Justin Trudeau BlackFace Scandal

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s BlackFace campaign moved to contain a growing scandal Thursday after a yearbook photo surfaced of him in racist brownface makeup at a 2001 costume party and two other similar incidents also came to light.

When you run on sanctimony, govern on arrogance and expect perfection, you find yourself in an awful quandary when you fall short of your own standards. My column: https://t.co/xJtBh2OSSQ

— Robyn Urback (@RobynUrback) September 19, 2019

The blackface issue is so powerful because it reveals white people’s almost total failure to appreciate the ongoing violence of racism, writes Rod Earle, while Pamela Jane Smith believes the revelations about the Canadian PM are politically motivated

What Happened This Week: 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continued his struggle to contain the fallout from one of the biggest political scandals Justin Trudeau BlackFace Scandal in Canadian history.

Justin Trudeau BlackFace Apologize

With the election a month away, Trudeau apologized and begged Canadians to forgive him. Time magazine published the photo on Wednesday, saying it was taken from the yearbook from the West Point Grey Academy, a private school in British Columbia where Trudeau worked as a teacher before entering politics. It shows the then-29-year-old Trudeau in a turban and robe with dark makeup on his hands, face, and neck.

Justin Trudeau BrownFace

justin Trudeau BlackFace, Canada’s prime minister, wore brownface makeup to a party at the private school where he was teaching in the spring of 2001. TIME has obtained a photograph of the incident.

Please can someone check that @DavidLammy is ok?

The Justin Trudeau blackface story has been going for more than 24 hours yet David has failed to post a single tweet condemning the Canadian PM for his blatant racism. Is he trapped under something heavy & can’t reach his phone? pic.twitter.com/1IbFuGCVSV

— Julia Hartley-Brewer (@JuliaHB1) September 20, 2019

The photograph has not been previously reported. The picture was taken at an “Arabian Nights”-themed gala. It shows Trudeau, then the 29-year-old son of the late former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, wearing a turban and robes with his face, neck, and hands completely darkened. The photograph appears in the 2000-2001 yearbook of West Point Grey Academy, a private day school where Trudeau was a teacher.

Justin Trudeau Brownface Apologize

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized Wednesday night for wearing brownface at a 2001 “Arabian Nights”-themed party—less than two hours after TIME published a previously unreported yearbook photo from the event at the private school where he was teaching.

In a new revelation, Trudeau also admitted that he wore blackface “makeup” in high school to sing “Day-O,” a Jamaican folk song famously performed by African-American singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte.

a school talent show with blackface

Trudeau said he wore blackface “makeup” in high school to sing “Day-O,” a Jamaican folk song famously performed by African-American singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte. TIME has confirmed that a photo shows Trudeau at a school talent show wearing blackface and an afro wig.

Justin Trudeau BlackFace Issue

Dear Mr. Trudeau,

Still calling out Trump for his “racist” anti-squad tweets? Good thing you’re not a Republican.

“Justin Trudeau Wore Blackface Not Once, Not Twice, But Three Times”https://t.co/hlRg0Hr1Pz#BlackFaceMatters

— Larry Elder (@larryelder) September 19, 2019

The blackface issue is so powerful because it reveals white people’s almost total failure to appreciate the ongoing violence of racism and how this is fixed on the skin, making it the most basic index of racial identity. A white person “blacking up” cannot help but tease out all the most injurious features of the race while allowing them to play in the inversion of its hierarchies and the fictions of its construction.

Justin Trudeau BlackFace Issue

The 47-year-old son of the late Prime Minister PierreTrudeau BlackFace was already vulnerable following one of the biggest scandals in Canadian political history, which arose when Trudeau’s former attorney general said he improperly pressured her to halt the prosecution of a company in Quebec. Trudeau has said he was standing up for jobs, but the scandal rocked the government and led to resignations and a drop in his ratings earlier this year.

‘Insulting’

His quick apology for the yearbook photo did not stem the criticism from political opponents.

“It is insulting. Any time we hear examples of brownface or blackface it’s making a mockery of someone for what they live, for what their lived experiences are. I think he has to answer for it,” said Leftist New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh, who is a Sikh.

Singh added on Twitter, that the scandal is not about Trudeau, but is about “every young person mocked for the color of their skin”.