This story out of the UK, via the Daily Mail, is a bit mystifying:

Students in fancy dress were turned away from a university bar by bouncers after being told their zombie make-up was racist.

Members of the University of Sheffield Physics Society turned up with face paint on for the zombie-themed pub crawl.

But bouncers at the Population bar told one group they would not be allowed in to the union club because their face paint could be racist, even though others had already been allowed in with their make-up on.

…

Tom Hastings, from Sheffield Students’ Union, said: ‘On this particular occasion, the request to remove the face paint was a mistake and done in error.

A number of thoughts occur to me upon reading this story. One is that, of course, when it was determined that the students were dressed as Zombies, that was ok and not a violation of an anti-racism policy. This is factually accurate of course, in that Zombies are not a race, and Zombies can originally hail from any and all races of Living people.

But it begs the question: Is the University actually concerned merely with race-based hatred? I mean, would they allow nationally stereotyped getups, and if so, to what extent? Gender or sexual orientation bashing costumery? How inflammatory does one have to be?

Is it just ok to pose as Zombies? Why do they deserve less respect from the administration?

Another thought, and you’ll have to go to the Daily Mail to see the pictures, is that these Britons have a very peculiar idea of what a Zombie looks like, possibly due to having very little personal interaction with the Differently Animated. I mean, their makeup doesn’t say ‘Zombie’ so much as it says ‘Mime with Shaving Accident’.

The ZRC has never taken a hardline stance on dressing as a Zombie, or what is sometimes called ‘Greenface’. It can of course be used to defame, but dressing as a member of the Differently Animated can also be done out of affection or an attempt to understand their daily plight, and so we don’t offer a universal condemnation.

I’m not certain how doing it for a pub crawl could benefit The Cause or greater empathy toward the Differently Animated, though.

Tags: Greenface, Social Justice

This entry was posted by John Sears on Friday, November 12th, 2010 at 11:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.