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chuckleslove wrote:I feel like I'm missing something as to why this is controversial. So count me in the crowd saying "what's the big deal?" because I have no idea.

I first saw this when Kenny Mayne did his Straight Cash Homey parody of Moss a few years ago:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzPfXwktEzk[/youtube]

humanrefutation wrote:A white person attempting to portray any other race in the media has been considered historically insensitive and racist - usually blackface was used by white people in conjunction with other stereotypes about African Americans, especially at a time when African Americans did not get jobs in the film industry. It represents a horrid period in the racial history of our country.

I know that might not have been the intention of the person wearing the blackface mask, but that's why there is a difference between intent and impact.

The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface.

Minstrel shows lampooned black people as ignorant, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, joyous, and musical.[citation needed] The minstrel show began with brief burlesques and comic entr'actes in the early 1830s and emerged as a full-fledged form in the next decade. In 1848, blackface minstrel shows were the national art of the time, translating formal art such as opera into popular terms for a general audience.[1] By the turn of the century, the minstrel show enjoyed but a shadow of its former popularity, having been replaced for the most part by vaudeville. It survived as professional entertainment until about 1910; amateur performances continued until the 1960s in high schools, fraternities, and local theaters. As blacks began to score legal and social victories against racism and to successfully assert political power, minstrelsy lost popularity.

Swan Vox wrote:
I saw that Kenny Mayne piece as basically a modern lampoon on black culture. Regardless of the validity of Moss's behavior or not...ESPN went out of it's way to find a number of aging white game show hosts to mock a young black athlete. Not good.

Obviously they continue to perpetuate their ignorance.

Ayt wrote:

Swan Vox wrote:
I saw that Kenny Mayne piece as basically a modern lampoon on black culture. Regardless of the validity of Moss's behavior or not...ESPN went out of it's way to find a number of aging white game show hosts to mock a young black athlete. Not good.

Obviously they continue to perpetuate their ignorance.

Or it is simply a lampoon of Randy Moss. If the piece was about a white guy would it have been a lampoon of white culture?

humanrefutation wrote:A white person attempting to portray any other race in the media has been considered historically insensitive and racist - usually blackface was used by white people in conjunction with other stereotypes about African Americans, especially at a time when African Americans did not get jobs in the film industry. It represents a horrid period in the racial history of our country.

I know that might not have been the intention of the person wearing the blackface mask, but that's why there is a difference between intent and impact.

bucks59 wrote:[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj6FGepMkGI[/youtube]