Arnaud Appropriation

Antoine Griezmann “Blackface”

In December 2017, the famous football player Antoine Griezmann painted all his body in black and he dressed like a basketball player.

What happened ?

Antoine Griezmann posted the photo on twitter and he commented “80’s Party 🏀🤣”.Just after his post, some people have criticized him. Indeed we call this a “blackface”. “Blackface” come from little sketch where white people painted there face in black to caricature black people.

History of “blackface”

These sketch are often racist. They began in the USA in 1850 and they arrived in Europe in 1880. Today some people like Antoine Griezmann dressed-up for laughs. But they forget the racist origin of these costume. This is cultural appropriation because he is not black so he shouldn’t do that. He shows a good image of “blackface” whereas it is something serious.

The problem with this act

I think that particularly from a famous person like Antoine Griezmann this is really shocking because “blackface” refers to racist slurs and it is disrespectful for black people. Fortunately Antoine Griezmann apologized very quickly which shows that he understood his act.

Arnaud Charlier Terminale 7