[guest post by Dana]

It all depends on who it is wearing the blackface…

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the years:

It’s a funny thing to see how the media treats adored politicians when they are discovered to have worn blackface:

A photo from 2001 appears to show Canadian PM Trudeau darkened his face as part of a costume for an "Arabian Nights"-themed gala, according to a report from Time magazine. https://t.co/16L0YDKh0i

— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 19, 2019

Justin Trudeau apologizes for dressing up as Aladdin at a school party. Will that be enough for Canadians to look past it? https://t.co/nSZMARFjiP

— Slate (@Slate) September 19, 2019

For the third time in the past day, a photo of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wearing offensive makeup has emerged. https://t.co/BGPcK8Ag1w

— HuffPost (@HuffPost) September 19, 2019

Third instance of Justin Trudeau in face-darkening makeup surfaces https://t.co/cZ0Iy5xIKo

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) September 19, 2019

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada is the latest politician to apologize (3x) for wearing blackface 50 years ago… 40 years ago…30 years ago… less than 20 years ago. Jim Geraghty asks us to pause as we recognize the significance of this moment:

Can we all take a moment to savor the delicious irony of Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau — the walking icon of tolerance, progressivism, and cultural sensitivity, the Dreamy Diversity Guy and favorite foreign leader of so many Democrats — telling Canadians today that he is unable to say whether he wore blackface (or probably more accurately, brownface) on more than three occasions?

Why, yes, yes we can!

Details:

Time magazine revealed a photo of Trudeau wearing brownface as an Aladdin character at an Arabian Nights” party in 2001, as well as blackface to imitate Harry Belafonte in high school, and then on a third occasion in the early 1990s.

In conclusion:

In a society that wasn’t consumed by woke-scolds and “cancel culture,” we could argue that not every example of darkening the skin is the same as Al Jolson or Amos and Andy or other efforts to mock and deride an entire group of people. Nobody seems all that upset when Robert Downey Jr. played an over-the-top method actor who darkened his skin to play an African-American character in Tropic Thunder. But that would require people to recognize that, say, Megyn Kelly wasn’t being racist or malevolent when she described trying to look like Diana Ross on Halloween. And by golly, joining the outrage mob and claiming another scalp is just too much fun for people to resist.

Come on, Canada. Don’t vote against Justin Trudeau because of old party costumes. Vote against Trudeau because he’s corrupt and willing to pressure his justice minister to take it easy on a big company that supported him.

Apparently, there may be more videos of Trudeau in blackface to come. He reportedly can’t remember how often he did it. As he embarks on his apology tour, reactions from Trudeau’s fellow politicians has run the gamut.

To his credit, Trudeau came out and did the work for members of the media, who were simply unable to be straight-up in their reporting and instead resorted to incredible feats of linguistic contortions to avoid saying “blackface”:

“I appreciate you calling it makeup, but it was blackface.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he “shared the moments that he recollected” of his use of blackface, after three images of him surfaced in the past day pic.twitter.com/yF6SP5uplT

— Bloomberg TicToc (@tictoc) September 19, 2019

Finally, Trudeau blamed his behavior on white privilege. So predictable:

“The fact is, I didn’t understand how hurtful this is to people who live with discrimination everyday,” he said. “I didn’t see that from the layers of privilege that I have and for that I am deeply sorry and I apologize.”

It’s always the nannies and scolds telling us how to live that have the most to hide. They’re exhausting.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

[guest post by Dana]

Maybe hoping to replicate their climate change town hall ratings bonanza (did anyone even watch it?), CNN is slated to host a more than four-hour long LGBTQ town hall for the Democratic presidential candidates:

Nine Democratic presidential candidates have accepted the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s invitation to participate in a CNN town hall next month focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer issues. HRC is billing the October 10 town hall in Los Angeles, “Power of our Pride,” and it coincides with the 31st anniversary of National Coming Out Day on October 11.

[…]

Two candidates will appear back-to-back each hour throughout the evening and take questions from the audience and a CNN moderator…

Businessman Tom Steyer will be interviewed by CNN’s Dana Bash at 7 p.m.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker will be interviewed by Bash at 7:30 p.m.
Former Vice President Joe Biden will be interviewed by CNN’s Anderson Cooper at 8 p.m.
California Sen. Kamala Harris, will be interviewed by Cooper at 8:30 p.m.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren will be interviewed by CNN’s Chris Cuomo at 9 p.m.
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg will be interviewed by Cuomo at 9:30 p.m.
Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke will be interviewed by CNN’s Don Lemon at 10 p.m.
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar will be interviewed by Lemon at 10:30 p.m.
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro will be interviewed by Cooper at 11 p.m.

Due to scheduling conflicts, both Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang will be no-shows. Invited guests, LGBTQ stakeholders and members of civic organizations will comprise the invitation-only audience.

Me, I’m still waiting for CNN to host a National Debt town hall, where Democratic candidates are invited to spar over the most effective way to cut spending and decrease the nation’s outrageous debt…

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana