[DoughtyOne]

There’s nothing wrong with wearing Black Face.

If a White kid is emulating Michael Jackson, is it a put-down or racist insult to put on Black Face as part of the effort?

No. It’s a compliment to Jackson that a White kid liked his work so much that he wanted to emulate him for an act.

Folks are just too thin skinned these days.

I think the Black Face insult comes from the early days of acting and cinema in the U. S. Black actors were not hired. Whites wore Black face.

If this took place today with all the great Black actors around, I’d be pissed too. Doing it to emulate a Black entertainer as a nice presentation yourself, hey that’s simple fan appreciation.

[LeonardFMason]

What actor/entertainer was being honored by the person wearing black face in the yearbook?

I’ll accept the KKK person was in honor of Senator Robert Byrd.

[Vendome]

Emulating Michael Jackson would be misogyny

[the OlLine Rebel]

Shoot, I missed your post.

Actually, many "minstrels" pre-movies did shows EMULATING black entertainment. They were shooting for authenticity, not insult. Al Jolson was the most prominent one and the last. They loved the "black" style and I think, didn't believe anyone would accept a white (Jew) dude singing those songs and styling them that special way. Jolson was no mere bigot.

I mean, really, Suzanne here was that same thinking: how does anyone know we're the Supremes as a bunch of white girls (poor quality, but she wanted to be real while her sister and others were against it)?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwdeDZk7GJg

As for all the hype about this kind of thing:

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I remember a scene from the movie MINSTREL MAN in which a black man in white face walks through a crowd of rowdy whites and declares “I AM THE ONLY WHITE MAN HERE, because the rest of you are all REDNECKS!”
Next morning he was stretching a rope.