Julianne Hough dressed as "blackface" for Halloween
In case you missed it! Julianne Hough, famous for her dancing role on ABC's Dancing With the Stars, dressed up as a black character from the famous Netflix series Orange is the New Black. Personally, I am offended. I don't understand why she had to paint herself brown in order to convey to the public that she was Crazy Eyes (name of character in show). This made me think about a quote from "The Analects," "A gentle man is ashamed to let his words outrun his deeds". I believe this means to let your actions speak louder than your words and clearly Julianne did not think before stepping out of her mansion. Although Julianne apologized and said it wasn't her intention to offend anyone, how can we accept her apology? An apologetic tweet is not enough for a thoroughly thought out racist costume, but also "The Analects" teaches us how to not judge others because of their wrong doings, but to look into ourselves for the reason why we only see the bad in that person. So rather than being upset about Julianne's clearly racist stunt, I will accept the fact that some people in our society are not knowledgeable about black culture and the struggle for equality.
I couldn't agree more with you Jamie! From the point of view of an African American I am ready to stop buying anything Julianne Hough promotes or sells but based on the philosophy it is wrong to judge her. The Analects also states that knowledge is the realization that you know things but you don't know everything. Julianne clearly does not understand that this BLACKFACE stunt is unacceptable and unsuitable for today's society. I will not judge her because it could have been a mistake but this is clearly a sense of ignorance or lack of a better term, uneducated actions on her part.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad someone finally bought this up! I have seen this on the news about two times and I was seriously dumbfounded. After Mrs. Valente taught us about black face, someone from this day and age just had to do it. She did not have to paint herself black to portray that character.
ReplyDeleteI also love the quote you chose and the way that you explained it: "A gentle man is ashamed to let his words outrun his deeds". (The Analects)
So I will not judge her because it was as Alyssa said: "clearly a sense of ignorance or lack of a better term, uneducated actions on her part."
I agree with you Jamie. I am shocked that Hough's would do such a thing not knowing how it would offend others. A proper apology is in order; just tweeting an apology is not enough. It is true that we should not judge others based on their wrong doings, but we do question why people perform actions without thinking about it first. It is important to be knowledgable about different cultures around us and be respectful towards others.
ReplyDeleteBut let's be real here guys, some people really just DON'T know. Like I didn't know that Japs was a derogatory word for Japanese or how people say a person of mixed races are mutts. Yes, in a perfect world everyone should know about this kind of stuff, but a lot of people don't. I don't know if Julianne DOES or DOESN'T know about the origin of blackface, but if she does know and still dressed up it would be wrong, but you can't really persecute or judge someone for being wrong if they didn't know it was wrong.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Julianne may not have known that putting on that costume would bring up so much controversy. Like Brianne said she probably didn't know. And also the analects tell us not to judge and to be more understanding.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe she did that. I didn't even see the costume and I'm so happy you brought it up. Some people really just don't understand the black history and the hard times that African Americans went through and still go through now. Maybe it was an honest mistake but even though she may be a celebrity she has to realize that there is still a whole world outside of her bubble that can take offense to the costume. I agree with Brianne that we shouldn't persecute her I just feel that celebrities need to be more sensitive to others, because lets face it the world doesn't revolve around them.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though Julianne didn't do this to offend anyone, it was just a mistake. We can all be ignorant sometimes. Just think about it, whether you want to admit it or not I'm sure there have been times where we've made a racist joke to our friends, maybe without even realizing it. For example, when you criticize your black friend for speaking proper you may say something like "you talk white". Whether you realize it or not, if you're black you're actually just offending yourself by even remarking such a thing! Are you trying to say that black people are unable to speak proper? I feel like I'm getting off topic but my whole point is, don't be quick to see a fault in others when we are guilty of it also. Just because we didn't wear a black face costume for halloween doesn't mean we are any less racist or ignorant(if that makes any sense)
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