As Jon Stewart noted last night, Hikind (Democrat state assemblyman in Brooklyn) is very good at pointing out antisemitism wherever he sees it.


February 26, 2013
Dov Hikind’s Costume Offense
Posted by Rebecca Mead

dov-hikind-blackface-233.jpg

On the day that one in four Italian voters gave their support to a protest movement lead by Beppe Grillo, a portly Genoese comedian with a mop of silver curls and more than a million followers on Facebook, New Yorkers discovered that one of their own elected officials had found an interesting way to express his sense of humor. The revelation that Dov Hikind, a state assemblyman from Brooklyn, had hosted a Purim party while wearing a costume intended to represent an African-American basketball player was first made by the New York Observer, which published a photograph of Hikind wearing an orange jersey, a nimbus of black wig, and sunglasses, with his face darkened with cosmetics. The image first appeared on the Facebook page of Hikind’s son, Yoni, a young man whose social-media sophistication is considerably inferior to Beppo Grillo’s.

Hikind seemed at first to be delighted by his hijinks: Purim celebrations, which often involve costumes, are “all just in good fun with respect always, whatever anyone does it’s done with tremendous amounts of dignity and with respect,” he told the Observer, announcing that although he was having trouble removing the makeup, he would “do it again in a minute.” Purim is a holiday dedicated to remembering how Queen Esther saved the Jews of Persia, but also to topsy-turvinesss—some religious authorities say that Jews are supposed to get drunk to the point of incoherence—and Hikind clearly thought his actions were in keeping with the spirit of the occasion. Critics ranging from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to Karim Camara, the leader of the Assembly’s Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, and Asian Caucus, quickly contested Hikind’s notion of dignity and respect. But the Assemblyman was unrepentant, taking to his blog to call the outcry “political correctness to the absurd. There is not a prejudiced bone in my body.” To the Times he made the prickly statement, “Of course the intention was not to offend anyone,” before letting it be known that he would probably rethink the Indian costume he was planning for next year because “someone will be offended.”

It’s not clear how closely Hikind follows the sport of basketball—not particularly, to hazard a guess on the strength of his costume vérité—but his choice of outfit suggests that he might be advised to pay closer attention to sports coverage in general. If he’d done so he might have noticed that it didn’t go over too well last fall when Tyler Bozak, the hockey player, adopted blackface for his Michael Jackson-inspired Halloween costume; or when Raffi Torres, of the Phoenix Coyotes, wore blackface to impersonate Jay-Z the year before; or when, in 2009, Patrick Kane and Adam Burish, of the Chicago Blackhawks, wore blackface to complete their Halloween outfits emulating Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman.

Sportsmen and politicians aren’t the only public figures who have caused offense by the oblivious sporting of radically offensive outfits in the name of fun. Charlotte Casiraghi, who is fourth in line to the throne of Monaco, recently got into Twitter-based trouble after competing in the Paris Masters International Jumping Competition while wearing fringed buckskin pants and a feathered headdress, and having orange-colored stripes painted on her cheeks. Paris Hilton was censured for rocking a “sexy Indian” costume a few years ago, and so was Miley Cyrus. Heidi Klum, who hosts a Halloween party every year in an extravagant but racially circumspect outfit—cat, witch, Lady Godiva—made a ill-advised step in 2008 by dressing up as Kali, the Hindu goddess. The most memorably offensive costuming of recent years was when Prince Harry dressed as a soldier in Rommel’s Afrika Korps, and ended up on the front page of the Sun newspaper in his swastika armband. The Prince later issued the standard non-apologist’s conditional apology: “I’m very sorry if I have caused any offense.” Admittedly, it might have taxed Harry’s imagination to come up with any entirely inoffensive costume that still adhered to the party’s theme, which was “Colonials and Natives.” One wonders how Hikind would have dressed up for that event.

Two days after his now notorious party, Hikind offered a belated but still clueless apology on his blog. “Unintentional as they were, I recognize now that the connotations of my Purim costume were deeply offensive to many,” he wrote, adding, “I sincerely hope that this note will soothe any hurt feelings.” That Hikind, a thirty-year veteran of the Assembly, might not have been aware until this week of the ugly history of blackface is as good an argument as any for the necessity of term limits within that body. He’d be able to get out more from his insular home base, the Forty-eighth District of Brooklyn, a heavily Orthodox and conservative community, and perhaps visit some of his neighbors elsewhere in the borough who might have clued him into the latest news in race relations. (Mitt Romney won the Forty-eighth District district by more than three to one; in Brooklyn overall, Barack Obama won eighty per cent of the vote.) Incidentally, it’s twenty-five years since Hikind first made headlines in the Times by denouncing a teacher’s manual issued in New York City schools that addressed issues of unconscious racism among white Americans. The manual noted, “Even if an individual white American is free from all conscious racial prejudices, he/she remains a racist, for he/she receives benefits distributed by a white society through its institutions…. They do not have to consciously decide to oppress racial minorities in order to be racist.” Hikind had the manual withdrawn, and one can see why; but perhaps a staffer can dig up an old copy from a filing cabinet somewhere. It might just be worth a glance before next Purim.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/02/dov-hikinds-blackface-costume-offense.html

It's easy to see racism in others, but not ourselves

Or it's easy to see racism where none exists.

Oskar, is this directed at the article, me, or is it just a general statement?

General statement.

I've been struggling with this since soon after John posted it ~ I am generally very sensitive to all bigotry and racism ... specifically intentional bigotry/racism to demean and insult ~ our kidlets at school are 99% black and 1% hispanic ~ we talk about racism often, and they have educated me in things they personally find offensive or not ~ it's a fairly long list, but it boils down to "intent" ~ I'm thinking this guy's decision to dress in black-face was insensitive and stupid, and his "apology" was lacking any sincerity or self-awareness ~ but I'm not sure I'd classify it as "racism" ~

But FTR, John, your thread title is an absolute truism for me ~

Sooz

The man needs a refresher course in American history, specifically African American history. Blackface worn by whites is offensive, full stop.

Oskar - Thanks for the answer.

Sooz - Yes, but I'm wondering if I should have written;

"It's easy to see racism, bigotry and prejudice in others, but not ourselves"

You guys confuse me when you throw around the word "Blackface".
I had a different impression what it means and Wiki supports my understanding.

Blackface:


Not Blackface imho:

Apparently dressing up as George Wasington is insulting to wooden teeth.

I remember Beyonce doing blackface a couple years ago in a photo shoot. I linked it. Is that racism? I am not totally sure what I think of this issue. I think racism is more or less the dominant race finding other races inferior and behaving as such.

http://www.justjared.com/2011/02/22/bey ... iel-shoot/

Racism can only be determined by knowing the thoughts and intentions of a person.

Sometimes it is evident (burning a cross) while many times it is not.

In Jabra's post above, we see different pictures of men, each having changed their skin color and hair.

Does the first picture show racism?
Does the second?

If your answer is not the same for each picture, please explain why.

I think the first picture is racist because you have a white male (a person of privilege who comes from a position of power) wearing blackface as a means of demeaning and making a joke of a non-white person who traditionally, at least in America, has little to no power.

The second picture, I'm not sure.

The problem for me is that racism, bigotry, and discrimination are all variants of basically the same mindset: intentional and targeted demeaning/insulting/hurtful actions or words to someone "different" ~ and I'm thinking that that someone "different" can be within one's own race or own religion or own ancestry or own ethnicity or own <whatever> ~

pic, so you know, the 2d picture [which is the one you're not sure about] is the one from the op ~

Sooz

Ok, I've told this story before but I'll do it again.

My High School men's choir used to put on a minstrel show every year. They did the black face. They sang all the old "negro" spiritual songs. I never thought of it as mocking, demeaning or a celebration of slavery, but celebrating the contribution the slaves made to music.
They never "acted black" (whatever that might mean to you), but just sang with props like fake camp fires. It was more of a history lesson, imo. The audience was always moved by the old gospel tunes. Our choir was locally renowned, especially the men. Their harmony was fantastic, thanks to a very dedicated teacher, "Uncle" Joe Turner. They still put on concerts and have produced several cds.

http://www.warblersclub.org/

Once the schools were integrated, they stopped doing minstrel shows.

I agree with #8. I don't see the 'basketball player' as racist/racism.

I pretty much don't see picture 2 as racism either. The Taoists and devil worshippers would have to be offended, too

I was aghast at Joan Rivers yesterday. She said....

Commenting on German model Heidi Klum’s daring Oscar party dress on E!’s “Fashion Police” Monday, the 79-year-old comedian cracked: “The last time a German looked this hot was when they were pushing Jews into the ovens.”

Rivers, herself Jewish, then doubled over with laughter.

I don't exactly think Holocaust jokes at the expense of Germans can be labeled racism. Just hateful and insensitive.

About a year ago Joan called Michelle Obama "Blackie O" Is that racist? I think that's insensitive and offensive , too.

OK, for those that have said they don't see the second picture as racist;

Please explain your reasoning.

Why does the first picture show racism but not the second?

Rather difficult to assess most of this stuff in a constantly changing context.

I don't see the second one as racist because of the context in which he was dressed and it wasn't black face.

There is a huge difference between black face and dressing up, using make up, as a black person.

The first pic is seen as racist today but was it seen as such at the time?
Was Al Jolson racist?

If a black person "whited" their face would that be racist? I think intent, not outward appearance, would need to be known to label it racist.

The minstrel shows were, overall, an attempt at humor at the expense of the black race. They mocked them, their speech patterns/idioms and characterized them as bumbling and stupid for a laugh from their white audiences. That is why the first picture seems racist. It's not the picture, but knowing the intent of most minstrel shows.

The second picture is just a guy dressed up as a character, in costume. Clowns use makeup the same way. Would you call the girl on the left "anti-Religious" or the guy on the right "anti-Chinese?" We do not know the intent of any of them.

The first picture shows the stereotype with the blackface, thick lips etc. It goes along with the "coon" and other crap bigots used to characterize blacks. Dressing as a black basketball player is not a characterization of blacks.

Russell Peter's skit is good, btw.

When I took cultural competence our professor from Taiwan told us that one Asian woman would NEVER ask another Asian woman where she was from. If you asked a Japanese woman if she was from China, she'd be insulted and vice versa. Mainland Chinese women didn't like Taiwanese people and vice versa. So there is inner race prejudice.

The first picture perpetuated a stereotype. The second is people dressing up in costumes.