2008 Woodie Awards
'Blackface' costumes offend at NU: Ph.D. students' Halloween outfits cause controversy
Students' dress reflects history of prejudice and spread of veiled "new racism"
Madeleine Kuhns
Issue date: 11/14/07 Section: News
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Hope McCoy was stunned. On Oct. 29, the 21-year-old Northwestern insurance department employee had been idly glancing through Facebook when she discovered the profile picture of her friend, a 24-year-old Northwestern Ph.D. student and teaching assistant, dressed head to toe in blackface: black makeup, black hair dye and a traditional African kente shirt. A fellow Northwestern Ph.D. student, also in blackface, accompanied him. To McCoy, these costumes screamed insult and denigration.
"I contacted him saying, 'I never thought you'd be the kind of person to do this.' I never received a response," she said. At this time the Phoenix is withholding the names of both individuals until they can be reached for comment and until Northwestern releases a formal statement.
Blackface, a term that describes both an explicit style of makeup application and theatrical performance, was used by 19th and early 20th century white entertainers to exploit blacks with crude, degrading and misleading impersonations. Post decline, it has resurfaced in popular culture through television and movies such as the 1915 movie Birth of a Nation, the'70s sitcom All in the Family, and more recently, Spike Lee's 2000 release Bamboozled.
Alarmingly, in past weeks blackface has reappeared in national headlines. In St. Paul, Minn., Hamline University suspended six football players for wearing blackface to an off-campus Halloween party and more notably, in Washington, D.C., an unnamed individual at the Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement division won "most original costume" for wearing dark makeup, dreadlocks and a prison jumpsuit.
McCoy immediately posted a note on Facebook condemning the pictures, including her friend's name and the two photos from his profile. Two days later, Facebook removed the note, calling it offensive and an attack on a specific person. She removed names and pictures and reposted the note.
She also alerted Northwestern's Multicultural Student Affairs Center and the Daily Northwestern but was frustrated after receiving no response from the student publication. No formal action has been taken by the MSAC.
"I contacted him saying, 'I never thought you'd be the kind of person to do this.' I never received a response," she said. At this time the Phoenix is withholding the names of both individuals until they can be reached for comment and until Northwestern releases a formal statement.
Blackface, a term that describes both an explicit style of makeup application and theatrical performance, was used by 19th and early 20th century white entertainers to exploit blacks with crude, degrading and misleading impersonations. Post decline, it has resurfaced in popular culture through television and movies such as the 1915 movie Birth of a Nation, the'70s sitcom All in the Family, and more recently, Spike Lee's 2000 release Bamboozled.
Alarmingly, in past weeks blackface has reappeared in national headlines. In St. Paul, Minn., Hamline University suspended six football players for wearing blackface to an off-campus Halloween party and more notably, in Washington, D.C., an unnamed individual at the Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement division won "most original costume" for wearing dark makeup, dreadlocks and a prison jumpsuit.
McCoy immediately posted a note on Facebook condemning the pictures, including her friend's name and the two photos from his profile. Two days later, Facebook removed the note, calling it offensive and an attack on a specific person. She removed names and pictures and reposted the note.
She also alerted Northwestern's Multicultural Student Affairs Center and the Daily Northwestern but was frustrated after receiving no response from the student publication. No formal action has been taken by the MSAC.