91原创

Skip to content

Painful Truth: Harm and intent in Trudeau鈥檚 brownface scandal

Just because you didn鈥檛 mean to hurt someone, doesn鈥檛 mean you didn鈥檛 do harm
18604471_web1_Trudeau

If you go to a friend鈥檚 house, and while making a careless and clumsy gesture, you smash their beloved vase, do you apologize?

Of course you do.

I bring up this hypothetical because of Justin Trudeau鈥檚 past practice of painting himself up blackface and brownface for costumes, the most recent in 2001.

Most commentators, politicians, and the media, are taking it seriously.

But there鈥檚 an undercurrent to the discussion, whether from talking heads on TV trying to minimize the damage to the Liberal campaign, to social media and comment threads where the idea is put more bluntly: Trudeau supposedly doesn鈥檛 have anything to apologize for.

After all, he wasn鈥檛 trying to hurt anyone, was he? He didn鈥檛 mean to be racist, he wasn鈥檛 making fun of anyone directly, was he? Why can鈥檛 everyone just drop it!

Similar comments swirl every time the Black Peter controversy arises, which it did again this week as it was revealed that Cloverdale-91原创 City Conservative candidate Tamara Jensen鈥檚 family greenhouse hosted at least one event, which she attended, that featured the character in blackface.

By this logic, if you don鈥檛 directly mean harm, it鈥檚 impossible to have done harm at all. This is then flipped around 鈥 anyone who takes offense is being oversensitive! They鈥檙e the real villains here!

But we all know that鈥檚 nonsense.

I will say that I believe Trudeau did not know what he was doing was racist, that he did not know it might offend. (This does not improve my estimation of his intelligence.) His actions were most likely without active malice, and the same holds true for those who take part in Dutch holiday events featuring Black Peter.

Lack of malice does not equal lack of harm. It does not mean you do not have to change when that harm is pointed out to you.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi described the pictures of Trudeau in brownface and an 鈥淎laddin鈥 costume as 鈥渁 sucker punch.鈥

鈥淚t really makes you think, 鈥榃hen is this ever going to end?鈥欌 Nenshi said.

Some people have brushed the harm off. Others are steaming mad. Others sad. Not everyone will feel the same about the use of brownface, and context matters.

But we have to acknowledge Canada has a problem with racism.

Active, harmful racism has been on the rise in Canada for years now. That ranges from the Islamophobia shared on Facebook groups and in person by organizations like Yellow Vests Canada and the Soldiers of Odin to Quebec鈥檚 Bill 21 banning people wearing religious garb from holding public sector jobs, to the niqab ban for public servants the Conservatives considered back in 2015.

Directly harmful racism grows in the soil of casual racism. Jokes about accents and skin colours and ethnic stereotypes. And in the idea that you can put on another person鈥檚 race as a costume.

I don鈥檛 know how I would have felt about Trudeau鈥檚 brownface back in 2001. The easy thing about being a white person is you go through life never being the target of racism, never having to factor that into how you deal with other people.

How I feel about it now is that it鈥檚 something we have to firmly say is wrong. No, it鈥檚 not as wrong as painting a swastika or flinging a racial slur.

But when you break something, you apologize. Intent matters, yes. But you still did damage. You apologize, you try not to break anything else in the future.



Matthew Claxton

About the Author: Matthew Claxton

Raised in 91原创, as a journalist today I focus on local politics, crime and homelessness.
Read more