Photo by Anthony Morgan, published in the Montreal Gazette

The Université de Montréal made headlines this month thanks to its blackface incidents, where business students dressed up as “Jamaican sprinters.” Some were wearing green and yellow tracksuits, some were carrying monkey dolls, and some were carrying bananas. The incident was widely reported thanks to the McGill law student Anthony Morgan, who happened to be on campus that day. When some of the students saw him, they yelled “Look guys, we’ve got a real black!” and then chanted, “Smoke some weed! Yeah mon! Yeah mon!”

It is shocking to me that an orientation group thought this was a good idea in the first place – did nobody object to this idea? The University’s response to the incident is also disappointing, as they harken back to the tired intentionality argument – that nobody meant any harm, so there is none, right? – that’s more of an excuse than an apology.

Then there was the Vogue Nippon photoshoot, where model Crystal Renn was photographed with her eyes taped back. Threadbared did a great analysis of this already, but I want to reiterate how vague Renn’s explanation is on the reasons of taping her eyes. She does acknowledge that it makes her “become something else” as well as focusing on the “transformation” aspects of taping her eyes, yet is unwilling to say what exactly is being transformed by refusing to admit that taping one’s eyes back is not historically linked to yellowface (or “race drag” as the Threadbared authors call it). Again, we see the intentionality argument creeping up – race wasn’t on anyone’s mind – which is somehow supposed to nullify the result. This is a trend I find very disturbing and very linked to incidents of racism.

By creating a link between intention and outcome, racism becomes only visible to those who are racially “marked” – the ones who experience being racially “other” and thus a problem which does not concern those who are considered racially blank. By exonerating the problematic nature of an event with “good” intention, these incidents try to become “one-time” singular incidents and ignore the systemic and historical tradition of racism that has been happening for centuries. I hope that both the University and fashion magazines would take these incidents as lessons, but I feel a touch naive in saying so, and know that things like this will happen again. So what does that leave me with? Not much, I suppose  - except a question, “how can we teach the concept of racism from a young age so people recognize it?” and the hope that you, the few readers of this blog, walk away at least thinking  about racial stereotypes in our culture a little more critically.