Not Justin Trudeau, or the rest of the western world, apparently.
Over the course of the past few weeks Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been embroiled in a scandal that’s all too familiar. The liberal woke bae was called out for doing blackface.
Not once. Not twice, but as of writing this, three times.
As if doing blackface three times as an adult and ostensible social liberal weren’t already bad enough, Trudeau has admitted he doesn’t know how many times he’s worn black face.
“Do you remember how many times you’ve brushed your teeth?” he didn’t respond to reporters, but was possibly thinking.
That’s the thing, though, over the past several years people discovering white politicians’ and celebrities’ histories of blackface seems to be as regular as the tides.
Just this year, aside from Trudeau, the United States saw Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, and Alabama Governor Kay Ivey all acknowledge and give half hearted apologies for their own forays into the apparently ubiquitous racist tradition.
The sadistic and gleeful modern minstrelsy isn’t confined to either party, or even North America. On pedophile island, some of the British celebrate the Catholic psycho who tried to blow up their inbred king by collectively donning blackface and racistly performing as “Zulus”. A commemoration that makes perfect sense, and raises no further questions.
In the Netherlands every Christmas is celebrated by doing blackface to depict the racist caricature known as “Zwarte Pete” or “Black Pete”.
The French, whose national motto famously includes Egalité, seem perplexed people take exception to a well known carnival’s 50 year tradition of “Night of the Blacks”. It was for charity.
In typical German fashion, the head of a literal joke political party took it to the next level by doing a blackface Obama impression, that he then put on a billboard.
In Australia, contrary to what you might think, the national pastime isn’t cricket or football or drinking obscene amounts alcohol and committing bizarre crimes. No, the Australian national pastime is, in fact, blackface.
I could spend hours detailing the innumerable instances of blackface in western media and culture. I could spend years documenting the ubiquity of a vile tradition that has been recognized as racist by at least some in those societies for at least a hundred years.
The obvious question is why has it persisted for so long, even amongst those who should know better? Why can’t even those who know they will face tangible consequences resist the siren call of blackface?
The equally obvious answer will be no surprise. We and they live in a racist society. The long reach of slavery and colonialism throughout history hasn’t had its grip pried from our cultures. Someone of Trudeau’s position in the racial and class hierarchies is merely asserting his status, his dominance, when he dons the “costumes”.
Sadly, no amount of shaming or castigation will ever truly deliver consequences that can bring an end to people participating in this grotesque tradition. It is a symptom of a still existing colonialist hegemony.
So even if Trudeau is sincere in his apologies and destroys his precious horde of makeup and wigs, he’ll continue disenfranchising and stealing from indigenous communities. He’ll continue allowing the disproportionate imprisonment of black Canadians. He’ll continue to claim the moral high ground as the good liberal protector, Patriarch, of Canadian politics.
And, even if his party ends up losing the coming election and he’s tossed out on his mayo ass, it won’t be a meaningful blow against the ideology he and his conservative opponents represent. As long as the material enforcement of racial hierarchy continues, so will the minstrel show.
Jean Krill is is the co-editor and co-founder of Zero Balance. His writing navigates the many disparate visions of a radically better future.