04/23/24
November 03, 2010
Dwyane Wade Brings Terrifying Back: Miami Heat role player Dwyane Wade attended a Halloween party this year in whiteface, hiring a makeup artist and wearing a blond wig so he could go as Justin Timberlake. Jessica Biel not included.
posted by rcade to basketball at 08:33 AM - 16 comments
That's far more scary than "Paranormal Activity 2."
posted by dyams at 09:16 AM on November 03, 2010
Just to poke the hornet nest...
What if Steve Nash attended a Halloween party in blackface, hiring a makeup artist and wearing an afro wig so he could go as Shaft?
posted by grum@work at 11:17 AM on November 03, 2010
Maybe Dwayne is just taking a tentative first step into a bold new world of possibilities.
posted by beaverboard at 12:27 PM on November 03, 2010
What if Steve Nash attended a Halloween party in blackface, hiring a makeup artist and wearing an afro wig so he could go as Shaft?
Steve Nash would get a free pass because he is Canadian and Canadians always get free passes as fun-loving, relatively harmless, vaguely Europeanish hobbits.
Kidding aside, I think this probably reverts to the argument that blackface has a specific cultural context with minstrel shows and all, and therefore there is a legacy of racism (at worst) or cultural insensitivity and stereotyping (at best) associated with it that is not associated with whiteface.
posted by holden at 12:28 PM on November 03, 2010
What are you guys talking about?? This is Halloween, the one day a year when it is not only acceptable--but encouraged--to dress yourself up like whatever you feel like. Steve Nash (or me, or anyone) hypothetically painting himself black and dressing up like Shaft on Halloween is no more racist than if he dresses up like the Wicked Witch of the West or Megatron.
posted by bender at 12:51 PM on November 03, 2010
Wade's costume is just a pale attempt to top this hotty.
posted by Howard_T at 12:54 PM on November 03, 2010
I have got to start REALLY following Twitter! I'm just missing EVERYTHING!
posted by yzelda4045 at 01:03 PM on November 03, 2010
Wade's costume is just a pale attempt to top this hotty.
When I watched that, I thought you were talking about the girl on the flu shot commercial prior to the actual clip.
posted by dyams at 01:22 PM on November 03, 2010
...Canadians always get free passes as fun-loving, relatively harmless, vaguely Europeanish hobbits.
...
This is Halloween, the one day a year when it is not only acceptable--but encouraged--to dress yourself up like whatever you feel like.
posted by grum@work at 02:37 PM on November 03, 2010
A lot different from the huge fallout last year when the Dallas Cowboys cheerleader dressed in blackface as Lil Kim.
posted by opel70 at 02:43 PM on November 03, 2010
A bar owner I know, white guy, showed up to his own Halloween party done up with color accurate make up and a red golf shirt with a Nike cap. Tiger Woods (when he was still the bestest, coolest golfer and not a man-slut). At first I felt a bit uncomfortable about the whole thing. Ya' know, white dude in black face, Al Jolson, Steppin' Fetchit, "oh here we go again a white man foolin' on the brothers and bein' racist".
But the thing was he really did look like Tiger Woods. And I don't think he was being disrespectful, at least in his view of things. He wasn't clowning around, he was acting like Tiger Woods. Spoke in clipped sentences and looked serious a lot.
This year a black bass player friend of mine did the white-face thing. Another guy (white dude) called him the ugliest white man he had seen. My friend said that was impossible since he was currently looking at the ugliest whiteman HE had ever seen. That was uncomfortable.
Upon edit: I don't think Wade looked like Timberlake at all. More like Charlie Chaplin with a goatie and curly red hair.
posted by THX-1138 at 03:20 PM on November 03, 2010
This is still the best use of white face.
posted by goddam at 04:54 PM on November 03, 2010
Ahhh, I think the younger kids are just less sensitive to this stuff. Maybe we need to take a page from them and let this stuff go. Context is everything.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 06:13 PM on November 03, 2010
Spoke in clipped sentences and looked serious a lot.
Fuck me that's funny.
posted by smithnyiu at 07:13 PM on November 03, 2010
For me the difference comes down to using makeup etc to impersonate a specific individual like Tiger or Justin or using it to be a funny looking [insert other race/ethnicity here] guy. Plus if you're around seven feet tall and massively muscular, you can do pretty much anything and I won't be the least bit critical to your face.
posted by billsaysthis at 11:38 AM on November 04, 2010
I wouldn't have known that was supposed to be Timberlake. Just looks to me like Prince ran away and joined the circus. Or the rodeo, either one.
Dwayne must have had a big dose of Bruschetta before going in for the makeover. Makeup lady's got the gauze mask going and all.
My idea of Halloween would be seeing Mark Cuban in a full burqa. You'd still know it was him. Those crazy eyes don't lie.