Wholesome childhood memory - Lemmy.World
lemmy.world

People in comments of this post pointed out coloring your face black is racist.

May I ask you Americans why is coloring your face considered racist?

Coming from Europe, I personally do not see anything wrong with trying to color (in any color) your face to match any other race.

I believe is should be normal to color our faces in any color. Is it also racist if black person would color their face in other skin tones? Why? Also interesting thought: What about tanning yourself?

Or is it for some reason not ok to acknowledge people have different skin tones? Of course you do not do it out of disrespect, racism, etc. But out of acknowledging character you are trying to represent looks different than you.

I also noticed people pretend to not see differences in skin tones. What is up with that? I thought racism meant to hate or disrespect people of different races. But why is coloring your face considered disrespectful?

Maybe this image itself has racist background I do not understand, but I would like to know answers to my questions in general, since American culture has quit influence on quite a large chunk of our globe.

    • hostops@sh.itjust.worksOP
      0·
      8 months ago

      Well thank you! I can see there is much more to it than just “coloring your face to match skin tone of character you are trying to represent”. The coloring itself has been historically used as a racist act.

      So I get it now. My question now reads as “What is wrong with swastika - old symbol for sun” or something like that.

      • saltesc@lemmy.world
        0·
        8 months ago

        Once again, context. But depending on your audience, they may not know of any other context except the bad one. So while your intentions have nothing to do with what they perceive, it won’t matter.

        There are some things that had a big negative impact in an isolated area and isolated point on our timeline, enough so things become stained.

        Travelling internationally, you have to be aware of a culture’s history. Some things totally normal are very not normal in specific places and people of the world. I’ve learnt this as an Australian abroad. Many times I’ve learned something I couldn’t even imagine could be a thing, but fortunately most people make you aware first—assuming it happens a lot with trabellers—or have seen my face confused and then drop as it’s explained to me. People are generally very nice after a, “I’m so sorry. And thank you, I’ll make sure I remember that.”