7.30pm That’s a wrap. The online polls from news.com.au and other sites today show decisively that most people didn’t find the Jackson Jive skit offensive. You can follow how the reaction unfolded in the post below.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think it should have aired. It was one of the most offensively racist things I’ve seen on television in years. But there wasn’t any malice in it. The doctors seem like good blokes. Going blackface was a mistake.
6.33pm: Blast from the past but he’s still around - Australia’s original blackface artist Louis Beers, also known as King Billy Cokebottle, is still around. His rather rudimentary website is here (may offend).
.jpg)
6.21pm Global report Associated Press has filed an extensive story from its Adelaide bureau. It zeros in on the fact that the performers were in blackface, explaining:
Blackface was a traditional trope of minstrel shows in the U.S. that dates to the 19th century. Whites playing stock black characters — usually offensive stereotypes meant to demean — rubbed coal, grease or shoe polish on their faces. Blackface performances are not common in Australia.
More here.
6.10pm Statement from Harry Connick Jr - it’s a long one, he’s gone into some detail. Looks like he’s been online today, too.
I have watched the media storm that has erupted over my reaction to the Hey Hey blackface skit.
Where I come from, blackface is a very specific and very derogatory thing. Perhaps this is different in other parts of the world, but in the American culture, the blackface image is steeped in a negative history and considered offensive.
I urge everyone in the media to take a look at the history of blackface to fully understand why it is considered offensive.
The full statement’s here.
6.07pm Daryl Somers tells Nine news he needs a lie down. It’s the lead story on the 6pm bulletins on Nine and Seven. Nine reports the network has apologised and will edit the segment out of any future repeats of the show.
5.55pm The skit show tell their story exclusive to The Punch, Suresh de Silva, one of the doctors who got blacked up for last night’s skit, says he’s horrified that their act would be used to brand Australians as racists. Read it here.
Time for the evening news…
4.37pm: Daryl Somers reaction video courtesy of Sky News
4.22pm: It wasn’t racist or tasteless, according to a national online poll which ran across News Ltd websites. There were more than 23,000 votes - and 65 per cent of respondents said it wasn’t offensive. More here with comments from Tory.
4.06pm: Daryl Somers’ full response is on Sky News right now - you can press red and the clip is running there. Some highlights - he says he doesn’t think there would have been a problem if Connick wasn’t there. He also describes it as a “storm in a teacup”.
“I’m in shock because of the ratings figures. All the other stuff ... the controversy - that’s all gone, in my mind, we dealt with it last night,” Somers said.
“No offence was ever intended by the guys that did the act, and certainly not the show.”
He said Connick told him after the show: “If your show goes ahead next year, I gotta come back and do this.”
As I mentioned the rest is on Sky News now - go to the channel and hit the red button.
3.37pm: In case you were wondering whether anyone really took offence, I’ve found at least one black writer who did. In a post that’s heavy on the expletives, Seattle Slim has posted an outraged post on her blog Happy Nappy Head titled “This is what Australia thinks of black people? Blackface ****ery on Hey Hey It’s Saturday”.
It’s not exactly PG rated so I’ve left the link to the end, but here’s an excerpt:
To be fair, it sounded like most of the audience booed them, so that helps.
What doesn’t help is someone signing off on this type of blatantly disgusting, racist crap in the first place. This is what happens when people think that racism is limited to hoods, burning crosses and swastikas. They will believe that as long as they don’t have someone coming on the show with a “Die Negroes, Die!” routine, that something like blackface is completely done “in fun.”
The full post is here - warning, it contains strong language.
2.58pm: The hypocrisy row I posted this earlier today but it’s getting more talk this afternoon. Basically, some people are of the view that Harry Connick Jr is a hypocrite for appearing in a skit as a southern preacher, obviously trying to be black.
But I’m pretty sure a black guy inviting on a white guy to do a poor impression of a black guy is less Mississippi Burning than White Men Can’t Jump. Anyway here’s the video, again:
2.46pm: What IS all the fuss about anyway? Crikey has a nice backgrounder on the trouble with blackface here. Excerpt:
... “blackface” theatre represents the decades of the racial oppression that cast a dark shadow over American history.
Take, for example, one of the most popular “Blackface” characters, Jim Crow .... a “stable slave who sang a ‘negro ditty’ titled Jump Jim Crow”. While Rice’s character was not as offensive as other “Blackface” characters of the time, the name Jim Crow is now synonymous with the Jim Crow laws, a racial caste system which saw legally imposed segregation between black and white people across many parts of America.
Yeah, probably not a theme for light entertainment.
2.33pm: Discuss it The entertainment editor at Melbourne’s Herald Sun, Caroline Frost, is online now chatting about the incident. You can join it here.
2.23pm: Good thing it’s not a news show, eh? “The quicker we bury this the better for us,” Ramdas Sankaran, president of the Ethnic Communities Council of WA, tells watoday. “If it had been a public affairs or news program the reaction from me and others would be seen from a different perspective.”
2.18pm: No worries for Hey Hey: The Australian reports the blackface debacle won’t be a factor in deciding whether to turn Hey Hey It’s Saturday into a regular series. “A spokesman said the sketch was not intentionally racist or offensive and Somers had dealt with it during the show last night,” says The Oz’s report.
2.01pm: Worst week ever? The marketing department at Kraft have been getting it in the neck over iSnack 2.0 - now there’s this, from media and marketing blog Mumbrella:
[Kraft’s] Philadelphia cream cheese brand was the sponsor of last night’s controversial Red Faces segment on the Hey Hey Reunion.
The blacked up dance troop – imitating the Jackson Five – walked onto stage with Kraft’s Philadelphia cream cheese logo emblazoned on the screen.
1.33pm: The Kofi Annan question Is this the same thing?
Well, no, it’s not the same thing. The Jackson Jive skit had shades of the very specific blackfaced performing minstrel, widely known to be an offensive stereotype.
1.28pm: More comment “Knowing this kind of thing flies in Australia gives a distinct hint of creepiness to all the work of Paul Hogan and Yahoo Serious,” says Mike Burr at Prefix.
1.10pm: A theme emerging in the debate - including in comments below - is this: Is it funny if Robert Downey Jr covers himself in boot polish in a comedy movie, but racist if doctors send up the Jackson Five on a variety show with the same make-up?
Can I make a suggestion? Let’s see an American TV show send up Australians racists, and see how long we keep our sense of humour.
12.55pm: Reaction in ANGRY CAPITALS @Shoutyman on Twitter says: DARYL… WHEN DAYLIGHT SAVINGS COMES, WE WIND OUR CLOCKS BACK AN HOUR, NOT A F…ING CENTURY
12.50pm: New analysis Over at Reportage, Sam Webster looks at both sides of the debate and concludes:
Put the same act on Idol and see how long it lasts before a minority speaks up. Put it on The Chaser and they would be in the tabloids for weeks. Why then, as we take a step back in time to the nostalgic glory that was Hey, Hey, It’s Saturday, do we suddenly gain tolerance for our ignorance, forgetting our progression towards racial equality, and casting down those who speak sense as humourless and out of line?
12.34pm: The doctor’s apology We’re not racist, says the frontman.
12.25pm: Harry Connick Jr’s Preacher sketch This is now doing the rounds, and it’s from 1996.
12.21pm: Reader email “Racism is so entrenched in Australia that it is considered normal behaviour,” writes Trent. “Trying to get people to see what is blindingly obvious to everyone else it is like asking a fish to notice the water it is swimming in.”
12.18pm: Not that it means anything but ABC radio isn’t covering this story in its bulletins.
12.08pm Ratings are in Hey Hey got 2.3 million viewers last night, reports Amanda Meade at The Australian - and then notes that the show “chose the appalling ‘Jackson Jive’ revival act in full knowledge of what it represented: a relic of the past in which black people were mocked.”
12.05pm: Comment Karl Quinn says the moment that the frontman walked out with his face painted white was a “moment to savour”.
11.58am: Viewers respond The comments from people over at the official Hey Hey website are worth a look. It’s a mixture of condemnation - good on them for publishing it - and support. See the comments at the bottom of the page here.
11.49am: America starts talking about it A reader on the New York magazine’s coverage, RebeccaRose2004, asks: “Who in 2009 does not know that this is the worst thing ever to do?”
Early indications from some website polls this morning were that Australians thought it wasn’t a racist skit. For the hell of it I’m not going to say what I think about it for a few hours. Try to guess my opinion if you like.
11.42am: Where to start? You may have seen it already and might even be all over it like problems on Malcolm Turnbull, but Twitter is alight with commentary under the #heyhey tag. This just in from @denzasaurus: “just curious? is the black community as up-in-arms about this #heyhey thing as the white community is?”
11.30am: Racism in Australia is in the news again after the Nine Network last night screened a sketch involving dancers “blacked up” impersonating the Jackson Five. We’ll be following the coverage and reaction here throughout the day so check back for updates.
Email suggested links to colganp (at) thepunch.com.au
Facebook Recommendations
Read all about it
Punch live
Up to the minute Twitter chatter
Ukraine song pinches chord progression from The Verve's Bittersweet Symphony. Fo real #sbseurovision
RT @GerardDaffy: @antsharwood all the talk over there is the grannies will win.they entered to get a church built,feelgood story
Recent posts
The latest and greatest
Abbott’s crass logic: trash the Parliament in order save it
An email was sent to almost every politician in Australia this week saying that someone should cut off…
Our special forces don’t always need special treatment
We admire them, but we’re not entirely sure why. We allow them to operate in the shadows; we rarely…
A good holiday is about unrest, not rest
Like a fat full-stop, it lay in my hand. A small orange – not exactly fresh, but purchased anyway…
Gentle jabs to the ribs
They must pay for one’s bitter disappointments
A private school girl’s family is sueing her elite, extremely expensive private school for not… Read more
Most commented