A Canadian journalist is defending his decision to travel the U.S. in blackface and write a book about racism, after facing a storm of criticism online.
“Last summer, I disguised myself as a Black man and traveled throughout the United States to document how racism persists in American society,” Sam Forster, who is white, posted Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter. “Writing Seven Shoulders was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done as a journalist.”
The reaction was swift and brutal, with X users expressing anger, amusement and confusion, and telling Forster he should have simply spoken to Black people to understand their experiences.
“It’s hard to simultaneously draw the ire of black people, white people, conservatives, AND liberals… But I think you’ve just done it,” rapper and podcaster Zuby replied on X.
I question whether he really even did it or if he just lied and wrote what he imagined would happen. He would’ve been immediately identifiable as a white guy in blackface, and I’m guessing he would’ve just gotten his ass beat. He also claims he interviewed actual black people but doesn’t name any of them afaik. If it turns out he made the whole thing up to write the book, I wouldn’t be surprised at all.
Another major difference between him and Griffin. Griffin brought along a photographer, Don Rutlidge.
Here’s some of the photos. I personally don’t think Griffin looks like a black man other than his skin color, but I also don’t think he looks like he’s doing blackface. If I saw him, and pondered what he looked like, I’d probably think “that black guy has really European features.”
https://www.angelfire.com/or3/tss4/blmphoto.html
I’m more amazed that angelfire is still around! I had so many blink tags and under construction gifs hosted there in the late 90s.