A backstage source said that after the segment Connick Jr expressed his disgust and negotiated an on-air apology at the end of the live broadcast between him and show host Daryl Somers.
“I think we may have offended you with that act and I deeply apologise on behalf of all of us – because I know that to your countrymen, that’s an insult to have a black-face routine like that on the show, so I do apologise to you,” Somers said, appearing embarrassed and stammering his words.
The “apology” from the performers includes lots of we’re-very-highly-educateds and we’re-ethnic-toos. Excellent. Apparently it’s supposed to make us feel better that these guys with no judgement have positions of professional responsibility and daily access to the community.
If it was a tribute to Michael Jackson, why the black faces? No joke intended. Really! I mean, he’s iconic enough to not need ‘face-blacking’ to recognise the reference (unless they were really bad). Sounds like a whole bunch of dumbness afoot. Ugh.
[...] Blue Milk: Actually that is fucking offensive in our country too. [...]
Yep, I was offended. I wish I could say I was surprised, but not really.
Wow. Like Connick, Jr. my jaw was on the floor when those blacked up faces came out. The apology should’ve been to black people though, not Connick, Jr. who was merely offended on their behalf. And yeah, I think most Australians would find it pretty offensive too, not just Americans. Insinuating otherwise seems like a cheap shot at Americans, like “Oh, those serious Yanks, they don’t know how to have fun like us!”
Actually that is exactly what some people were saying on talkback radio today: that Australian “culture” is sooo different from American culture, and they just don’t understand our humour. Reminded me of apartheid defenders who used to say “the rest of the word doesn’t understand us”.
And it’s not really much of an apology when you say we “may” have offended you. We’ve really lost the art of a proper, humble apology. Too worried about liability. When something is offensive, it’s offensive full stop. The fact that there are people out there who didn’t find it offensive is no excuse for watering it down.
An amazing amount of people are saying ‘it was a joke, what is the problem’ though.
I think blackface as a historical insult just does not register in the same way here as the US.
But I still can’t believe that not one person on Hey Hey thought twice about this act, either in the planning, or when they waited in the green room, or at anytime really. I mean they can’t have got all that make-up on seconds before they went on – and surely even on planning sheets, any act about Michael Jackson should have aroused a few questions, seeing as how he has just died and all.
Once again I’m embarrassed by others who inhabit this country I call home. The talk back radio responses were as sickening as the performance. My all time least favourite radio personality claimed that while it may have been offensive to Americans it wasn’t racist because “Australia isn’t a racist country”. I kid you not! So deeply, deeply entrenched in our culture and our “sense of humour” that it is invisible to most of us *puke*
[...] no matter where it occurs, as a shiny new coin explains. In fact, that topic received quite a lot of appropriately negative attention – including a bingo [...]