Quote Originally Posted by the other bob wilson View Post
This one is tougher for you, but I reckon you'll be able to start blaming Jeremy Corbyn for it in a post or two's time.

I've not been to many fancy dress parties in my life, but there's never been anyone dressed as Hitler, or a Nazi, or blacked/browned up at the ones I have been to. That said, I tend to agree that people are going well over the top with this and I can't help thinking that as someone whose natural political enemies would be on the right, this is probably driven by a feeling of hypocrisy against Trudeau because, rightly or wrongly, it is felt that he would be joining in with the condemnation if it was someone else who had been involved.

I must say mind that most, if not all, of those who have contributed to this thread are of an age whereby they can remember a BBC television programme, which went out at a peak time, that consisted of men who had been blacked up singing songs. I used to ask myself what is the point of the Black and White Minstrel Show and hardly ever watched it, but it was all part of a culture around in the 60s to 80s which shaped the type of people we became.

In light of that, it's hardly a surprise that us of a certain age react like we do to stories like this, but we have to face the fact that there are a substantial number out there who have not been brought up during an age where mocking minorities, sexist and/or racist behaviour etc. was commonplace and they find the thinking behind something like the Black and White Minstrel Show offensive - who's to say that it is not those who are, say, under 30 who have got this right and us who have got it wrong?
Being of that "certain age" myself, I well remember the Black & White Minstrel Show. Like you I hardly ever watched it unless my grandmother had it on the TV when I called there. She loved the programme because it always consisted of those gentle sing-along type songs which she enjoyed very much. The fact that the blokes were blacked up was irrelevant to her and to imagine that she was some kind of extreme right wing Neo-Nazi type is simply laughable!