Justin Trudeau suffers a brown out

TPFKA@W · Post by **TPFKA@W** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 5:41 am

https://time.com/5680759/justin-trudeau ... ace-photo/

It proves that no one is immune from being young and stupid.

Gob · Post by **Gob** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:59 am

Oh no!! That's racist!! How could anyone ever vote for him again?!?!?!?

Lord Jim · Post by **Lord Jim** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 8:21 am

Trudeau said he wore blackface “makeup” in high school to sing “Day-O,” a Jamaican folk song famously performed by African-American singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte.

Now that, I'd like to see...

ex-khobar Andy · Post by **ex-khobar Andy** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 4:18 pm

It's interesting. Go to the story in the Globe and Mail and sort the BTL comments by 'most respected first' and all the top ones are variants on "How did this clueless goof ever become prime minister?"

Go to the NYT story and sort the comments by "Readers Picks.' All the top comments are along the lines of "I don't care what anybody did in the early 90s that wasn't illegal. And the law doesn't care what people did--even if it was illegal--after the statute of limitations runs out. This "there really is a permanent record" stuff is getting old, fast."

Yesterday's NYT piece was before the most recent 'blackface' pictures surfaced so the 'crime' was much less; but the comments were much the same: cut the guy some slack for what he did when he was a kid and look a what he's done since. Don't forget that Prince Harry, now apparently everyone's favorite Royal, wore a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party when he was 20.

I remember the minstrel shows of the sixties; and while I don't think that those guys were slave traders, there's no question that the blackface and exaggerated lips were at best insensitive. Someone dressing up as Michael Jackson or Harry Belafonte and doing a song is probably paying some sort of homage and I don't see skin makeup as any worse than my donning a dress and a beehive wig for my show-stopping interpretation of Dusty Springfield. (It was a long time ago and there are no photos. Be grateful for small mercies.)

I'm not sure why the G&M and NYT comments are so different. I think Trudeau is far more popular as a liberal leader outside Canada than inside probably because such scandals as the attempt to halt the SNC-Lavalin Group Inc corruption trial seem minor in US eyes compared to what we see here, while they resonate within Canada.

Edited to correct spelling of Belafonte.

Scooter · Post by **Scooter** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 4:23 pm

I can't object to him being slammed for it, because even at the time it was in pretty poor taste, but what galls me is the hand wringing and pearl clutching from Conservative and PPC leaders and their followers, when Andrew Scheer and Maxime Bernier have quite openly cavorted with and pandered to white supremacists.

RayThom · Post by **RayThom** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 4:43 pm

Which begs the question, "is 'brownface' any less racist than 'blackface'?"

I have a shameful confession to make, in the late '50s I dressed up as Al Jolson's "Mammy" character for Halloween. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I'm sure there is a photo of me buried somewhere in the family archives. I'm so afraid it will come back to bite me in the ass as soon as I run for public office.

Sadly, as we all know, a leopard can never change its spots.

Joe Guy · Post by **Joe Guy** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 5:26 pm

Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Me say day, me say day-o

Joe Guy · Post by **Joe Guy** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 6:59 pm

The relevant part begins at 1:00....

RayThom · Post by **RayThom** » Thu Sep 19, 2019 7:25 pm

Duh! That Dave Chappelle is pretty damned smart for a black man.

Lord Jim · Post by **Lord Jim** » Sat Sep 21, 2019 2:09 am

Joe Guy wrote:

Day, me say day, me say day, me say day
Me say day, me say day-o

My favorite version:

liberty · Post by **liberty** » Sat Sep 21, 2019 2:55 am

TPFKA@W wrote:https://time.com/5680759/justin-trudeau ... ace-photo/

It proves that no one is immune from being young and stupid.

That true but some get a pass and some don’t and some are allowed to be human and some are not, it all depends on ideology. Party members are held to a different standard, hypocrites.

Scooter · Post by **Scooter** » Sun Sep 22, 2019 6:51 pm

That is so true. Let's take the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Andrew Scheer, as an example. He has said that candidates running under the CPC banner should be forgiven of their racist and homophobic past, provided they apologize. But Scheer says that Trudeau is unfit for office because of his past actions, despite having apologized for them. And Scheer believes that everyone should move on from discussing his own racist and homophobic past, despite having never apologized for any of it.

Perhaps the village idiot can share his insights about why conservatives are so prone to double (or in this case, triple) standards when it comes to themselves vs. their opponents.

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