A Perth father is facing a storm of online criticism after he dressed his son up as former AFL player Ben Cousins – white powder around his nose, eyes rolled back and all – and posted the photo on online.
The 7-year-old’s dad, Daniel Johnson said he did it in response to last week’s ‘blackface’ outrage about a mother who dressed who painted her son head to toe in brown paint to go to Book Week as AFL star Nic Naitanui and bragged about her “absolute QUEENING moment” on blogger Constance Hall’s public Facebook account.
Perth father Daniel Johnson dresses his son up like Ben Cousins – white powder and eye rolling back – and posts the picture to the internet to prove a point.
While most struggle to see the relevance between the connection, Mr Johnson told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell that “90 per cent” of the feedback he got was from people finding it “funny and hilarious”.
“Why can we laugh at Ben Cousins and the drug culture, but have a cry about somebody dressing their child up like a hero?” Mr Johnson said on 3AW Mornings.
“It’s very hypocritical.
“We can’t pick and choose what we decided to get up in arms about.”
Ben Cousins has had a well-publicised battle with drugs but Mr Johnson said his son was not aware of this when he dressed him up.
Mr Johnson also said his son didn’t go to Book Week dressed in this costume – his son went as a character from Goosebumps – this costume was purely for this internet stunt.
The controversial dress up of a boy to look like AFL star, Nic Naitanui.
Thursday’s post from the West Australian mother prompted much backlash – including a gracious response from Naitanui himself, who called for a need for better education around the issue of “blackface”.
Mr Johnson said he hoped his son’s image would get people to “lighten up”.
“To put all the butt hurt people at ease — (my son) had no idea why he had flour on his nose and I told him to act silly and I got the pic,” the father wrote.
“It’s a piss-take because of the Nic Nat issue — lighten up.”
Another parent to recently weigh in on the blackface debate is Cairns mother Breeze Be.
Cairns mother Breeze Be’s post.
Describing herself as a “proud Aboriginal Australian black woman” Breeze Be (whose real name is Bec) posted a photo of her daughter painted white and dressed as a character from a Dr Seuss book onto Facebook to defend the WA mum’s actions last week.
The mother said that the little boy at the centre of last week’s headlines did “not suffer from racism or discrimination” but instead he “idolised a man who has achieved great successes even during pain”.
In a lengthy post she wrote: “Unfortunately now this little boy who has been shown by the dark skinned community that his admiration for a black man is unacceptable and has learnt racism!”
While many have agreed with Breeze Be others have also condemned her – saying that the WA boy’s mother knew painting her child brown would upset and disrespect people, but did it anyway.
One commenter posted: “Whilst I agree that the child wasn’t being racist Bec and you raise some very valid points, his mother’s Facebook post was totally wrong. I believe she knew the reaction that was going to follow and she has allowed her child to be attacked and ashamed for wanting to dress up as his hero.”
In a reply to her post Bec confirmed that “the boys’ mum has reached out and contacted me.”
She added: “Overwhelmed by how far this has gone and so grateful to be able to stand up for what I believe in.”
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