BYU and Black History Month = major fail

It’s Black History Month! Hooray! So let’s all celebrate an incredible amount of racism that has permeated society so deeply that it’s commonplace?

So this recently happened:

If you were in my near vicinity, you could watch as my head goes into Linda-Blair-esque revolutions of disgust. Make me watch this a few more times, and you’ll get to witness the apropos projectile vomiting (Caveat: I’m so fabulous that I sweat angel tears and shit glitter, so at least my vomit won’t offend you as much as this video. I’d like to think my regurgitative spewings have the lovely piquant aftertaste of roasted unicorn).

Thoughts? A’plenty.

1. Times it’s okay to wear blackface: NEVER.
2. Trying to highlight the unabashed ignorance of your interviewees by asking them questions about a white man “acting black” or a black man “acting white” (at 3:18) gets completely undermined when you open the video in an unrelenting Black-cent that hasn’t been seen since every single one of Carson Daly’s interviews of a black person on TRL. The misguided concept of this video is immediately devalued even further when you cater to a harshly stereotypical “black” manner of speaking (while thinking you’re cool).
3. Dude. BYU? This is a case study, at best. You know these are a bunch of un-diverse, monoracial white kids who are more concerned with partnering up and overextending some uterii while fulfilling the “I’m going to be a god someday” complex than worrying about diversity in higher education. Is there a more non-diverse university in this country? Fuck, anyone darker than pale wasn’t even allowed into the religion’s priesthood until the late 1970s, when the Church had a “divine intervention” (that was politically convenient.) Mormons, for centuries, referred to blacks as ”the Curse of Cain.” I don’t imagine diversity is a huge topic of discussion at BYU.  
4. Whoever did your makeup must have been a theater-department reject, unless you were going for an even darker stereotypical impersonation with your chalky-ass crack-mouth.
5. Let’s all recall the visionary wonders one can create in an editing booth. For the sake of all things holy, I’m going to assume that intelligent students on this campus turned and walked away (in shame, as you are a representative of their student body) when they saw an idiot in motherfucking blackface walking toward them.

Am I defending these interviewees? Hell to the no. You are a college-educated young adult, and your ass should know better. That whole “no one ever told me so!” argument doesn’t cut it, as you have more than enough resources to go out and educate yourself, even if you choose to whitewash your education beyond high school by attending BYU. The statements these students make are so flippantly absurd and mind-blowingly offensive that their obviousness doesn’t need any further illuminating.

This whole “acting black” and “acting white” shit is purely perpetuated stereotype that is characteristic of the systematic racism that has, for centuries, defined this nation. We elect the first black president, and people clamor to remind us that he’s half white? He gets criticized for telling black youth to pull their pants up? Why? Because he sounds ”too white”? Bullshit. There are wonderful black role models; there are wonderful white role models; there are wonderful role models of every ethnicity and color. There is no “acting white” or “acting black,” however, and continuing to express yourself in those narrow-minded terms only perpetuates the problem.

BTW, this idiotic motherfucker is not a wonderful role model.

(And FTR, saying you’re “colorblind” is a crock. When you do, you’re undermining and paying no credence to the long history of racial oppression that minorities of this country have endured and worked to overcome. You can be non-racist. But don’t be fucking colorblind.)  

I need a drink.