Black Face and Brown Face were serious things in their day. It was when a white person would dress up and a Native person, a Black person or a Chinese person to entertain white people and make fun of the assumed culture. No actors of the given races were availible, or more likely, they were not allowed to act. Or when they did they were given roles that were insults. The Lone Ranger's Native sidekick was named Tonto, for slow or stupid. So, clearly when white people don the guise of another race and don the colour of their skin, this is a bad thing when there is no context.
The position that I have to take as a white person is that it was an unconscionable act, in the least very stupid. And because I am white the feeling is that, I Must, say that it is wrong.
Natural20 is Indian, that is her cultural base is from India, and she thinks it was stupid but does not hold it against him. She holds other things against him like Election Reform and other important issues. She said it like this: he was at a costume party and it was themed and he dressed as Alladin and he took it too far, but after appropriating the dress and everything else, coloring his face was just a minor step to complete his image. Then she chuckled, as no Indian would ever want to be that dark, they all want to be light skinned.
Half the responses on the internet, I say half, but in reality it was more like 90% of the ones I saw, seemed to exonerate his behavour from 18 years ago saying, that his actions in the years following the incident bely any perceived insult by dressing Brown Face. The people in his school where the insult was perpetrated felt that he had given no offense at the party and that his context, meaning he as the type of teacher he was, no one thought he was doing anything racist at the time or since. The people thought he took his role beyond what was necessary, but it was not meant to make fun of any culture.
That said, I am white and some would say that I am just defending my tribe.
And are they? The Liberal party was quick to move on, but e Conservatives and the other parties were not. The Conservatives were a little two faced, they emphasized the event to the press and admitted that they had dug the photos up to be used during the election, but in private memorandum to party members made no mention of this incident. Did that mean that they did not really care? The other parties, the green and the NDP held the photos more strongly. The NDP, the only leader of a party that is a minority, a brown faced minority at that, is not eager to forgive, certainly not publicly. The Greens with the only female leader, which is a different sort of minority, stated that they thought that this was a distraction from important issues. They were not saying that racism was not important, they were saying that in the face of climate destruction, everything pales in importance. The People's Party of Canada, also right wing, seemed to say that the liberals were racists just like them, but their leader was hiding it better.
So. It comes down to this: the polls suggest that the Liberals have 37% of popular vote, Conservatives, 34%, Greens 10%, NDP 9% and the PPC 5% and 4-5% undecided. What this is all about is 1-2% of the vote. With 5 parties, 3% of the vote is the difference between a majority government and a minority government. In a post electoral reform election, this poll would mean a minority government with the Left wing parties supporting the Liberals. But in that absence, it is about moving the conservatives up 3% and moving more people to the Greens and the NDP.
Listen.
37% is enough for a overwhelming majority with 4 parties. With 5 parties it is also as likely. If the Liberals lose 3% to the Greens and NDP but the Conservatives maintain their 34% it becomes more likely a minority government. But it is not certain. Nothing is certain. The Right amounts to 39% of the vote and the Center 37%, the Left 19%. In our electoral system 37% can be a majority or a minority.
I have not looked into many of the policies of the parties, but I know the Conservatives, they speak nice words but have hidden agendas and their actions make their words lies. The Liberals are Conservatives with a conscious, which means they mean the nice things they say, but they don't say what they mean: they are an old party that is used to the revolving door of Canadian politics, sweeping to power for a decade then switching with the conservatives for another decade: they believe this is how the world works and it is a game. They are wrong.
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