South Africa: The Grey Areas of Blackface

analysis

From a young American dressing up as slain Trayvon Martin to local students dressing as the Williams sisters at a 21st birthday party, the worldwide furore over various incidents of white people wearing blackface in recent months has been fairly black and white.

Responses either boil down to "get a life, it's funny" or "stop doing it, it's offensive". But what nobody seems to be doing is interrogating why people are laughing. And what's behind this 'blackface' thing?

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