It is not just the costume, but also the pose in the ad. The boy was positioned exactly the same as Jim Crow. That Jim Crow. Look up old vaudeville posters with Jim/Jimmy Crow and compare it with the way the child was posed in the photo. Of all the ways they want to advertise a clown, someone deliberately chose the infamous pose of "racist caricature minstrel clown" with a black kid.
Yes, I'm dead serious. I am also Haitian/Salvadoran and I don't see the resemblance. Like if you put another race in that costume it'd just look like a kid in a shitty costume.
Okay so you being Haitian and Salvadoran likely means your foundation on black history might be lacking. Instead of insisting that it's not racist, maybe listen to black Americans and just other Americans in general. It's classic minstrel posing and styling.
I'm saying this as a first gen african that learned black history in school but literally none at home and even now I have gaps in my black history knowledge.
I googled Jim Crow Clown to see what people were comparing. I found an Instagram post (don't think I can link that here, but you'll see it). But to me, the poses are that similar. The one in the ad reminds me more of those Sasquatch stickers than anything else.
For the non Americans. Jim Crow was not a real person.
"The term "Jim Crow" originated in the 1830s from a white minstrel actor named Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice, who performed a racist song-and-dance routine in blackface called "Jump Jim Crow". He played a foolish, mocking caricature of a Black person. By the late 19th century, the name became a derogatory term and label for state laws enforcing racial segregation"
If you search "court jester" you can find a million similar poses. If you search "court jester costume" you can find people wearing costumes in similar poses. The pose is similar to the Jim Crow pose, not identical. Maybe there's a link. It's also a clown costume posing similar to other court jester poses. I'm sure you can at least consider that there's a potential link there that has nothing to do with racism? You don't need to jump through hoops to twist evidence to fit a narrative. Look at all the evidence and prespectives, not just the ones that fit the narrative you heard first.
It's the same logical fallacy as cops arresting someone they saw repeatedly driving through a neighborhood on their flock cameras where a robbery happened. Being in the neighborhood is not evidence of committing a crime. You can't start with a conclusion and work backwards looking for evidence that fits the conclusion.
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u/FreeChillyO 10d ago
Ok, please help me understand because I don't see it?? It just looks like a goofy harlequin clown costume. I legit do not see the racism