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Home · News

Some People Really Think Al Roker’s And Gabrielle Union’s Halloween Costumes Are The Same As Blackface
By Yesha Callahan · Updated October 23, 2020
It seems as though some people have taken issue with Halloween costumes worn by Al Roker and Gabrielle Union. On Wednesday, Roker dressed up as Doc Brown, a white character from Back To The Future, and Gabrielle Union paid homage to Gwen Stefani circa 1995 and No Doubt’s music video for  “Spiderwebs.” Neither Roker or Union painted their faces white to portray Brown or Stefani, because you know, we’re a little bit smarter than that. But unfortunately, there are people on the internet who aren’t. Just take a look at the reactions to both photos:
View this post on Instagram

BTW, this is an actual #delorean used in #backtothefuture signed by the original cast

A post shared by Al Roker (@alroker) on Oct 31, 2018 at 8:40am PDT

@alroker: @megynkelly is a terrible person to even suggest that it is Ok for a white person to go as a black character for Halloween.
Also @alroker: Goes as Doc brown, a white character from a movie for halloween.#Hypocrites #Whiteface

— BigLargeTime (@BigLargeTime) October 31, 2018

So didn't Megan Kelly just get fired for saying black face and white face were okay if you were dressing up as a person? Crazy time… Susan

— InCAdreamin' (@InCAdreamin) October 28, 2018

@GMA
So it's ok for Gabrielle Union to dress as Gwen Stefani a white girl? But it's not ok for Meghan Kelly to dress as Diana Ross? Can I just say double standard and pure racism towards Meghan Kelly?

— CaptIDKanymore🐾 (@missymoss4) October 29, 2018
It feels a little dumb to even have to explain this, but apparently there are people out there who still don’t understand why blackface and their costumes are two totally different things. In both instances, whiteface wasn’t used by Black people. Whiteface isn’t even a thing. And yes, I’d like to say that Black people are smarter and more creative to even employ such a tactic. Roker even issued a statement about his costume and figuratively dropped his mic: “I’m going to say this one last time, but the folks who get it, understand and the ones who DON’T, won’t,” he tweeted. “I can be Doc Brown, and I wear the outfit and wig and not change my skin color if you’re white, you can be President Obama if you want. Just don’t color your skin!” Something tells me that some people will still need an explainer.
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