Frat Member Expelled After Instagram Of His Bill Cosby Costume Goes Viral
Like a horror movie villain, blackface will never die.
And since Halloween weekend just happened, we can be sure of two things:
1) Everyone is going to stay inside tonight, wrapped in a blanket, as they try to recover from a weekend of attacking their bodies and minds with “fun."
2) The internet is about to be full of stories about people wearing offensive costumes.
This is one of those stories.
They say that children learn by making mistakes.
You touch a stove once, you burn your hand and you don't touch it again. Unfortunately, America is not like that.
America learns like a fly learns. By that, I mean it flies into a bug zapper over and over again, entranced by the beautiful, blue light, never changing its behavior.
Each year, people make national headlines by wearing blackface. And yet each year, the citizens of this country forget blackface is, uh, you know, extremely racist and demeaning.
Charles "Brock" Denton, a Sigma Tau Gamma member at the University of Central Arkansas, went to a party as Bill Cosby.
He was so happy with his costume (which is doubly offensive as both a walking rape joke and a racist caricature), he posted a picture of it to his own Instagram account.
(Okay, also, you'd think a guy nicknamed "Brock" wouldn't choose to dress as a rapist for Halloween. Clearly, this dude has about the same amount of foresight as a piece of iceberg lettuce.)
The photo was naturally seen by other people, and he was promptly expelled from the university.
The thing is, no WAY are you going to wear blackface ANYWHERE unless you're 100 percent positive there won't be any black people where you're going.
The reason blackface — and the other typical crop of offensive costumes (Native American chief, sombrero-wearing Mexican) — keep happening is because this country is segregated along racial lines.
White people keep forgetting to give a shit about people who aren't white because they're never around them.
Other races become abstract. And when that happens, people do fucked up stuff.
Denton posted an apology after receiving a slew of hate mail.
I apologize from the bottom of my heart and absolutely never intended this to happen the way it did. I never EVER would have done this if I'd known the domino effect that [would] follow.
Ok. Um. Kind of a weird apology.
This is basically the equivalent of telling your girlfriend, “I'm so sorry you got so mad at me and are preventing me from playing FIFA in peace. I'm sorry about that."
He continued,
I swear to everyone that I have never stereotyped a person based on how they look. It's not me.
Also a weird thing to say. Considering that, you know, this is all happening because you literally did exactly that.
To make everything more horrible, he's allegedly been receiving death threats over the costume.
I hope this situation will end without me being killed over a Halloween costume.
Okay, this point I can wholeheartedly agree with.
After all, on the scale of horribleness, I'm pretty sure threatening to murder someone is worse than wearing a racist costume. So basically, fuck everyone.
He ended his apology with this:
We will never achieve peace if we only react in violence. Please forgive me.
All right, cool it, Gandhi.
The frat also issued a formal apology, mentioning he was told at the party to take off the face paint. It's my responsibility as a journalist to suggest you take that assertion with a grain of salt as big as the Liberty Bell.
The fraternity chapter itself was suspended by its national headquarters, as the costume was worn during a party it threw. An investigation is pending.
Citations: Daily Mail Reporter
