UPDATE:
West Coast Eagles player Nic Naitanui has released a statement addressing a Perth mother’s Facebook post of her son dressed in blackface as a bizarre tribute to him.
On his Twitter Naitanui wrote that the boy was “merely attempting to emulate his hero” but called for more education about the significance of blackface.
EARLIER: An Australian mother has caused an uproar after she posted a picture of her son’s Book Week outfit online.
The West Australian woman shared a picture of her boy to social commentator Constance Hall’s public Facebook page dressed as his favourite football player, Nic Naituanui of the West Coast Eagles.
But the issue was the child was painted brown all over.
The mother was unapologetic in her decision and pitted anyone’s outrage down to them being “politically correct extremists”.
She even detailed how her son had won the Book Week parade at his school (how does an AFL player win “Book Week”?) and joked that she celebrated all her decision making with “a wine before 12pm”.
An Australian mother has caused an uproar after she posted a picture of her son’s Book Week outfit online.
The West Australian woman shared a picture of her boy to social commentator Constance Hall’s public Facebook page dressed as his favourite football player, Nic Naituanui of the West Coast Eagles.
But the issue was the child was painted brown all over.
The mother was unapologetic in her decision and pitted anyone’s outrage down to them being “politically correct extremists”.
Yesterday Indigenous rapper, comedian and actor Adam Briggs labelled the mother’s actions as an “obviously reckless, racist thing to do”.
Briggs said at first he “thought it was a set up” but when he realised the mother was serious he outlined why it was so offensive.
“This mother has acknowledged what she was doing was wrong but decided she was going to ‘grow some balls’ and do it anyway with complete disregard to whoever she was going to offend,” wrote Briggs. “Can’t let a little bit of racism get in the way of ‘Book Week’.”
Constance Hall, who has over 800k followers on her Facebook page where the photo was posted, removed the image.
Hall said while she didn’t think the woman was a racist she did not support her decision.
“I don’t agree with dressing your child up in blackface, I can’t defend it,” Hall wrote.
“Because it is hurtful to our indigenous brothers and sisters.
“I don’t believe that the mum in question was behaving maliciously, I don’t believe that she intended to hurt anyone.
“However, I think it was an ill informed decision based on her view that there is too much political correctness in our world.”
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