Barcelona star Iniesta apologises over blackface photo

Uh-oh! Somebody got their feelings hurt! Call an ambulance!

Uh-oh! Somebody got their feelings hurt! Call an ambulance!

There are professional offence-takers out there but the blackface thing is toxic.

Just...don’t do it.

but the blackface thing is toxic.

But was it really blackface? When i saw the pic, I thought Iniesta's mates dressed up as one of the three wise men, Balthazar (who just happens to be black), not as a 'black guy'.

In a way, wouldn't it be 'more' racist NOT to have a 'black' Balthazar as it would/could -sort of- imply that the Black king is of lesser importance (and therefore expendable)?

You guys just don't get it, and you never will. You Don't see black people painting their faces white if they dress as a white superhero or Something, and that's not even taking into account the history of the "blackface" 'costume'. And as usual, not much of an apology for doing it, just an apology for people taking it the way they did.

"Sorry you interpreted it that way and were offended," is not an apology.

The problems with blackface are historical to the US. The usage of it that led to it being offensive is American.

But this is a different tradition, one in another country. If said tradition is racially insensitive in and of itself, it should be condemned. But if people are saying it should be condemned because of they history of it in America, they are out or place. America is America, and the rest of us don’t need to take responsibility for their actions.

For example I’d have no moral problem with dressing up as a block person I like for Halloween in Japan, including blackface. Same as I would have no moral objection to wearing dreadlocks (if I had the hair). Both of them would be emulating something I like, and I’m not going to feel bad because the Americans screwed it up in their own country.