There’s an inherent power in celebrating yourself while the world around you works to diminish who you are. In essence, that’s what it has always meant to be black in America: shining through the shit even as it swirls, daring to be boldly yourself against individual and structural contempt. Black History Month is always an interesting study in that reality—a chance to most proudly display all that we are, and a reminder that we remain who we are in spite of it all. With the current presidential administration and cultural climate, it’s been especially significant to see black folks loving on themselves. And lately, it feels like there’s a lot pushing back against that joy.
This Black History Month began with a flurry of blackface scandals: one involving Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, who was reported to be photographed in his 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook in blackface—and Northam responded by denying it was him in the photo while admitting that on a separate occasion, he’d put on black shoe polish to look like Michael Jackson. The news was met with a flurry of calls for Northam to resign. “There is no place for racism in America,” former Vice President Joe Biden tweeted. “Governor Northam has lost all moral authority and should resign immediately, Justin Fairfax is the leader Virginia needs now.”
Fashion giant Gucci was also blasted for a wool balaclava jumper on its website that mimics blackface. The piece is a black turtleneck, worn up over the nose, with a red-outlined cutout for the mouth. The outcry against Gucci came on the heels of a similar criticism of Prada products that resembled blackface; and soon after, athletic brand Adidas pulled back an ill-advised all-white Harlem Renaissance-themed sneaker, as did singer Katy Perry with her minstrel-esque shoes.
Hollywood superstar Liam Neeson inexplicably revealed his own racist inclinations during a now-infamous interview with The Independent. While promoting his latest action film Cold Pursuit, a movie in which his character exacts bloody revenge after his son’s murder, Neeson delved into his own history with bloodlust—and racism. He recounted a story about how he reacted to the news of a friend’s rape at the hands of a black perpetrator. The interview read:
“I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I’d be approached by somebody—I’m ashamed to say that—and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some [Neeson gestures air quotes with his fingers] ‘black bastard’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could,” another pause, “kill him.”
And there’s the incident involving Jussie Smollett, the embattled star of Empire who was reported as having been attacked in a vicious hate crime in Chicago on January 29. On Jan. 22, Smollett, a gay black man, reported to police that he’d received a threatening letter at the Fox studio where his show is filmed; seven days later, he told police two masked assailants attacked him, pouring “an unknown chemical substance” on him (possibly bleach), wrapping a rope around his neck, and yelling, “This is MAGA country!” Two persons of interest were arrested, but this weekend it was reported that the police have shifted their focus to Smollett, who has been suspected of orchestrating the attack. “We can confirm that the information received from the individuals questioned by police earlier in the Empire case has in fact shifted the trajectory of the investigation. We’ve reached out to the Empire cast member’s attorney to request a follow-up interview,” said Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.
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