In this new era of wokeness, one of the quickest ways to score political points is to dredge up old information about your political opponents that can be seen in light of modern thinking as racist, sexist, or insensitive. And with “cultural appropriation” being one of the hot new buzzwords, anything that shows a (white) person dressing as someone from another culture gives even more ammunition for political opponents. But what happens when the perpetrator of cultural appropriation, blackface, or other frowned-upon behavior is the savior of the woke?
That’s what’s happening in Canada right now, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing a growing scandal regarding his use of brownface and blackface as a young man. Trudeau was photographed in several pictures dressed in brownface and an Arabesque costume for an Arabian Nights party, and other photos showing him in blackface have subsequently surfaced.
The pretty boy Prime Minister, the oldest son of former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, is locked in a tough neck-and-neck re-election campaign. We’ll have to see whether Canadian Liberals will disavow Trudeau’s behavior or, like US Democrats did in Virginia, just pretend it didn’t happen so that their liberal savior continues to be treated like a modern-day saint.
Trudeau hasn’t really mounted a defense of the photos, choosing instead to deflect attention away from them by, for instance, announcing a new gun control plan to further crack down on Canadians’ right to own firearms. That’s pretty typical behavior from scandalous politicians and not entirely unexpected.
But if Trudeau manages to make it through this episode unscathed then it would be yet more evidence that liberals use accusations of racism and bigotry merely as epithets to tar their political opponents and don’t take actual racism, sexism, and other misconduct seriously when it’s one of their own doing it. It’s up to conservatives to continue pointing out this hypocrisy and refusing to back down in the face of hypocritical liberals who fail to practice what they preach.
Image: Wikimedia