No, The Weeknd’s ‘Godfather’ Costume Wasn’t Whiteface Or Cultural Appropriation

“This year, Halloween fell on a Weekend”—and the Weeknd won.

Singer, songwriter and producer the Weeknd is known for killing it when it comes to Halloween costumes just as he’s known for killing it on stage and in the studio.

This year, the recording artist whose real name is Abel Makkonen Tesfaye did his thing once again by completely transforming himself into Marlon Brando’s classic character Don Vito Corleone in the iconic mob movie The Godfather.

https://twitter.com/theweeknd/status/1455044623328366596

https://twitter.com/theweeknd/status/1455022796942102530

The responses to the costume across social media were mostly positive with people just being astonished at how unrecognizable the Canadian singer was while dressed as one of the most well-known fictional Italian gangsters in film history.

Then the fragile whites entered the chat.

It’s almost 2022 and there are still scores of salty white people who don’t understand that racism isn’t the two-way street they desperately wish it was, and that for a double standard to occur, the standard would need to be the same from the start for all parties involved.

So when they started accusing the Weeknd of wearing whiteface while white people get dragged for wearing costumes that include blackface, all they did was further demonstrate the pointlessness of debating race with melanin-nots who are absolutely dedicated to not knowing what the hell they’re talking about.

https://twitter.com/simbcfc1/status/1455082923716222981

https://twitter.com/Mr__Pooba/status/1455142914464653321

https://twitter.com/0mah_Shullz/status/1455044750051057665

First, it’s funny how people always think that as long as they include “LMAO” and laugh emojis in their comments, we won’t be able to tell how butthurt and deep in their feelings they are.

As for this ridiculous non-argument—do we even need to do this?

Do we really need to go through the effort, once again, of explaining the fact that there is no history of white minstrel shows and non-white people caricaturing white people through racist costumes with exaggerated features? Do we really need to remind white people that they are not only the majority, but they represent the default for social and cultural normalcy in the Western world, and because of that their stereotypes don’t carry nearly as much weight as that of Black people and people of color? So, even when it comes to movies like White Chicks or Eddie Murphy’s white characters that he has portrayed in movies, nobody cares about white people’s pretend outrage over it because the context simply ain’t the same.

White people who complained about the Weeknd’s costume also demonstrated that they still don’t understand the concept of cultural appropriation.

https://twitter.com/YungRoyze/status/1455161788006346752

A few things:

First, cultural appropriation happens when members of a dominant culture feel entitled to adopt the traditions and general ways of people who are lower on the social hierarchy and are often able to profit off of cultural things in ways the creators of said cultural things can’t.

For example: Black people using AAVE are often chided as ignorant and uneducated, while white people can borrow Black slang and Black vernacular without the same stigma being attached to it. (Also, see white people’s ownership of the Hip Hop industry.)

Black people really don’t have the social capital to appropriate anything.

Secondly, it isn’t like the Weeknd was dressed as a random Italian the way white people dress as generic Native Americans and Asian people in costumes that are based purely on stereotypes. He was dressed as a specific character played by an actor who, by the way, also wasn’t Italian. (Brando was an Irish, Dutch, German and English white guy from Nebraska, people. Calm down.)

Anyway, once we rinse away all the white tears and fragile caucasity, we’re left with one sentiment regarding the Weeknd’s costume:

Damn, that man knows how to understand the assignment.

No, The Weeknd’s ‘Godfather’ Costume Wasn’t Whiteface Or Cultural Appropriation  was originally published on newsone.com