There’s no doubt that the Australian government is a little behind when it comes to realising that the way it has treated the land’s native – and non-white – people is really, really horrific.

So there’s no surprise that only this year the country has taken a stand on the meaning of blackness (not that the rest of the world is any less far behind, but Australia has some deep internal shit to sort out when it comes to the general treatment of Aborigines).

Although the conversation of blackface was brought up earlier this year (fans of Serena Williams wore blackface to her tennis match), it has once again entered the social media arena – but this time, the topic is being defended by a mother of Aboriginal descent.

Last week was Book Week. It’s a thing that happens in parts of the world where reading is a luxury they can afford, and children attend school dressed as their favourite character from a book.

But one mom, Constance Hall, not only got the interpretation wrong, but she lost the dress-up memo, too.

You see, her son’s idol is Australian footballer Nic Naitanui, who is an Aborigine (and not a character in a book). But her son is white.

Instead of just using his jersey number to represent the player, the well-known Australian blogger popped a little black face paint on her boy, too. And the crowd went wild. But to defend herself, she had this to say:

He is pastey white and if I just sent him in a wig and footy gear, no one would tell who he was.

So I grew a set of balls and painted my boy brown. After being told by everyone not to do it, my son won the parade!

No apology coming from this mom.

Then, an Aboriginal mother attempted to ‘okay’ the situation by defending the decision to paint the boy black, calling out the supposed hypocrisy:

When I posted a picture of my daughter in “whiteface” to dress up as her favourite Dr Seuss character in 2013 no one batted an eyelid.

Unfortunately now this little boy who has been shown by the dark skinned community that his admiration for a black man is unacceptable and has learnt racism.

How do we end racism/discrimination? Do we support education or do we do reverse racism and shun a future adult?

His childhood experience would have scarred him now.

Not once did anyone say anything when I painted my black daughter white 3 years ago, We need to stop the double standards, a hero is a hero!

Personally, I think she is missing the point – and the funny thing is, even Naitanui thinks the same. The player took to Twitter to diplomatically put out the debate:

The young bloods innocence merely attempting to emulate his hero hurts my heart. Especially when that hero is me!

It’s a shame racism co-exists in an environment where our children should be nurtured not tortured because they are unaware of the painful historical significance “blackface” has had previously on the oppressed.

I don’t believe the mother had any intention to cause harm, just wanted her kid to simply be ‘Nic Nat’, however (she) may reflect on this and choose an alternate method next time.

There we go, simple and eloquent.

But will it make a difference? Probably not.

[source:bbc&spynewsagency]