Is Blackface for Halloween Offensive? - The View

[ANBUspecialBlackops]

what about white face?

[SoCyurious]

sherri is ridic.

[stefers08]

I agree completly with Whoopi. So basically, nobody can dress up as anyone who is not a aprt of the same race? As a Mexican American, I can never dress up as Hillary Clinton because she's white and it would be disrespectful? Doesn't mmatter that I admire her enough to want to emulate her likness?

[stefers08]

Whoopi brought up a good point. It was okay when Whoopi herself dressed up as the queen of England with a "white face" but when these girls dress up with a "black face" it's racist and disrespectful? I think that's what we call a double standard.

[Duttyman123]

@stefers08 Because black people never created white face while being socially oppressed to make fun of them. Black face is very insensitive and is no where near the level of a black person dressing up as a while person in white face, which whites can call comical because they don't have a bad history with it. Go to a black history museum and you'll see, now I don't believe the girls had bad intentions with what they were doing, but had they known how insensitive it was.

[froggymicwop]

it's called accuracy. if you're not dark enough to portray these characters, you have to darken your skin if you want to actually look right. i take costuming seriously, and i want to accurately represent what i dress as. that's not the same as doing it for the purpose of mocking someone.

[bluegem36]

I wish I could see the actual costumes. When people dress up in "black face" isn't the make up applied a certain way, so that your lips are bigger and what not? Were these girls in "black face" or did they just make their skin darker? Did they make their skin BLACK?? Some of the Huxtables weren't even that dark... I don't think it's a big deal if they just made their skin a little darker, but full on "black face" is another issue.

[TiggerRah]

@bluegem36 I go to USM and saw pictures... they just darkened their skin, no other differences.

[mickjagger64]

@bluegem36 In a pinch as a party favor, some used shoe polish, but the vaudeville actors used burnt cork ash on their faces, (this may be where the conception of black people as "Ashy"). They would draw massive red lips on themselves, and they would dance and sing for white audiences, enforcing pretty much every stereotype we know today and then some.

[Apples0716]

Finally, Sherri says something smart

[NixtonV]

Whoopi is one of the only people on this show to ever make a slightest bit of sense. She's the reason they won that Emmy.

[deebastard77]

Sherri could feel anyway she wants to. People have different opinions.

[TheRealEzzy]

Sherri, nobody cares about you, you monstrous bitch

[Ginnelle6]

serri weh is ur wedding ring

[AnotherDayOfThis]

Someone feed this bitch so she can shut the hell up!

[epiksonik]

let the girls have fun. i see no harm in it. i'm biracial btw

[MaCardarelli]

Wow - it's such a shame we live in a society where everyone gets offended by everything.

[JonnaBrooks93]

Amen, Whoopi. I'm from USM. Sherri, shut up.

[legzconfession]

I ONLY REMEMBER ONE DARKSKIN GIRL ON THE COSBY SHOW ... MAYBE THEY SHOULD HAVE JUST TANNEd?

[HayleyBecka]

I agree with Whoopi completely. I'm a student at Southern Miss and I think this is completely stupid. I read in the school's paper that the girls were put on probation. Now, I don't really know what blackface is but the article did not say that the girls were purposefully or blatantly being racist. All they did was dress up as a tv show family for a costume party! This whole thing is ridiculous. I believe this has been taken too far. Might as well cancel Halloween in the United States.

[Scene68]

Sherri always takes things out of context when it comes to racial hot topics or situations she just needs to chill and relax. I agree with Whoopi the Cosby Show was a ficitional show with a fictional family (characters) so its just like as if someone would dress up as Elvis (no matter what race) it shouldn't be taken anything other than fun.

[eggvip]

If nothing else, they need to learn to be more creative in the future. The Cosby family is Black. Yes. They are not -just- Black. There are ways to pay homage to ethnic people without reducing us to our ethnicity.

[RyuhouOHNOES]

I love Sherri as a comedienne, but what she has shown today and in previous shows is that she's gives off a racist attitude against whites, intended or not.

As a white men, I absolutely loved The Cosby Show. These girls were not making fun at all, they were merely dressing up as great characters.

It's not fair for Sherri to sit there and cry foul over nothing. If Whoopi doesn't have a problem with it, who has been in "The Color Purple" and "Corinna, Corinna", then it shouldn't be a problem.

[EmperessClaudia]

No Whoopi isn't right. Not at all, just b/c you think she is because it makes you feel better. 

[madamefeemy]

Sherri Shepherd WOULD be overly sensitive.

[YoursAnne]

agree with whoopi

[CrispiePotato]

As a student of this university who is also in a sorority (not Phi Mu, which is the sorority that these girls were in. My sorority's house is actually next door to them) yall don't understand. Sherri is correct. They didn't know the historical meaning. They have been put on probabtion from the school and sorority. USM is mostly consisted of African American's. And because we are in the south and the whole slavery thing, it was taken seriously. In the picture they looked like slaves. That's why.

[hoehawk99]

Sherri makes everything about her being black. She is the type of person that Looks for things to get offended by. Whoopi knows that those girls we'rent trying to offend everyone. Sherri just wants to make everything about her race. In case people havent noticed she makes everything about her being a black woman, and she seems kind of racists towards white people, to me.

[sotmog]

It's slightly blown out of proportion, but it's the south, it has a unique history. I grew up there, went to the same university. Believe me, these girls did NOT select this theme (the cosby family) because they are "fans". They selected it for the humor behind the black makeup & the course wigs. Have any of you asked why a photo has not been released? How can whoopi or anyone, sherri included, speak on this when they've not seen a photo? We all need to shut up & sit down until we see a photo!

[sotmog]

It's slightly blown out of proportion, but it's the south, it has a unique history. I grew up there, went to the same university. Believe me, these girls did NOT select this theme (the cosby family) because they are "fans". They selected it for the humor behind the black makeup & the course textured wigs. Have any of you stopped & asked why a photo has not been released? How can whoopi or anyone, sherri included, speak on this when they've not seen a photo? And YES a photo does exist.

[alonzo9772]

I'm tired of people lately saying that they didn't knew something was racist. Why is this happening alot lately?

[MarianOfSherwood]

@alonzo9772 I think it happens because the new generation in general is becoming a society that is more accepting of people of different races. We've heard of people of different races being mocked and made to feel inferior but we have experienced less of it than past generations. This means that we as a generation aren't as aware of how something like blackface has a historic undertone that insults and infuriates people who are older than us.

[alonzo9772]

@MarianOfSherwood I'm 19 and it infuriates me. So age can't be the reason.

[PhoenixRayneweaver]

Sherri needs to realize the only person oppressing sherri is sherri. I would be proud that someone of another race loved and appreciated someone of my race enough to dress up like them

[realintelligentwoman]

For the first time I actually agree with sherri.

[pennjersey83]

@realintelligentwoman

you must have a "victim" mentality

[BXTALE]

Im with you Whoopi!

[crodriguez444]

Whoopi is RIGHT, Sherri is WRONG....enough said.

[xoalittlebitxo]

I agree with Whoopi.

[LaziDaisy818]

I completely agree with Whoopi. Leave it to Sherri to always bring up historical form of racial tensions. These girls obviously had no intention of making fun of the Huxtables as "baffoon-ish." If we keep having this backwards thinking Sherri has, how are we ever going to move forward as a civilized society?

[BXTALE]

@LaziDaisy818 Agreed!

[FranniePoohFrench]

Love Whoopi ...

[greedlusthate]

SHUT UP! Please, Serri, s.h.u.t.u.p.

[greedlusthate]

GOD! Why are we talking about this...

[FranniePoohFrench]

Sherri Is Way Tooooo 'Sensitive' ... They Were Not Trying To Be 'Racist' !!

[yanranicm]

Sherri gets offended by so many things and blows so many things out of context! Grow up woman, it's 2011!