Source: NBC12 / NBC12
You know—maybe it’s about time we unofficially rename Halloween “White People, Don’t Get Yourselves Beat TF Up” Day.
It seems like every October, some melanin-redacted person, or group of people, gets lit up and dragged across social media because they refuse to learn that the inclusion of blackface in white people’s costumes is no longer acceptable. Really, it was never acceptable, but now white people have largely come to glory on the fact that America’s history of minstrel and caricature when it comes to how Black people are mocked and portrayed has made it rightfully taboo for any form of blackface to be used in the 21st century.
Or at least that’s what we thought.
Faron Hamblin, a white town councilman in Richmond County, Virginia, recently thought it was a good idea to photograph himself dressed as Coming To America character Randy Watson, one of the multiple roles in the film played by comedy icon Eddie Murphy. Of course, Hamblin just could not figure out a way to make the costume work without darkening his skin. (He could have just said he was dressed as Randy Whiteson and it would have been more clever and far less offensive, but white people don’t consult me for this kind of thing, unfortunately.)
“In honor of my late friend, I went out as the legendary Randy Watson tonight. Give it up for my band Sexual Chocolate,” Hamblin wrote in a since-deleted social media post accompanied by the ill-advised photo, according to NBC 12.
Nah, bro. First of all, Mr. Hambin, you already messed up thinking you could pull off a Randy Watson costume in the first place. Don’t go making things worse by sullying the fictional character’s good name by calling your imaginary band “Sexual Chocolate.”
You shouldn’t even be calling your band “Kinda Sexy White Chocolate.”
You might be able to get away with “Semi-Sexual Junior Mint.”
But really, you should just go ahead and be honest and call your band by its rightful name—”Coochie-Drying Mayonnaise.”
Anyway, Hamblin eventually apologized for his cringy mistake in a Facebook post saying, “I made a post that hurt a lot of folks and that was not my intention.” Then he decided to immediately undo his apology by invoking the names of Black comedians in order to justify his extra caucasified Anglo-Saxon nonsense.
“Like Eddie or Dave Chapelle, I don’t go walking on eggshells, worried about hurting someone’s feelings. But I never intended it to be a racist issue,” Hamblin wrote.
It’s funny how Black kids have managed to dress as Superman, Batman and any other character from the sea of popular white characters in TV, film and comic books without feeling the need to lighten their skin to do it, but somehow white people can never find the imagination to portray a Black character without spreading shoe polish all over their faces.
It’s almost as if these costumes aren’t just innocent mistakes.
Maybe these people are just racist.
