Just when we thought 2016 might be a chance to start over fresh and have a go at this whole ‘living in unity’ thing, two men from Ballarat and a small posse of ignorant defenders without a brain cell between them went and reminded us all of why we can’t have nice things.
As Tone Deaf reported yesterday, Indigenous Australian musicians Briggs and Thelma Plum have been copping a serious backlash since they called out two Ballarat men who attended a local ‘Aussie Icons’ party dressed in blackface.
The rapper and the singer took to their respective Facebook pages to call out the two men and whilst they received a good deal of support, both artists have since been salvoed with torrents of abuse via their social media channels.
After one commenter called him a “petrol sniffer” and claimed his blackface criticism constituted “reverse racism”, Briggs informed the man that he would be forwarding screenshots of his comments to the man’s employer.
The level and overtly racist nature of the backlash even prompted several of Briggs and Plum’s peers to come to their defence, including Hilltop Hoods, Funkoars, and BirdZ, who all showed their solidarity on social media.
24 hours later, the firestorm of controversy shows no sign of dying down. In fact, the apparent debate over whether or not blackface is racist (hint: it is) has divided the hometown of the two men, whose antics stretched further than mere costumes.
In footage obtained by Pedestrian.tv, the two men — dressed in head-to-toe blackface paint, Indigenous-style markings, and wigs — can be seen pretending to light a fire in the middle of a dance floor as other revellers egg them on.
Friends of the two men have even begun showing their support by dressing up in blackface and posting selfies on social media, insisting the whole thing is a joke that shouldn’t be taken seriously, with hashtags like #bitofhumourhurtnoone.
Meanwhile, Ballarat-area paper The Courier have launched a poll asking the public whether they consider dressing in blackface to be racist. At the time of writing, more than 71 percent have voted ‘No’.
Briggs has continued to fight back against attackers on social media and appeared on triple j’s Hack yesterday where he said, “It’s 2016 and in Australia you still have to explain to people why blackface is racist.”
“This isn’t just for show. It’s not my job to educate everyone about racism. that’s the usual response I get, ‘Well you know why don’t you take the time to educate them?’ They’re grown men who can educate themselves.”
Fellow musicians including Hilltop Hoods, The Funkoars, and Urthboy have also continued to show their support for Briggs and Plum and condemn the actions of the two men and the subsequent online attackers.
Sharing an example of the hate directed at Plum, in which a commenter calls the singer a “filthy half breed” and asks “Why don’t you kill yourself?”, rapper Chance Waters asked why he’s never been threatened to such a degree for posting inflammatory opinions.
This is one slice of the type of hate being sent to Thelma Plum constantly on Facebook because she called out two repeat…
Posted by Chance Waters onMonday, February 1, 2016
“I post inflammatory shit people disagree with constantly and I don’t get an inbox full of messages calling me a slut or a half breed or telling me to kill myself; what do you think the difference is between the two of us?” Waters wrote.
“I have never once been threatened with rape or physical violence for calling people out, but people are willing to deny there’s a systemic issue in play.”
“When I last posted about the racism towards Indigenous people I was told they need to ‘get over it’ and ‘it’s in the past’. It’s not. It’s alive and well, and if you are silent on the issue or enable people by defending their actions as ‘not racist’ when the effected parties tell you they are racist, then you let the problem continue.”