At seven years old I doubt it.

My thoughts exactly.

Because he's the child and they're the parents. I mean...

To avoid situations like this one, it's best for parents to step in and explain to the kid why they shouldn't do certain things.

His parents should have known better than to let their child walk out the house in the face paint.
Point. Period. Blank.

my point was thats how mad it makes me, i would never shoot anyone. its really disappointing that some people can be so ignorant.

I'm not seven years old doing a class project where I'm asked to dress up as Martin Luther King, Jr. It is a completely different scenario

Okay, well the fact that you said that at all, to me, is really immature.

His parents didn't see a problem with it. There is no "well they SHOULD have done this" or "they SHOULD have done that"... like, you're not that child's parent. They supported him in his decision. They realized that the boy meant it respectfully, and didn't think that people would be so immature about the whole situation.

Blackface is a very offensive thing, if his parents were smart they would've known that wasn't a very good idea. I'm not saying they're racist, it's just disrespectful due to the history of America.

Yep and if they're offended they have the right to take appropriate action against the offender. No need to get cute sir.

Saying "I'm offended" is the most empty, meaningless thing you can say. Yes blackface existed in the past and it was bad. But this is not the same thing.

And if you wore make up to make your eyes look slanted because you are performing as an asian person....that's not racist either. IT'S JUST PHYSICAL APPEARANCE. Nothing else. Something racist would be going to school as MLK with your face painted black and acting like 50 Cent or eating fried chicken all day. Or painting your eyes so they look slanted and speaking in a terrible accent and imitating stereotypical Asian behaviour.

It's just race, it's not a big deal.

why am i arguing with 13 year olds?? someone start a katy vs gaga thread because im officially bored.

Good, then you can leave this thread because your opinion is not valued anyway.

His parents should be embarrassed that they would even allow their child to do something so disrespectful. It's a nice gesture and he meant well, but blackface is nothing to be taken lightly.

It's the parent's job to educate the child beyond school.

You don't have to be that child's parent to know that it's the parent's job to step in on certain issues, especially when it could offend people or put that young child in a difficult situation.

whatever, the majority agree that its wrong, so im going to stop feeding the troll.

this should've been an open and shut case and yet here we are at page 7, still trying to explain why blackface is offensive

Why do parents expect schools to raise their kids these days? Like they don't even share the most basic no-no's with their kids anymore.

I just think it's all circumstantial. The boy is seven, doing a class project where he has to dress up as MLK. He wanted to paint his face black to look like MLK. His parents supported him.

It would be completely different if he was older, had any idea about the connotation behind "blackface", was doing it comedically, or was actually being racist. He didn't stereotype or make fun of being black, he was doing it respectfully and I don't see why people should take offense to it.

That will never be true for the simple fact that the phrase does in fact have a meaning.

We know the kid isn't and wasn't being racist. What he was doing was potentially racially offensive though because of the racist connotations it has. I don't think it should have been a problem, but everyone doesn't take things the same way, and people have a right to be offended by things with good reason.