White people:

Can we get a whole slew of you that are down to really, truly invest in combatting racism? In being well-versed about race? In having humility? In being ready to be wrong and get called out and experience the anger of a person of color when you’ve fucked up?

Because I need you. I need some help. I need to know that I can call a white person out on racism and be able to step away so y’all can:

• Call racist shit out before I feel like I have to break some heavy ass, normalized silence
• Handle some other white person who defends the first white person I originally called out
• Yield any questions from well-intentioned white people

Because god damn, I get tired. We get tired.

“But the point is that 30 Rock is using satire to show how absurd racism is”

But that entire paradigm of humor (satire, exaggeration) is dependent on some of the privileged people in the audience to be able to triangulate themselves about a relationship of the oppressed, the “good” privileged people and the “bad” privileged people. The “good” privileged people “understand” that racism and sexism are ridiculous and therefore do not need to critically address how they are complicit in those systems of oppression. The joke was never made for the “bad” privileged people to understand, anyway. Then the oppressed targets of the joke see nothing but further evidence of the nonsensical and nonstop proliferation of disparaging narratives about them produced by those that have privilege over them.

In this case:
“Good” white people “understand” how absurd it is that Jon Hamm is in blackface and so they can locate themselves as already oppositional to racial oppression in their passive acknowledgment.
“Bad” white people do not get the joke and/or care either way because they are racists, anyway.
Black people are then subjected to white people continuing to parody them well into the year 2012 for no reason other than humor and to apparently make white people feel better about how they aren’t (but actually are still very much so) complicit in anti-Black racism.

I’m sure you remember FHM Philippines’ wonderfully racist cover!

a-bayani:

satifice:

dumbthingswhitepplsay:

Of course you do, we just saw it a day or two ago.

Well, they pulled it.

Whew! That’s good, right? They listened to those who complained.

Except, here’s their response:

On Saturday, February 25, we uploaded the March issue with Bela Padilla on the cover on our Facebook page. Just hours later, a slew of comments on the supposed “racism” of the cover image and cover line flooded the magazine page, prompting the editorial team to re-examine the cover so that we could put into context its execution and assuage the concerns of our readers and non-readers as well who’ve weighed in on the issue.

We took all the points into consideration and have decided to take the side of sensitivity.

When FHM hits the stands in March it will have a different cover. We deem this to be the most prudent move in the light of the confusion over the previous cover execution.

We apologize and thank those who have raised their points. We apologize to Bela Padilla for any distress this may have caused her. In our pursuit to come up with edgier covers, we will strive to be more sensitive next time.

SUPPOSED “racism”? Scare quotes and all? Really? Do you know what this smells like? It smells like “we apologize but it’s not racism!!!”

Of course, it doesn’t end there. (Because it never does.)

Bela Padilla, the pale model on the cover, would like everyone to know her feelings on it! Don’t watch this video unless you want to watch Bela give a lot of excuses and no reasons.

Apparently we needed to “see the article to understand the cover”.

Sorry Bela, but U RONG.

And of course, bonus blackface mention from the HuffPo article: [Bela Padilla] adds that two of the girls in the cover photo were actually of Filipino descent who were painted to look darker.

From the video: “Some of those girls were actually Filipinas painted black. Not to represent Africans, but we were really doing that to portray shadows, because it’s my coming of age.”

Oh, well isn’t that nice for you, to use skin colors actual people have as “shadows” for your coming of age, Bela.

More bonuses from Bela’s video:

“When I see a Black person, I don’t initially think of a certain race because we also have Black Filipin@s.” I don’t even think the girl realizes what she’s saying here.

“We didn’t mean to hurt anyone with the shoot.” Repeated only five million or so times, often to avoid answering questions that actually address the problem!

When asked if she regretted taking part of the shoot? “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, so I actually don’t regret it. It was a beautiful photo, but if I did hurt anyone, I am sorry.”

We’ve all hurt that before, haven’t we? I don’t regret doing anything hurtful, but if you happened to get hurt, I guess I could be sorry for that much.

Do us a favor, FHM Philippines? And get yourself, and Miss Bela Padilla, even the tiniest education on colorism in Asian communities, and just why everything surrounding this is plain wrong.

Wow. I’m just… Um… totally embarrassed for all Filipin@s. Yes. Indeed there are Black Filipin@s. I have cousins who are Black Filipin@s. Does this somehow make colorism within Asian communities better? Magically excuse doing black face? And I know that the occupation of the Philippines during the exact time that blackface was a thing means we should all know better.

Why bother issuing an ‘apology’ if all you are going to say is, “I’m sorry you were offended, I don’t regret being anti-Black.”

Fuck this double. Ugh. And the blackface just made this already anti-Black cover so much worse. Top off with a bullshit insincere apology for a deliciously, bitter treat.

not like i’m surprised, but seriously? there are people in blackface on your magazine’s cover and you put racism in scare quotes. i’m not sure there is even anywhere to go from there.

THIS IS WHAT COLONIAL MENTALITY LOOKS LIKE