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Should You Wear Blackface? A Guide

I was yesterday years old when I realized how much white people love blackface. Suggested Reading Why Fans Believe Stefon Diggs’ Latest Power Move With New Boo Cardi B Has Her Ex Offset Punching Air Sibling Rivalry in Florida Senate Race Just Got Messy after Mama Picks a Sideย  Black Hiker’s Fall Into a Volcano…

I was yesterday years old when I realized how much white people love blackface.

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Dominique Thorne Reveals Why She Almost Passed on <em>Ironheart</em>
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I had always known it was a popular Caucasian Halloween activity because every year, a high school teacher or a bank executive pops up dressed as Kanye West or Esther Rolle at the local all-whites fall festival. Itโ€™s funny that these people never drape themselves in faux negro when black people are around...or maybe they do and they just havenโ€™t made it out alive to tell the story. (I heard thatโ€™s what happened to Jimmy Hoffa. He went to the union All Hallows Eve shindig dressed as Shaft and...OK, maybe Iโ€™ve said too much.)

Anyway, according to a new poll from Pew Research, about two-thirds of white Americans believe blackface is acceptable on certain occasions while most black people feel blackface is โ€œnever acceptable.โ€ And schools across the country are furiously rifling through old yearbooks only to find that most white fraternities in the โ€™80s required at least one person to paint their face with shoe polish before they could tap the keg.

Whenever someone is busted for wearing blackface, their excuse is always: โ€œWell, I had no idea there was anything wrong with using a group of peopleโ€™s skin color as a prop for my Saturday night shenanigans! Was I not supposed to do that?โ€

So, to help Megyn Kelly and other white people across America, The Root has put together this handy-dandy flowchart to help you determine whether or not you should wear blackface. Please print it out, share with friends, and include it as an insert in the ad booklet at the next global meeting of white people.

Youโ€™re welcome.

Straight From The Root

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