Video: Comedian in Black-Face Interviews BYU Students
A white comedian is under fire for dressing up in black-face and interviewing students at Brigham Young University about Black History Month.
Just 176 of the 30,000 students at the Mormon school in Utah are black, so comedian Dave Ackerman thought it would be a good idea to paint his face black and ask students if they knew that February was designated in honor of blacks. Most did not.
"I wanted to raise awareness in an interesting way and get a conversation started," he told local TV station ABC 4.
Instead he is hearing cries of racism for his use of black face.
"The kids are extremely naive, and Ackerman exploits that," Darron Smith, a former BYU professor who is black told the Tribune. "Where it went south was the use of blackface. He doesn't understand how offensive it is."
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I think it's weird that everyone gets so upset when white people wear dark make-up to look African American, but nobody complains about white pop singers who change their diction to sound African American.
THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THE PAINT. HE COULD'VE ASKED THE SAME PEOPLE, THE SAME QUESTIONS, AND GOTTEN THE SAME RESULTS, WITHOUT THE FACE PAINT.
I am tired of the white man being wrong, rude, racist every time we say or do something. We do not kill Christians, marry 11 year old girls, behead non believers of their faith. If you have a problem get out of OUR country-we will not change to match your 3d world country.
Then stop acting like assholes! If he wanted to raise awareness: WHY NOT JUST PUT A MIC IN THEIR FACE AND ASK THE QUESTIONS??
THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THE PAINT. HE COULD'VE ASKED THE SAME PEOPLE, THE SAME QUESTIONS, AND GOTTEN THE SAME RESULTS, WITHOUT THE FACE PAINT.
@retiredfella: stay retired. And PLEASE leave my country asswipe.
It wasn't blackface; it was light-brown face. He didn't even whiten his lips.
Exactly, not blackface, not even a good attempt at Negro make up. Didn't even TRY to make it look real. Looked more like a bad day at the tanning booth. Racist? Probably not, just bad judgement. Like a black guy wearing "whiteface" asking about Civil War history.
He must have used an inferior Chinese shoe polish.Or he was going for that off Black Obama look,more yellow was needed for that.