Japanese Comedian Who Used Blackface Comes Under Fire Online
- 6 years ago
Japanese Comedian Who Used Blackface Comes Under Fire Online
A Twitter user shared a clip from the show, calling the depiction "unacceptable and racist."
Is Japan the only country that doesn’t know that Black Face is UNACCEPTABLE
and RACIST #racism pic.twitter.com/zoSXded3N0 Baye McNeil, a black columnist who was born in Brooklyn and has lived in Japan for 13 years, shared pictures of Mr. Hamada’s performance on New Year’s Eve and denounced it as offensive.
Unlike the United States, they said, Japan does not have a history of systematic discrimination against black people,
and a Japanese performer painting his face black does not come with the same cultural stigma.
In a show that aired on New Year’s Eve, the Japanese comedian Masatoshi Hamada appeared in a Detroit Lions football jacket, a curly wig
and dark makeup, an attempt at imitating the actor Eddie Murphy’s character from the 1984 movie "Beverly Hills Cop." Mr. Hamada is half of the comedy duo Downtown.
4, 2018
A Japanese comedian is facing criticism for performing in blackface in a widely viewed television show, a move
that has outraged many and highlighted the regular appearance of performers in similar makeup on mainstream media outlets in Japan.
Being African American and new to Japan this portrayal of people who look like me is very discouraging and worrying to me developing my new life here.
Mr. McNeil, who was involved in that petition effort, said in a phone interview
that even though the segment was removed, the network never weighed in on the blackface issue.
A Twitter user shared a clip from the show, calling the depiction "unacceptable and racist."
Is Japan the only country that doesn’t know that Black Face is UNACCEPTABLE
and RACIST #racism pic.twitter.com/zoSXded3N0 Baye McNeil, a black columnist who was born in Brooklyn and has lived in Japan for 13 years, shared pictures of Mr. Hamada’s performance on New Year’s Eve and denounced it as offensive.
Unlike the United States, they said, Japan does not have a history of systematic discrimination against black people,
and a Japanese performer painting his face black does not come with the same cultural stigma.
In a show that aired on New Year’s Eve, the Japanese comedian Masatoshi Hamada appeared in a Detroit Lions football jacket, a curly wig
and dark makeup, an attempt at imitating the actor Eddie Murphy’s character from the 1984 movie "Beverly Hills Cop." Mr. Hamada is half of the comedy duo Downtown.
4, 2018
A Japanese comedian is facing criticism for performing in blackface in a widely viewed television show, a move
that has outraged many and highlighted the regular appearance of performers in similar makeup on mainstream media outlets in Japan.
Being African American and new to Japan this portrayal of people who look like me is very discouraging and worrying to me developing my new life here.
Mr. McNeil, who was involved in that petition effort, said in a phone interview
that even though the segment was removed, the network never weighed in on the blackface issue.