Issue date: 11/10/09 Section: News

The controversial photo shows four SMC students Photo: Nightmare on Peter St.

On October 29th, the Victoria University Students' Administrative Council, the University College Literary and Athletic Society, and the St. Michael's College Student Union collaborated to organize the "Nightmare on Peter Street" club night at Mansion & Loft. With attendance figures exceeding 1500 students, the night was viewed by the three student councils as a success. However, a Facebook message sent out the next morning stirred a great deal of controversy.

The message, written by SMCSU's Double Blue Commissioner Deryn Robson, saluted the three colleges for "one amazing night of all night dancing, co-ed washroom sex and drunken debauchery." Included were five "costumes of the night," the first of which was a group dressed as the 1988 Jamaican Bobsled Team depicted in the popular 90's movie Cool Runnings. For their efforts, they were awarded free admission to SMCSU's November 19th "Graffiti" party. However, the costume controversially included four white students with faces painted black. To close the message, Robson claimed to sign on behalf of VUSAC's Scarlet and Gold Commissioner Cheryl Hsu and UCLit's Social Executive Cynthia Lam.

The costumes and comments were quickly criticized by the Black Students' Association and the University of Toronto Students' Union. Former Vic student David Topping, covering the story for the popular blog The Torontoist, summed up their general sentiment: "we know Halloween is the time of year where you get to deviate a bit from what's socially acceptable, but also it's blackface."

Blackface refers to an overtly racist form of theatrical makeup that was popular in the 19th century United States and Britain. Blackface performers would most often darken their skin, exaggerate their lips, and perpetuate racist stereotypes in the name of comedy. Unsurprisingly, the practice of a white person painting their faces black has ever since been inextricably connected to this offensive historical context.

Due to Hsu's name being implicated in the message, UTSU's Vice President University Affairs and Vice President University Equity, Adam Awad and Daniella Kyei, both appeared at November 4th's VUSAC meeting to voice their displeasure with the choice of "costumes of the night." Hsu responded with a written statement regretting the "insensitive costume." She further noted that the students involved were not Vic students, and that VUSAC had not been informed of the contest nor played any role in its execution. She added that the message had been unilaterally written and sent by the SMCSU Double Blue Commissioner and "in no way represents the opinions of Victoria College."

When contacted by The Strand, Robson confirmed Hsu's claims: "I take full responsibility for it, and it would be unfair for Cynthia or Cheryl to get any slack over anything that I have said." According to Robson, the "costumes of the night" award was quickly pieced together. He explained that he selected the winners from a Facebook album. He searched for pictures with groups of students in them, and based the winners solely on how many students were in the picture. In doing so, he hoped more people would win and thus more people would be able to recognize their friends when he sent the message.

Robson acknowledged his ignorance in the matter. After researching blackface, he felt "embarrassed" of his decision. He added that he believes no one in the group meant any offense and that they were all completely unaware of the implications of their costume.

Regardless of Robson's willingness to take the brunt of the criticism, The Black Students' Association has demanded a public apology from SMCSU, VUSAC, and UCLit in their respective college newspapers. Rather than contact the organizations directly and privately, they instead posted a statement on Facebook publicly lambasting all three for "affirming and supporting racist attitudes."

Among the general student population, reaction to the Facebook message was varied. While many scoffed at the blatant unprofessional nature of the sentence that introduced the message, there has been some debate over the offensive nature of the Jamaican Bobsled Team costume.

The comments section of the Torontoist's article was rife with debate over whether simply darkening one's skin, especially on Halloween, truly qualified as blackface. A post purportedly written by the costumed students themselves denies allegations of blackface, claiming that the costume could not be interpreted as offensive because it included none of the "various dimensions associated with blackface" except for the darkening of the skin. A poster under the name of "Patrick Metzger" went a step further, claiming blackface has lost much of its relevance to youth today and the costumes are "more post-racist than racist." Others, however, maintain that the behaviour of the students and the endorsement they received the following morning is inexcusable.

Kevin Philipupillai, a fifth year Vic student, found the costume itself less interesting than the controversy it generated. "This is like high-school jocks dressing up in drag and humping each other for Halloween. At our age it's supposed to be dumb fun," he said. "What is far more interesting is the fallout - that's where people start to defend their actions by making statements which actually are offensive."

Robson regrets the incident and ensuing controversy that ensnared SMCSU, VUSAC, and UCLit. "The Cool Runnings team, myself, and the organization that gave me funding for this party in no way intended for any racist stereotypes to be perpetuated, and if they were perpetuated we can only be extremely apologetic and confident that this sort of thing will never happen again," he assured.

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