I appreciate this thoughtful response! My words might not have been nuanced enough. The obvious problem I see with blackface, is the inherent condescendence a

I appreciate this thoughtful response! My words might not have been nuanced enough. The obvious problem I see with blackface, is the inherent condescendence and mockery in it. When you say someone is stupid and lazy, it's pretty clear it's not intended as a complement. It's deragatory. In this sense I find it "intending to do harm". The intention is to peripitate a deragatory notion about an entire population. I can't see a way this is painted as positive. Even if it is accompanied by 'compliments' like crafty and fun. It's obvious to the performer and crowd that lazy and stupid is morally bad (according to their moral code) so the negativity is not incidental as you say. > You can't actually believe this. This is about harm prevention, not punishment. I don't think it's my job to judge intention First, I see calling out as a way to prevent harm. Because it sets the norm that this 'bad thing' is bad. Regarding intention, I may have miswrote. Like in the example above, it's clear that the blackface performance was making negative claims about a whole population. I say clear, because the participating parties agree that lazy and stupid are morally bad. It's easy to test. call them lazy and stupid and see how they react. I also think it follows that painting a marginalized population as morally bad is marginalizing. Not the fact that it is white performers in black face. I don't really understand how the actual act of appropriation is bad in it self. As you say, black American culture is a major part of American culture. Taking this sentence alone, it's hard to understand how that is a bad thing. The bad thing, is the social 'revenue' isn't collected by originators. Again, the problem is not appropriation, it's the dissonance between the value generated by black American culture and the black American economic and social status. I hope I was clearer now. English is not my first language so be gentle :)