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Trudeau begs forgiveness for brownface photo

36 Comments
By ROB GILLIES

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36 Comments
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As much as I'm not a fan of Justin Trudeau, I don't believe he's racist and I think he should be forgiven for this transgression. Everyone makes mistakes / makes bad judgement calls during their life.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

If my fellow white people could stop be so embarrassing for a couple days that'd be great thanks

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

While I find what he did pretty deplorable, at least, unlike other "leaders", the man can admit he was wrong and ask -- even beg -- for forgiveness.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

Lets see, he could say Trump made him do it and there would be 200 comments by now...

0 ( +6 / -6 )

"What Canadians saw this evening was someone with a complete lack of judgment and integrity and someone who is not fit to govern this country," Scheer said.

Scheer's sheer hypocrisy is mind blowing, absolute flog.

Never been a massive fan of costume parties but aren't 'brown face' or 'ethnic/folk costumes' expected or even de rigueur at an 'arabian nights' theme party? (bit heavy on the make up though justin!)

"I'm pissed off at myself, I'm disappointed in myself," Trudeau told reporters traveling with him on his campaign plane. I should have known better then but I didn't, and I am deeply sorry for it," Trudeau said. "I'm going to ask Canadians to forgive me for what I did. I shouldn't have done that. I take responsibility for it. It was a dumb thing to do."

A standard apology would have been enough. Way ott imo.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

To say it was bad judgment is to understate it .

However Justin has shown ,through his actions, that he is not a racist.

I hope he is able to get over it and ensures the racists don't come to power.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

When you portray a middle eastern character with white actor/actress it becomes whitewashing and when you have the same actor/actress put on darker makeup it becomes brownfacing.

Unless these people are purposefully doing it for laughs then I don't have a problem with it.

Somehow people have no problems with tanning to look darker cause it is "natural"

Must everyone really be so PC and sensitive.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Time magazine did not have anything more newsworthy to report. They decided on digging up trivialities from a distant past.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

In 2004, there was a movie called 'White Chicks' which had 2 black guys dress up as 2 white girls. They had 'whiteface' - let's all get pent up about EVERYTHING shall we.

How on earth did we become so sensitive ...

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Get over it. It happened years ago, at a costume event. Does anyone here ever remember going to a Halloween costume party? This little item is miniscule, compared to his guilt of attempted interference in the SNC-Lavalin justice, and subsequent order to the RCMP to delay their criminal investigation into it. He's not a fit leader, in the opinion of this Canadian.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Very forgiving comments section when no one linked to Trump is involved.

Well yeah, of course. That’s how respect works.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Don’t like the guy or his politics, but he’s Canadian, so doesn’t bother me one bit, but I think this PC garbage is way out of control, he did it, back then no gave a bleep about, can’t do it anymore, got it! The man admitted it, apologized for it, good. Now move on.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

I don’t “respect” people who do this.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Trudeau looks kind of dashing with that beard or is that some token picture of a Canadian minority?

It’s so confusing....

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Trudeau looks kind of dashing with that beard 

What, that 5 o'clock stubble?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@Serrano

Scroll

down

the

page...

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

He needs to step away. 2001 was not so long ago and people knew it was reprehensible long before 2001.

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

There are photos of him in blackface at two separate events and a video of a third instance has just been released.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

He needs to step away. 2001 was not so long ago and people knew it was reprehensible long before 2001.

‘Reprehensible’? Really? I wish people would stop running the language down.

Why not ‘insensitive’ or, as he said, ‘dumb’?

That’s about it. He’s apologized. Let it go.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Since when is it racist to disguise as an imaginay caracter with a different skin color? So what about maiko and geisha paionting their faces in white, is it racist too? What about ganguro?

5 ( +5 / -0 )

He's red faced over his brown face.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I have a working hypothesis about things like this: people who spend too much of their time fretting about the racism lurking in every white man's heart are either hyper-sensitive weenies, cynical players, or just plain dumb; the people who instantly dismiss racism and its legacy, and bandy about terms like SJW and reverse racism are hyper-sensitives weenies, cynical players, or just plain dumb.

Please. Do the rest of us a favor and just keep it to yourself.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Ah, sweet Karma. After years of touting the most ridiculous PC, now this comes back to bite him in the behind.

How lucky he is to have the media double standard on his side. Just imagine for a moment somone dug out a photo of, say, Trump or Boris in blackface. Can you imagine the colletive howl at CNN, NYT et al? We would not hear the end of it.

In case of this PC darling, it will be quickly swept under the rug.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

StrangerlandSep. 19 08:27 pm JST

Very forgiving comments section when no one linked to Trump is involved.

Well yeah, of course. That’s how respect works.

"Respect"? Is that the new code word for hypocrisy?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

He apologized and will be fine.

Before pictures come out, I want to apologize, one Halloween when I was a kid I dressed up as and wore the makeup of one of the members of the rock band KISS.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I almost wish someone would find an identical yearbook picture of Trump in blackface. Reading the totally different comments by the same commentators here side by side would be entertaining.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Okay, Justin begs for forgiveness for the "brown face" incident and that's cool. He also apologized for the "black face" Day-O incident, I haven't seen any apology for the video of him in "black face" waving his arms and sticking his tongue at the camera but I'm sure it's included in his public self flagellation over his "mistakes".

His political rivals, whom he was calling '''white supremacist" sympathizers just a couple of months ago, are certainly going to try to use this against him, for sure. But who cares? He begged, so it's all good. Hey it's a learning moment after all.

Of course it's the Canadian voters who will be the judges in this and they will have their say pretty soon.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Lifelong conservative here. Do I think Justin is racist? No way. But....

The photos DO show a couple things. First, he seems to have something of a costume fetish, he has done this before on numerous occasions.

Second, it shows him to have been a very shallow, unserious, and lightweight person. A typical rich kid, drifting around, living off his father's name and money. Never expected to amount to anything. Then he was suddenly thrust into the spotlight by a despairing Liberal Party, trying desperately to regain their power. THIS is the real story.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

CNN headline:

“Justin Trudeau says he does not know how many times he's worn blackface in his life”

Now we are to at least 3 blackfaces:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized again on Thursday for wearing blackface in three separate incidents and said he did not know how many times he had put on racist makeup.

that’s pretty bad, seems like a common thing and even CNN calling it “racist”. but liberals seem fine with it so I guess the rules have changed again.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

@smithinjapan 

at least, unlike other "leaders", the man can admit he was wrong

A third video/image has been revealed that Trudeau did not "admit" to....until AFTER it came out, by which time he, um, had no other choice.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

no body perfect, the man said sorry

time to heal , please forgive and forget

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Trudeau's policies haven't scape-goated or taken rights away from minorities, but these pics show he was pretty clueless before he became a full-time politician, despite the fact he is the son of one of Canada's most famous Prime Ministers.

So these actions - actually seems more like a pattern of behaviour since there are three instances of him wearing blackface that have been photographically documented - create a big problem for his supporters.

This seems like a classic case of a politician being caught having an embarrassing past that contradicts a carefully-maintained and mostly manufactured public image, and more importantly, having this past pattern of behavior that detracts from the progressive policies that attempt to rectify the legacy of injustices visited against minorities.

On the other, we have elected-officials who have no photographically-documented instances of blackface, but do have historically-documented and currently-implemented policies that add to the injustices against minorities, stripping them of rights and security. A blackface controversy would just reinforce perceptions of bigotry by those in opposition, but would probably also not have much effect on these officials' supporters.

So we have progressives faced with the choice of turning a blind eye toward a Prime Minister with a unpalatable past so that the changes they envision come to fruition, or rejecting him in the middle of election, allowing conservative rivals to take power and do what their supporters want to do. There are other more progressive parties like the NDP and Green party who could also benefit from Trudeau's supporters abandoning him, but the conservatives are the ones who will most benefit from this.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The way the media crucify Trudeau and the comments politicians make is more offensive than what Trudeau did back then, a time nobody noticed. There is an awful lot of hypocrisy involved.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

The silent majority often views liberal-left people has being smug "holier than thou" hypocrites. This is yet more proof supporting the common perception.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

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