Was 2016 an “off year” for expressing righteous indignation over white people wearing blackface, or was Joy Behar let off the hook because she’s just such a nice person?
According to Behar in the clip that follows, the incident took place when she was 29, which, since she was born in 1942, means the year was 1971. For her costume as a “beautiful African women” (the adjective is hers), she applied makeup “that was a little bit darker than my skin.”
Joy Behar admitted during a taping of The View in 2016 to dressing as a “beautiful African women” at a Halloween party when she was 29 which involved makeup “that was a little bit darker than my skin”
The show even ran an image of the old photo pic.twitter.com/qKQqzDPxyn
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) February 6, 2019
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No one associated with the show at the time or the audience seemed to have a problem with the segment. Not even Behar’s then-co-host Raven-Symoné, who is black, found the costume problematic. When the photo of Behar in costume filled the screen, Raven-Symoné quipped “Are you black, Joy? Are you my auntie, Joy?” The audience “got” the joke and laughed.
Now, three years later, the backlash is beginning. Talk about delayed reactions!
So what changed? One possible answer is that the nation has become more sensitive to the feelings of certain ethnic groups — “woke,” if you will. But I believe it goes further than that. I would say the correct answer is that the nation, taking the lead of social justice warriors, has become hypersensitive to these sorts of “transgressions.” We have all developed “princess and the pea” syndrome.
Three years ago, no one had ever heard of cultural appropriation, much less microaggressions. Now those accusations are ready and waiting on the lips of every liberal, and look how much worse we have all become for it.
