Nic Naitanui urges public to ‘grow together’ after mother paints son’s skin for Book Week parade

[barmy44]

As long as you ascribe different values to racism of different colours, you and the racist will continue to chase each other's tails.

The circuit breaker is obvious.

ok.

 

[wcadams88]

It's only racism if it involves belittleing or hate. Not because a child wants to dress as he's idol.

I have dressed up as prince before does that make me racist?

 

[Dixie Normous]

Moving the blackface discussion aside for a second there is something that is in no in debate for mine after reading the parents post.

The parent is a shitty person and attention whore.

A.K.A anyone who needs to broadcast their lives (or those of their children) on the internet.

 

[Forward Press]

It's only racism if it involves belittleing or hate. Not because a child wants to dress as he's idol.

I have dressed up as prince before does that make me racist?

Blackface is belittling and hate. Might pay to do some research as to why many in America (and obviously some here too) find it incredibly offensive and racist.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Why would you do that to your kid?

She knew it was wrong and did it anyway to make a statement.

Use your kid to make a controversial statement?

What a ****in idiot.

 

[Dixie Normous]

The kid only needed to put the wig and the Eagles jumper on and everyone would have known who he was trying to be. The face paint was at the very least unnecessary in this context.

 

[Farm Boy]

Just had the mother on 7 News sobbing about how she didn't mean to involve her kid in a racist row.

Probably should've listened to all those people who said you shouldn't ****ing do it in the first place then, hey? Weird how she's not boasting now that it's blown up in her face.

Blackface aside, I think that is the most disappointing thing. She was told it would offend, and appeared fully aware of the potential consequences (even going so far as to refer to the outrages as PC extremists), and she still goes ahead with it. It is disappointing that she would consider doing it in the first place, but it is more disappointing that she would put her son out there - when she knew full well there would be outrage. It is child abuse in my eyes.

 

[Personman]

For how long do we have to tippy toe around things like this because of the ignorance of some people 100 odd years ago? Are white people indefinitely barred from trying to accurately impersonate someone of dark skin regardless of context for the rest of time?

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Just had the mother on 7 News sobbing about how she didn't mean to involve her kid in a racist row

Bullshit.

That's exactly what she meant to do.

There you go, you did it. Take responsibility for it.

Cretin

 

[Sinjin Smith]

So an innocent kid dresses up as his hero and all hell breaks loose?

That seems to be the summary here but here's my summary; his mum is an absolute moron for using her kid to make a political statement or an up yours to the SJWs of the world. She has used her kid essentially which thoroughly disgusts me. Nic Nat's response was classy as well and really he's the only one that should be offended or otherwise. He's not so why are so many getting offended on his behalf?

I understand the history of 'black face' and do understand why this is frowned up.

What I cannot understand is why we are always looking for something to be offended at/about. It's 2016, sooner or later, people are going to be too scared to express an opinion or do anything because no matter what, someone is going to be offended.

Farkin hell, it's not the kid dressing up as NicNat. If the mum helped her son to dress as his favourite idol without the antagonising social media outburst then really I have no issue. That didn't happen, she knew exactly what she was doing and the outcome she wanted. Worst, she used her own child who has no idea about any blackface interpretations to achieve her goal.........and boasts about downing plonk before the morning is even done!!

I'm not offended by it but damn it's just so selfishly stupid.

 

[Furn2]

Why did my post get deleted ?

Is it because I'm coloured ?

 

[Demonic Ascent]

My favourite part(apart from the obvious wine before 12pm) is when she said that no one would know who we was if she didn't paint him black.
If i saw a child wearing a west coast jumper with 9 on the back, shorts and boots with a black moppy wig, i would hope i'd be able to guess they were dressing up as Nic Nat.

Why does he have to wear a black moppy wig? Are you prejudiced?

 

[coerced]

For how long do we have to tippy toe around things like this because of the ignorance of some people 100 odd years ago? Are white people indefinitely barred from trying to accurately impersonate someone of dark skin regardless of context for the rest of time?

Until the heat death of the universe

 

[Kabana]

Stupid me for opening this thread thinking there would be no 1950s attitudes.


Good on you nicnat!

Whats 1950s about it? These days people see racists around every corner, and delight in the recreational outrage they can then post on twitter.

A few people seem to be missing the point that the little white kid's idol is a big black man

 

[Taylor]

At what point does something become a parody of itself and loses the offending ability?

I don't have any cultural connection to blackface mockery of dark skinned people, I don't mentally make the link that someone with brown paint on their face is playing up racist stereotypes of dark skinned people and making them the victim of unfair jokes.

I don't understand the offense but that doesn't mean I am insensitive to it being caused, I can't pretend to find it distasteful because society has trained me to find it distasteful.

I don't need to "get it" to "get it" though.

 

[Furn2]

The mother was told the PC crowd would go nuts and thought she would stand up to them.

Her kid won the prize.

Her only mistake was to underestimate the hatred and ignorance these sad people carry.

 

[wcadams88]

Blackface is belittling and hate. Might pay to do some research as to why many in America (and obviously some here too) find it incredibly offensive and racist.

Know it all too well (my partner is African American) she didn't have a problem with it based on the fact of 'hey this child loves he's idol'

 

[Forward Press]

Know it all too well (my partner is African American) she didn't have a problem with it based on the fact of 'hey this child loves he's idol'

That's why I said many, not all.

In the end the historical connotations are still there and no matter what you think of it what his mother did was in poor taste at the very least. The kid is the victim in all this and that's sad.

 

[Kabana]

Agree there. In this case it seems obvious that the mother had no intention of making a racist mistake, quite the opposite as she was perfectly happy with Naitanui being her sons favourite player. I also agree that blackface is an American concept, not one we really saw in Australia but since we now live in a much more globalised world it is important to remember that we have sort of appropriated racist concepts America has and a racist "could" use blackface in an attempt to be racist. In this case though education is the key as there was no harm intended.

This isnt a swipe at you mate, but there are a lot of people getting tired about getting 'educated' by SJW. Such as Andrew Bogut

 

[VineyIsLORD]

Nic Nat himself said he had to be educated on the connotation of black face

There's nothing wrong with that.

Lost in the back and forth is that people learn from their mistakes. I engaged in blackface at one point. But now that I know what it means I woudln't do it again.

The problem is there are people here that, after being informed of what blackface is and its racist history, still believe its ok to engage in.

I've got no problem with someone admitting they were previously ignorant of it, and then learning from it. Nobody is born with knowledge of history.

 

[Demonic Ascent]

So you think something that was seen as racist 100 years ago should be ok now?

No one is saying that by donning blackface you are making fun of the person you are dressing up as. But that's what blackface did used to represent. And it still carries that legacy and connotation. And for that reason, it's best to steer clear of it. A lot of black people do still find it offensive, and white people don't get to tell them to not be offended.

Honestly, any time I see a white person don blackface, I just think of them as an ignorant troglodyte who isn't educated enough to know what they're doing wrong. Like those bogan country footballers who all donned Aboriginal-themed blackface costumes and couldn't understand why there was such a public backlash.

There's a difference between Sam Newman doing it to send up Nicky Winmar and a kid doing it to dress up as his footy hero.

Seriously, using make-up to make yourself look darker doesn't automatically make it "blackface"

 

[VineyIsLORD]

Just had the mother on 7 News sobbing about how she didn't mean to involve her kid in a racist row.

Probably should've listened to all those people who said you shouldn't ****ing do it in the first place then, hey? Weird how she's not boasting now that it's blown up in her face.

Best post in thread.

Mother probably drunk also.

 

[wcadams88]

That's why I said many, not all.

In the end the historical connotations are still there and no matter what you think of it what his mother did was in poor taste at the very least. The kid is the victim in all this and that's sad.

I just don't understand how I can be offended by this when my partner isn't, everyone is chiming in saying how racist it is and having connotations as oh must be racist

Poor taste maybe, but racist no.

 

[Jobe Watson]

The mother was told the PC crowd would go nuts and thought she would stand up to them.

Her kid won the prize.

Her only mistake was to underestimate the hatred and ignorance these sad people carry.

The only ignorance being displayed here is by the mother. I mean, there have been numerous, numerous instances of blackface in this country and every single one of them has been detested by society. She was told, by regular people on Facebook, not to do it because it could cause offense.

There is nothing overly-PC about it. Blackface causes offense. Doesn't matter what the intent is. It causes offense to certain people. Don't do it. Simples.

 

[threesixpio]

How about we question why we take blind offence to things that dont concern us.

Anyways - the reality is that anyone posting in this thread is likely concerned with something that does not concern them. You're likely either posting:

(a) I'm offended by what she did and the fact she did it on social media means she is a total dunce or
(b) leave the poor mum alone - the kid just wanted to dress up as someone - the poor mum and kid are innocent and hassling them is, dare I say it, offensive to me

Either position is someone being offended by something that does not concern them in my view. Isn't it?

So whilst your reductive argument sounds all cool and edgy its pretty misleading