Controversy reared its head once again during Halloween 2015 when photos of Aldean dressed in blackface as rapper Lil Wayne circulated online. The singer, publicly addressing the situation for the first time, says he just wanted to hang out with friends, found the costume in a store and Kerr, a makeup artist, painted his face so he could go unrecognized in public.
“In this day and age people are so sensitive that no matter what you do, somebody is going to make a big deal out of it,” he says. “Me doing that had zero malicious intent ... I get that race is a touchy subject, but not everybody is that way. Media tends to make a big deal out of things. If that was disrespectful to anyone, I by all means apologize. That was never my intention. It never crossed my mind.”
Why in the past 2-5 years has blacking up become as sensitive an issue as, like, the N word almost?
As I understand it, historical "blackface" make up is quite distinctive. It's characterised by by big lips which are left unblacked, often red, right? Portraying this is surely offensive because it was used in the past in an extremely racially derogatory way.
But a white person imitating Lil Wayne, why does this offend in a similar way? There is no racial weight behind the behaviour.
While I sometimes think people are too quick to point things to racism, everyone should know black face is unacceptable. Even for a kid who has never heard of it, the concept should seem off putting to them
It's going to make a lot of people feel attacked, sad, and angry. Doing black face holds no purpose other than hurting people