Two White college students drew the ire of social media over the weekend for their Halloween costume choices. Per the Daily Mail, a video of a male and female wearing costumes to mimic embattled music executive Sean “Diddy” Combs was initially posted on TikTok on Sunday.
The video shows the White male student wearing blackface, a red bow tie, a black jacket, and white trousers. The White female student, on the other hand, is seen wearing a pink sweater with “Johnson’s baby” printed on what looks like a piece of paper and attached to her chest. She is also seen holding what appears to be baby oil.
The video, posted with the caption, “How the group chat dressed for Halloween”, later went viral before it was ultimately taken down in the wake of the backlash. Despite its deletion, the video was saved, and it has since been circulated across social media.
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The original video was said to be posted by a female student at San Diego State University in California. But she was reportedly not the woman spotted in the photo.
A San Diego State University spokesperson told the Daily Mail that they are “deeply concerned about the actions depicted, and understand the gravity of how this may impact others.”
“Our team is working to confirm information, to include the location and the names and affiliations of the individuals involved,” the spokesperson added. “We appreciate the willingness of people who have come forward to share information with the university. The use of blackface and any actions making light of sexual assault are deeply offensive and have no place in a respectful, caring community.”
The spokesperson also said conducts that “stereotypes or seeks to harm people based on race or ethnicity and disregard the severity of sexual assault directly contradicts our shared university values.”
As previously reported by Face2Face Africa, authorities claimed that they found “more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant” in Combs’ Miami and Los Angeles homes during a raid in connection with a federal sex trafficking investigation. Combs is accused of orchestrating “Freak-Offs,” described as elaborate, produced sex performances that he directed, recorded, and sometimes participated in.
The news about the large quantities of baby oil being found in Combs’ mansions came after the 54-year-old was arrested by federal agents on September 16 and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Combs, who entered a not-guilty plea, is being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. His trial date has been set for May 5, 2025. But the Bad Boy Records founder is additionally facing multiple sexual assault lawsuits.
Despite his legal woes, several people condemned the White students’ actions. “Aside from the blatant and despicable blackface, this is just an incredibly lazy version of Diddy,” one person said, per the Daily Mail.
“You can s**t on Diddy while not being racist. He did not have to do blackface and everyone would’ve known who he was especially with his girl as baby oil,” another person said. A different critic also called for the White male student to be “locked up in the same cell with Diddy as punishment.”
The History of Blackface
According to a brief on the subject on BET, blackface grew out of Minstrel shows starting in the 1830s. The act involved White actors darkening their face with shoe polish or greasepaint, painting exaggerated red lips with makeup, and acting out stereotypically dumb, foolish, or dangerous Black characters – that is the “happy darky on the plantation” or the “dandified coon”. The larger purpose of these shows was to entertain White slave owners, who were humored by acts mocking slaves and free Blacks during the 19th century.
Among minstrel show “pioneers” was Thomas “Daddy” Rice, a White actor who blackened his face and danced a jig for his character Jim Crow in 1830.
From the small stage, blackface made its way to the big screen where some performers like Bert Williams, Al Jolson, and Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, who created “Amos N’ Andy” made it widely popular. These White men also performed in “dialect” or “African American English.”
Minstrelsy was at its height between 1830 and 1890. Even in the late 19th century when Black artists were finally allowed to perform publicly, they had to wear blackface no matter their hue and had to reenact stereotypes of their time (some did find ways to subvert this).
Blackface only went out of vogue during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. But by then, it had already caught wind around the world, especially in many Asian and European countries where actors still put on the face to perform.
In the U.S., wearing blackface is almost sacrilege. It is met with great criticism because it hearkens to a painful past of slavery, segregation – Jim Crow, and discrimination for Black people. It reinforces stereotypes about Black people that are not true.
White college students in the U.S. are especially warned not to wear blackface on occasions like Halloween, a pastime for many.
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