Black Lives Matter Malta Calls ‘Blackface’ In Road Safety Education Campaign
The anti-racism movement Black Lives Matter Malta called the possibility of a ‘blackface’ in an educational campaign video on road safety.
The video was released by the Mapfre Foundation, as part of a ‘Street Smart’ campaign, and Black Lives Matter Malta said it had a “problematic association between blacks and misconduct or reprimand”.
“BLM Malta is calling for this campaign and also the broader and more widespread anti-blacks found in various levels of Maltese society,” she said in a press release.
“BLM Malta also finds it necessary to stress the importance of recruiting people of diverse backgrounds and backgrounds in decision-making positions to challenge such unacceptable productions and prevent them from being released,” he continued.
The campaign, which is aimed primarily at families and children, features a family labeled Safe Family, as well as a character named Mr Careless.
“While the Safe family respects the rules, Mr Careless is constantly making bad decisions and being reprimanded by the Safe family for his behavior. Mr. Careless is visibly different from the Safe family, where not only is he dressed in black but his face is dark and his hair is woven, and he is also the only one with hair. ”
In the advertisement, there is an obvious contrast between the Safe family and their yellow but lighter color and Mr. Careless and his darker color and woven hair.
BLM Malta also referred to earlier concepts such as “black is bad”, where darker tones are often associated with a negative connotation, or negative personality traits compared to lighter skin colors.
“We also know that such associations between blacks and ‘something undesirable’ take place in Malta, for example through the common use of the phrase ‘so, i’m black?! ‘. ”
“And we know that for a section of the Maltese population, blackface and its history and negative connotations are not taken seriously – as seen when the government’s director of the Manoel Theater justified the use of blackface in one of his productions, ”she said while referring. for a previous accident.
The organization also pointed out that the video was released immediately after the launch of Malta’s anti-racism strategy, as well as being aimed at young children and is therefore passing on bad ideas to future generations.
What do you do with this?