New Look for Purim in Obama Era: Black Face and Dreads

To be clear, does anyone posting here think that the child knew the entire terrible history of what blackface represents in this nation's history, and wore it anyway?

I rather think that a child of 10 years old, --born 30+ years after formal Southern segregation ended, and some -what- 60? years after blackface was used as a national 'entertainment' of derision-- might not know what this meant to older, more historically aware people.

I grew up Chassidic (am no longer), and I am sure that if I saw someone dressed in blackface on Purim, I didn't think it was done to invoke slavery or segregationist repression, but rather to step into the shoes of the people we saw around us every day.

Because I didn't know better until many educational years later. It was just an imitation of the city around us. Not political, not racist, (at least not by intention), but rather just imitation.

It's only since then, that I learned what this "means" in the larger sense, but I strongly doubt the child in this picture would know that.

So all of you rushing to judgment, especially those of you who are using this photo of one child to make statements/judgments about all Jews, you may want to have a look in the racist-er than thou mirror. Just a peek, tell me what you see.

tic, tic, tic, tic..............

Another nonstory "reported" by the race-baiting liberal media.

Another nonstory "reported" by the race-baiting liberal media.

Soooooo... Somebody emails a pic purported to be blah, blah, blah. Provenance? Time? Setting? Obviously will piss off some folks, others get defensive, citations are given to secondary anonymous posts to blog sites (no offense, Vanessa).

I call 89 posts in the pool.

Now if the kid only did it because he was busted and beaten by a cop on Staten Island for graffiti while falling off his bike dodging an SUV because he was fleeing a molesting clergyman in front of a closing restaurant, All the requirements for a Gothamist post would be satisfied. I do so miss Walter Cronkite, but I love reading this stuff!

P.S. By posting those links I'm not saying that Jews are racist (in fact the articles go on to explain how people were offended by black face). I was just fascinated by Nifty's assertion that dressing up in black face is "common way of masquerading on Purim." I'm not Jewish, so I have no idea (but I also find it very hard to believe). Anyway, just making myself clear. I certainly am not standing with Nifty on this.

Here's another. http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/37415/

Here's another story of blackface on Purim.

http://pandagon.blogsome.com/2008/03/26/reader-encounters-blackface-at-purim-party/

It looks like the kid just came out of the oven....

Nah, he was the one putting the others in it.

"Nah, he was the one putting the others in it."

No way, he doesn't look like an obama voter.

I'm waiting for the next black kid to dress up like a jew kid wearing a schmata to sell blintzes to raise money for an uspecified charity called "HOME."

There is no correlation between the sign and the way the kid dressed up.

The kid dressed up as a black kid which is a common way of masquerading on Purim.

This sign was humorous and common today among kids collecting money, as is one of the Purim customs.

This picture happens to be of a kid dressed up as a black kid with this sign.

Only uptight race-phobes like most people commenting here would connect the dots in this way creating a controversy out of nothing.

Get a life, live and let live.

yeah, sorry Nifty, but you're wrong. you don't need to be a historian to understand the level of offensiveness that comes along with dressing up in "black face".

dressing up like this is *not* common on Purim, and i'd like everyone here to know that. i've never been to a Purim party and seen someone dressed in "black face." hell, i've been all over boro park on Purim and never seen anyone dress like this.

"The kid dressed up as a black kid which is a common way of masquerading on Purim." Great, a community filled with racist kids. Gevaldic!

"Only uptight race-phobes like most people commenting here would connect the dots in this way creating a controversy out of nothing." if black kids were running all over harlem on halloween barefoot, in blue and white pajamas and numbers "tattooed" on their arms and yellow stars with magic marker you'd likely shit your pants.

" if black kids were running all over harlem on halloween barefoot, in blue and white pajamas and numbers "tattooed" on their arms and yellow stars with magic marker you'd likely shit your pants."

We must have missed your outrage when muslims were running around screaming "jews to the ovens" in January".

http://i42.tinypic.com/j9tru8.png

You are the one who's extrapolating from one ignorant child to -apparently- all people of a multimillion person internationally held, multi-racial ethnic identity, this is NOT racist?!?

bravo, bravo

it takes a special kind of ignorant numbskull to put on black shoe polish. I hope it was a toxic carcinogen.

I do not believe they ``keep the loot,'' but might care about the organization they raise money for. Thanks for insinuating otherwise, though, based on no information whatsoever.

LOL

To quote a real jew, "What I wouldn’t give for a large sock with horse manure in it."

I'll bring the polo mallet.

I wonder how much money this kid made. I'd give him a buck.

What gives. He doesn't look Jewish.

No more racially offensive than the last hate-filled Chris Rock video I saw.

blah blah blah.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purim

pft that's me, and im 30, not 12. VAKLEMPT!

I hope they get a visit from the Secret Service.

yeah, I'm trolling, see above.

This kid can apologize as soon as Al Sharpton apologizes for defaming "Jewish interlopers" who had the audacity to open businesses in Harlem. Where's Jesse Jackson's apology for calling New York "hymie town?" How remorseful was Louis Farrakhan for calling Judaism a "gutter religion?"

Just curious.

"We're better than that" is a way of thinking I like.

That's what I call a 'jew-fro'.

What a schmuck.

This kid needs a vocabulary lesson, not "dollar's".

Sweet Jeebus, this is going to get real ugly unless someone puts out the fire real quick.

What is the first line on top of the poster read? Is it written backwards? I never thought Leonardo DaVinci was Jewish.

It says "Barack Obama."

Thanks I was reading it as, "Amabo Kcarab" which didn't make any sense.

is this kid begging for money or to be yankel rosenbaumed?

What does it mean "to be Yankel Rosenbaumed"? Do you mean killed for being a member of an ethnic culture and then have your killer be exonerated by a jury of the killer's ethnic peers? Or do you mean "killed for being identifiably Jewish"? -- If you have a different explanation, please, go on.

ouch! but on the money.

Purim, schmurim, this kid needs a beatdown...

Eh, the kid is maybe 7. I'd be a little more indulgent.

His parents, on the other hand...

My guess is more like 10-12yo. Either way, no beatdowns please, we don't need to live through another race riot in this town again.

It absloutely infuriating to see a community that sought refuge from discrimination to then turn their backs on the very community that welcomed them here.

"A COMMUNITY"??? I don't know what "community" you're seeing, because when I look at the picture, I see one young boy, not a community. -Clarify please, if you can- What do you mean by "Community"? Do you mean all people of who live in Boro Park? Do you mean all Hassidic people? Do you mean all Jews? What "Community" do you mean when you extrapolate from one child to indict a "Community"? -- Go on, I'm interested.

What does that even mean? I think you need some history lessons.

Purim just hasn't been the same since they overturned the Jim Crow Laws.

I like the idea. It's so politically incorrect.

my office is in South Williamsburg and the Purim party-ers are going off! what a strange drunken holiday

I saw the same thing about St. Patty's day, which I know now because of the stories on this site about drunken behavior at parades, is now a month-long holiday instead of being on March 17th as I had originally thought.

Right. Some doofy kid and his brain-dead (I'm being generous here) parents need to apologize, but whose interests were being served by dude who took the photo? And what does the Chasidic community as a whole have to do with anything?

Let's see if this blows up or not. If it does, the community will likely have to say something.

Below, someone posted a link to a relevant Jewish Press piece. I enjoyed this:

"[T]oo many rabbonim still use disparaging language - or words like 'shvartze' or 'goy' - thinking that they are harmless within the 'in' group. They aren't. There isn't an in-group anymore."

This is the problem I have with the notion of this kid's "community." It's a way to greenlight this sort of weird separatism. WE are the community. There is no THEY.

Silly Chassid boy, leave the racist gestures to the professionals at the NY Post.

Amazing that someone could maintain an ignorance this profound surrounding the chief point of social friction in north america for the last four centuries. I'd imagine there was an idea by someone that this might have been impishly incorrect. This is wrong.

wtf is purim?

I didn't know either, until I watched Christopher Guest's "For Your Consideration."

if you find this offensive, then you are an anti-semite

Sincerely,

The ADL

waiting....waiting.....

he coulda really been offensive and did the big red lips too...wait...WTF is that kid/his parents thinking!!!!

OH SHIT.

I believe the proper response is "Oye vey"

its ok if you're jewish

Anything in NYC is OK if your're Jewish.

So that kid was walking around like that? I mean, I know it was Borough Park, but really?

so sad, so sad

Oh lordy. ::Runs and hides to from impending shitstorm::

Advice to leaders of the Chassidic community of Boro Park: apologize early - like right now. Don't say anything stupid like "But they do it to us!". Just apologize and say it was offensive.