’Tis the season. The Jack-o-Lanterns are glowing on porches; the smell of hot apple cider wafts through the crisp fall air; ghouls, goblins, and various iterations of Cardi B wander the streets and wypipo continue their decades-long tradition of fucking up Halloween for everyone.
This latest case involves someone not named Megyn Kelly but similarly afflicted with advanced Beckyism. A white woman by the name of Keysha Holmes (yes, a white woman named Keysha), owner of Holmes Hair Salon, is saying she “didn’t never know [blackface] was a thing” after one of her employees put on blackface for a group Michael Jackson-themed party.
The group—all employees of the salon—wanted to show the various iterations of Michael Jackson throughout his life and career. Not a bad idea. According to photos obtained by WYFF TV, employees dressed up as zombie Thriller Mike and Bad-era Mike, as well as Jackson 5-era Michael. Again, not necessarily a bad idea ... yet.
But of course, the woman dressing up as young Mike thought she’d really sell the costume (as if the very easy to distinguish vest and afro weren’t enough) with a little blackface. Or as Holmes put it to WYFF TV, “She put Covergirl brown makeup on her face.”
As The Glow Up’s Maiysha Kai mentioned to me, all the gal had to do was put an Applejack cap on that ‘fro and call it a day. But no. Old girl just had to steep herself in white nonsense.
From there, things went as they usually do: Holmes, unaware that there was any problem whatsoever with the costume, posted videos of the employee singing in her racist costume, and folks with half a lick of common sense started calling her out on it.
Which leads us to her bizarre interview with WYFF, in which Holmes pleads ignorance about the whole thing.
“I swear, I never heard of blackface,” she said—despite fellow Becky, ex-Today Show host Megyn Kelly, dominating the news cycle last week over claims that blackface “was OK” when she was younger.
As has been well covered year after year after year around Halloween, blackface’s racist roots are impossible to extract from the practice. Still, year after year, wypipo insist that it’s all in ignorance and good fun—perhaps because using black bodies and black stereotypes has always been a way for white people to bond with and entertain each other.
And what could conceivably be wrong with that?
Holmes took down the videos from her social media accounts, but struck a defiant tone with the local news outlet, telling WYFF TV that she “slept very well last night” despite the furor over her employee’s costume, before adding that she’ll “never paint a face again.”
A-B-C, easy as for-the-love-of-God-quit-it-with-the-fucking-blackface-already.