A clip of Toronto Mayor John Tory defending the practice of blackface surfaced on YouTube today, and man does he sound like an out of touch clown.
Like wow. I have heard white people defend blackface before, but Tory really took all the cliches and ran with them. This audio, from 2012 when Tory was hosting a radio talkshow, is hot garbage right from the start.
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Tory was inviting his guests and listeners to debate whether or not it was wrong that Maple Leafs center Tyler Bozak had dressed in blackface to portray Michael Jackson for Halloween.
“I looked up what racism and racists are and it didn’t seem to fit that, that if you’re going in a costume as a black celebrity and you are a white person and you made your face black to be part of that, that didn’t seem to fit into the definition of racism,” he opens. “But I stand to be corrected.”
Dunno about you, but I love getting hot takes about racism from people who are so removed from racism that they have to look it up in the dictionary and then feel entitled enough to share their thoughts on a massive platform.
Moving on, Tory’s guest, using the “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” logic, says she doesn’t understand why dressing up like one of your black heroes, complete with darkened skin, is an issue. Tory replies, “I don’t get why it’s an issue at all,” and points out that there are lots of Barack Obama masks available at Halloween.
His other guest chips in with this insight: “I think Michael Jackson is one of the only black guys out there that a white guy can go as without needing any makeup.” Everyone chuckles. But to his credit, this guy at least says he thinks blackface is “stupid” and that “we need to accept that people should not do blackface.”
It’s never OK. Photo via Flickr
VICE has asked Newstalk 1010 for the guests’ identities but has not yet heard back.
Tory, determined to degrade the already shitty level of discourse, then asks, “what about Barack Obama he’s going to dress up as Mitt Romney and making his face white. Is that racist?” He also keeps bringing up the fact that Michael Jackson “seemed to be trying to make his skin white” as if that is in any way relevant.
In case it bears repeating: blackface has deeply offensive roots that stem from minstrel shows in which white actors painted their faces black to mock black people, often using awful caricatures of black features.
Tory, seemingly oblivious to this until a caller mentions it later, says being called a racist is the last thing anyone wants to be accused of, but “in this day and age I really believe there are fewer and fewer racists out there. I think most younger people are either colour blind and blind to things like sexual orientation and religion as well they should be.”
Did he get that idea from the dictionary as well? Because I highly doubt people from those communities, who deal with hatred and systemic discrimination on a daily basis, are ready to declare the fight over.
Tory then adds that he thinks society has gone overboard with “political correctness” and blackface is an example of that.
Tory muses, “I started asking myself, well if I wanted to go to a costume party as Muhammad Ali or Barack Obama and blackened my face to do so, because they happen to have black skin, is that racist? And rather than rely on some Twitter definition of racism or a text message from a listener or whatever, I looked up racism in the dictionary.”
Good to know that Tory would rather read about racism in the dictionary than listen to actual people “or whatever” who might have a valid point of view. (Then again, this is the same guy who denied white privilege was a thing.)
Tory sent a statement to VICE today saying he now understands “blackface under any circumstance is racist and never okay.”
Read more: Why the Dutch Holiday Tradition of Blackface Won’t Go Away
“Comments I made on the radio five years ago about a hockey player dressed as Michael Jackson for Halloween were posted on the Internet today. At the time, I was leading a conversation on the topic as a radio host and did not think such an action was racist if the individual didn’t intend to be derogatory. I was corrected at the time by a caller who phoned into the radio show that day, and have since learned that my thinking on the subject was wrong.”
He said any form of cultural appropriation is unacceptable and that he’s fully supportive of the city’s Anti-Black Racism Community Conversations, “which are identifying actions we can take to address the systemic barriers that exist across Toronto.”
Sounds like an initiative he could’ve used back in 2012.
Follow Manisha Krishnan on Twitter.
