Fools Runnin’

This is even the dude who are departed home boy John Candy’s character was loosely based on.

(Not Johnny La Rue)
So why are we talking about some Jamaican bobsledders?
Because these are the real people. Not characters in a movie. Those were pretend. Kind of like….
How a Halloween getup went badly wrong
U of T students say their black face costumes were an homage to a movie
Few things are more cringe-inducing than black face. For a group of University of Toronto students, that’s the most recent lesson learned.
At a Halloween party on Oct. 29, a Trinidadian student and four white friends decided to dress up as the Jamaican bobsled team from the 1993 kitsch film Cool Runnings.
They wore brightly coloured tracksuits, one dreadlocks wig and Jamaican flag T-shirts. Oh, and face paint: for the black student, posing as the coach played by John Candy, thick white clown makeup. For the white students, brown foundation slightly darker than George Hamilton’s self-tanner.
The day after the party, torontoist.com posted a photo of the group, kicking off a heated comment section debate on satire and tribute. Criticism centred on the notion that the bobsled team had apparently won a costume prize.
“There wasn’t voting or any rationale or best costume award,” says Deryn Robson, a South Asian student at St. Michael’s College, who organizes events like the Halloween gathering for 1,500 at Mansion Bar and Wet Lounge. Robson, who went as Mickey Mouse, says that after every party, he sends his mailing list a bunch of photos. This time, he singled out group costumes he thought were fun.
But the U of T’s Black Students’ Association wanted official apologies from the three colleges that threw the party.
Halloween is exuberantly tasteless, which usually slides until there’s an accusation of racism. Target, Walgreen and eBay pulled an “illegal alien” costume from the shelves this year, after an immigrants’ rights group objected to the alien mask attached to a bright orange prisoner’s jumpsuit. The blog Angry Asian Man does an annual roundup of offensive gear, such as an exaggerated rubber face mask dubbed Fee Ling You.
Thoughtful depictions of blackface (think Bamboozled or Tropic Thunder) have recently been considered worthwhile commentary. In a defence posted on torontoist.com, the U of T group said the costume was a specific tribute to a movie that played “a large part in our childhoods.”
But Sanelifo Moyo, social chair for the Black Students’ Association, says their costumes were too undefined to be taken seriously. “In no way did their costumes represent the Jamaican bobsled team.”
“If you ask 50 different people, they’ll all see 50 different things,” says Stephen Johnson, a professor at U of T who has studied blackface and minstrelsy for 20 years.
Johnson says that while actors and costume-wearers want to invoke specific characters, viewers who have had racist experiences could be legitimately hurt or offended.
The Black Students’ Association and other student groups organized a Tuesday night town hall meeting on the uproar. Some 250 students turned up for a quick lesson on the history of blackface from U of T professors, followed by a discussion. The bobsled group was there and submitted an apology.
Robson wasn’t bothered by the Cool Runnings getup, saying the fivesome are being “unfairly pegged as racist.”

(There is a very good chance this idea was pot related)
There you have it Kittens. Today we are going to be talking about black face.

(Yeah, what Mr T said)
So here are the facts Kittens.
There is an actual Jamaican Bobledding team.

There was a movie with fictional characters very loosely based on their story.
A few years later some University students dressed like the characters in the fictional movie. Some o them were white guys dressed as black guys, and there was a black guy dressed as a white….umm…John Candy. For Halloween, when people dress up, get drunk, have fun and do stupid shit.
Then Sanelifo Moyo, social chair for the Black Students’ Association, said their costumes were too undefined to be taken seriously. “In no way did their costumes represent the Jamaican bobsled team.”
This is because they weren’t the Jamaican bobsled team. They were dressing as characters in a movie. You know….a movie.
People who are not real because they are acting.
You know what that means don’t you Kittens? That means that in movies sometimes people dress up as somebody else. Sanelifo Moyo may have wanted to actually Google the real Jamaican bobsled team as well as movies and television.

(Sarah Silverman, a Jewish actor in black face. Not Oprah)
So Kittens a few newbies at a university decided to dress up like some actors in a movie that they probably watch every Thursday night on wings and bong night. A few were white and one was black. A bit like South Park. Four wacky kids and Token the black kid.
They went to a bar off of university grounds and had their picture taken. The Black Students’ Association decided that these white kids and their black friend were somehow offending them and they were being suffering from having their feelings hurt so they did what any black militant activist group fighting like their fore fathers did during the civil rights movement. They had an uproar to discuss how their rich enough to attend university privileged asses were hurt by a few white kids and a black one dressed as a white guy, possibly not realizing there was a black guy as a part of the gang because we all look the same. Truly Kittens, the only way you can tell us white people apart is when we swim.

So Kittens in a rather un-university-ish way the folks at U of T didn’t just throw themselves into a gigantic politically correct speed wobble and suspend the kids, they used it as a learning tool to discuss the history of black face with somebody who actually knows quite a bit about it.

(Eddie Murphy, a black guy dressed as a white Jewish guy)

An actor with legs acting as a man with no legs. No shrimp were hurt during the pretend amputation.
By getting upset about some spazzy white kids and their black chum dressing up as people in a movie they have not only missed several history lessons, but also accomplished two things.
If there is ever a real case of racial discrimination that they have to face as a part of an association of privileged black kids, they will have undermined their group because they stepped away from school grounds into a bar setting and yell about how some people dressed as photo negative movie characters hurt their feelings.
They have now also outed the kids who decided to dress up as racists and thus committed reverse racism. Even against the black kid with white face on.

(Insane Clown Posse. White guys, dressed as white clowns, trying to be black)
Is it possible that the Black Students’ Association is missing the point just a wee bit and now, here we fortunately are in the era of a black American President that maybe just maybe we an all just get past this petty nit picking and focus on real issues that concern us all as the human race rather than worrying about people in a costume and then branding them as racist?
Here are a few not so subtle reminders to the people who think goofy kids paying dress up should never happen because the worst possible crime that could ever be committed, hurting somebodies feelings, is a brand new thing and that they and they alone are being persecuted because of their race. Their race that can afford university educations.

This is a large gay man dressed as a large woman. Both groups have and continue t experience their own forms of discrimination. Have either of them had an uproar yet?

This is a Scottish man dressed as a fat man. They have a hard time too. Just ask Braveheart and Beefheart.

Not in the mood to dress up like a movie character next year? Try this one on for size. Nothing strange about this costume sold in every store at all.

This is a heterosexual man who played a gay man on television.

Here we have a gay man who plays a strait man in movies and in the tabloids.

This charming fellow is one of the Sand People. Hmm….aren’t a group of folks referred to as Sand People very racistly?

Oh yes, ad here is one of the gayer ones. Fabulous shoes.

If you are ever looking for examples of white people who are pretending to be black, why don’t we weed out these little weasels?

I’m Irish. Should I go have Lucky Charms yanked out of the supermarkets now? No I shouldn’t because that would be magically ridiculous.

Jews. ‘Nuff said.

Ditto

Look Kittens!! Here is a black actor dressed as a Klingon who was married to a white earthling dressed as a white English person.

Here’s a white guy dressed as the black actor who dresses as a alien who dresses up as a white guy who…..oh fuck I’m starting to lose track now. Can this get any worse?

Sweet Jesus yes it can!!! Wow. Gay men dressed up as every possible racial group and then they have the big gay balls to sing about the Navy and the YMCA!!! The Young Mens Christian Association!!!
Somebody call the Special Forces because society is going to collapse because of all of these people dressing up like other people and that means everybody is going to be offended so then we’ll all have to………….
Oh fuck it. Grow up people. Aren’t we past all of this shit yet?
Pay attention students because this one is for points. Get a little bit of life experience and history behind you before you start thinking you know shit about life. You came from privileged homes and are learning in an institution of expensive hypocrisy. You don’t know fuck all about real trails in life yet, you haven’t even gotten the pudding off of your Erkle jammies yet.
At least the tens of thousands of dollars your parents are paying for you to act like little sissies are going to a school that has used your uproar to teach you something. School is in fact in session.
Hopefully the pothead retards (including the black guy) aren’t lynched because you have branded them as racist for dressing up like fiction characters in a movie. The movie that the accusers ironically thought, was real.