Hey Hey It's Saturday in Red Faces racist row (blackface performance in Australia)

[Blue_Tires]

AFTER 21 years, Jacki MacDonald was finally reunited with Daryl Somers on the second Hey Hey It's Saturday reunion special, but the show will be remembered for a storm over a Red Faces skit.

Swing crooner Harry Connick Jr led a chorus of criticism over a final controversial Red Faces act on the show.

The singer looked uncomfortable during the performance of the Jackson Jive - a group of singers with their faces painted black, the Herald Sun reports.

The singer gave the troupe a score of zero and said the act would not have gone down well in the US.

Connick Jr was born and raised in New Orleans and learned to play music alongside African American jazz musicians.

Later, after an on-air apology issued directly to the star by Somers, Connick Jr said he needed to "speak up as an American''.
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,28383,26181031-10229,00.html

[NOLALady]

1. That Connick boy was raised right.

[Number23]

2. I saw this mess as it was airing. This has done nothing but cement my belief

that it is time for old Number23 to move on to another part of the world.

From the milisecond those fools walked out on that stage, I was just sitting there looking at my tv thinking "where am I again? What the hell year is it again??" My husband, who up until this point had kept nudging me to watch the rest of the show as I was trying to read my Vanity Fair, got reeeeeeal quiet when these idiots walked out.

And of course, the comments on the articles are flooded with irate Aussies screaming that people are "too PC" and that "Aussies just like to have fun" even though there have been tons of comments and editorials from people who were absolutely MORTIFIED by this skit. I wonder though, would these same folks be screaming that people are "too PC" if that had been a bunch of Aboriginals on prime time television portraying white Australians as a bunch of inbred, alcoholic, ball-kicking, descendants of English prisoners?? I think I already know the answer to that question....

[firedupdem]

4. Poor Mr.23...I know he had to be thinking...

"I was just trying to watch a show with my sweetheart, and this shit comes on". Unbelievable.

[Number23]

5. Girl, he was soooooo embarrassed!

We talked about it today. He was absolutely astounded. He just had this look on his face, shook his head and said "I can't believe that they showed that." Mortified is actually the word I'd use to describe his reaction.

Unfortunately, far too many of his countrymen don't feel that way:

"An overwhelming 69 per cent of readers who voted in online News Ltd polls across Australia said the skit – which featured four men with blackened faces wearing afro wigs miming to the Jackson Five’s Can You Feel It – was neither racist nor tasteless." http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,28383,26182943-10229,00.html

Needless to say, I'm not feeling particularly WARM towards this stupid little backwater right now.

[firedupdem]

3. I don't care what part of the world they are in.....they knew this was

in very poor taste and racist as hell. Sickening. :grr:

[Brewman_Jax]

6. Just when you thought life was safe...

they found an old MAD TV sketch with Harry Connick, Jr. dressed in a preacher's robe and they want to call him a hypocrite. Watching the sketch, Harry was not in blackface, tho' wearing fake facial hair.

As usual, anything to deflect blame away from the racial insensitivity and crassness of the act in question. GMAFB! :eyes: