the guy from my HS pulled it off way better tank top, bulletproof vest, doo rag and in shape vs whatever this guy was going for) The kid was fairly popular, and had a lot of black friends that gave him the OK to do it. No one really cared. If anything people couldn’t believe it was him because he pulled it off so well. That guy can never get into politics now though, as I’m sure someone would dig up that photo.
How is black face even a thing in Canada tho… That’s American brain-damage…
I mean…they are just following the lead of the Prime Minister
You take that back!
This corrupt nepo baby dindu nuffin, mate!
The brain damage seems to leak from the skull into the hat.
Canada is the US, just 5 - 10 years behind
Literally: “It’s their fault for showing everyone proof of this shitty things I did.”
That must have taken a long time to plan and apply. And that whole time he just kept thinking it was a good idea…
That’s what I was thinking. Most of the time when I see these black face photos surface the make up is like super patchy, clearly applied as like a last minute goof.
This shit looks professionally done. Look how well it’s done on his hands especially. This took hours and at no point did he think “mayhap, just mayhap, I should consider a different costume, given I clearly have political aspirations”
The blackface merits the disappointment, but wow the gold teeth and chains take this to a whole other level.
It’s actually so bad. It’s like racist stereotype bingo
Is it “anonymous antisemitic, anti-law enforcement, right wing extremists” that keep bringing up the Justin Trudeau blackface photos?
How much you want to bet he was (rightly) critizining truedo
Justin Trudeau does it: it’s a hitjob by cons
This fuckhead does it: kill him.
As far as I can tell there’s general outrage about both. Although keeping score, this guy did it a decade or more later.
