blackfilmmakers reblogged
A Canadian journalist is defending his decision to travel the U.S. in blackface and write a book about racism, after facing a storm of criticism online.
"Last summer, I disguised myself as a Black man and traveled throughout the United States to document how racism persists in American society," Sam Forster, who is white, posted Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter. "Writing Seven Shoulders was one of the hardest things I've ever done as a journalist."
The reaction was swift and brutal, with X users expressing anger, amusement and confusion, and telling Forster he should have simply spoken to Black people to understand their experiences.
"It's hard to simultaneously draw the ire of black people, white people, conservatives, AND liberals… But I think you've just done it," rapper and podcaster Zuby replied on X.
Several Black scholars who study race relations and write about the Black experience told CBC News that Forster's use of blackface is dehumanizing and troublesome, regardless of the context. Forster himself defended the book and the methods he used to write it in an interview with CBC News. [...]
Institutional racism (the anti-Black variety) is effectively dead," Forster concludes in the book. "Most of what's left of racism in this country are the few, socially narrow opportunities for soft interpersonal racism: shoulder racism." [...]
Tagging: @newsfromstolenland, @vague-humanoid
how do you walk around the us in blackface, face the level of vitriol and reprisal he faced, and come to the conclusion that institutional racism is dead. My brother in Christ, the blackface was the institution, you were doing the racism!!!!
At first I couldn't believe a publisher would touch this. And then when I learned it was self-published I couldn't believe he thought a book that he couldn't find a publisher for was still "the most important book on American race relations that has ever been written."
he's a white canadian
This is the most "white canadian" shit I've ever seen
