Nick Cannon, and why you shouldn't argue with your white friends about "Whiteface"

So This Happened:

Hes tries.  He really tries.

It reminded of the comedic genius that is Nick Cannon.  The Nick Cannon we quote, talk about around the water cooler, and pay our hard earned money to see.  Yeah, that Nick Cannon.  What appears to be an attempt at an April Fool's Day joke, becomes a lot of Nick Cannon's jokes - unfunny shit that makes you scratch your head.  But this time - he actually hit on a larger issue - how people feel about whiteface, how they compare it to blackface, and the place these things have in our world.

It was funny in 2004.

 "White Chicks" is a movie I saw on a few occasions.  it was the height of the Shawn and Marlon "baby Wayans'" movement.  Two bumbling alphabet men charged with the task of babysitter two paris/nicole-esque socialites have to impersonate them in order to crack a case.  With heavy makeup/ prostethic work, the two actually take of the guises of these two women, complete with "valley girl" vernacular and hijinx.  The first instance of Black men impersonating white women I can recall. the movie was a huge hit, to the tune of 113 million dollars, and was a welcome break in the endless stream on "scary movie" titles they'd created with brother Keenan.

To everyone born after 1990 - this was a thing.

 Recently, there have been lots of people appearing in varying degrees of "blackface", and some have been surprised at the backlash.  Here's the issue - it was done specifically to belittle a culture.  Point blank.  So it's never gonna be ok.  Why?  Because slavery.  Because Jim Crow.  Because civil rights.  You can't, as a person with a knowledge of history, make excuses for blackface.

CLEVER!

 Now whiteface?  That's different, and here's why.  In the context of an outrageous, fantasy film, whiteface was passable, and at times fun (when I was 18 - i wouldn't watch that silly shit now).  Dave Chapelle's White news anchor was universally loved, because of his scathing commentary on the black community from a privileged white perspective.  Like anything, it can be in bad taste, but if the argument is  "if white people can't do it, black people shouldn't" instead of "I'm offended by this", then it's not an argument, it's trying to downplay historical context.  Don't, don't DON'T talk to anyone over 30 about race, if your goal is to sway them about race, cuz it ain't gonna happen.  Opinions don't change after your 20's.  If you have any social media presence, and you were logged in anywhere during the George Zimmerman trial, chances are you saw your friends, that you've known for years and years, say some crazy shit you wren't prepared for.  And they didn't all of a sudden develop those feelings, it's whats been going on in their heads for as long as they can remember, and the best thing you can do is either agree to disagree, of find some new friends.

The funniest guy in the pic.

But if there's one thing you should all agree on, it's this - Nick Cannon sucks.