Cape Town - The Stellenbosch students at the centre of the latest “blackface” incident had no intention of offending anyone, they say, describing their actions as an error of judgement.
A picture of university students Mark Burman and Ross Bartlett dressed as tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, complete with brown face paint, went viral after it was posted on Instagram by their friend Michael Weaver.
The picture was taken at a 21st birthday party on Sunday.
It comes almost two months after the University of Pretoria launched an investigation when two students were photographed at a party dressed as domestic workers, with their faces and arms painted brown and their rears padded with cushions.
In a statement on Sunday, Burman, Bartlett and Weaver said guests had been invited to a party with a twinning theme. This prompted the idea of dressing as the Williams sisters.
“Unfortunately… this has resulted in the misinterpretation of painting our bodies black and has been associated with ‘blackfacing’, which we now know is a disparaging practice used to portray offensive racial stereotypes, and we cannot stress enough that this was not our intent. There was no racial undertone to the costumes.”
The students said they were merely dressing up as two successful sporting siblings.
Weaver said he had posted the picture on Sunday morning “with the intent of sharing a photo of myself and two of my closest friends enjoying the 21st”.
He said there was no malicious meaning behind the caption: “Hanging out with the Williams sisters last night at the Boli’s 21st. Let’s hope they don’t get kicked out the varsity for this one!”
Weaver said he now realised he had been insensitive and regretted it.
In the statement they said they hoped that the sensitivities engendered by the incident would not be used “
as a blunt tool with which to impart insult to what was an entirely legitimate and lawful depiction of two sporting heroes”. It had been “an error in judgement on all our behalves, and we regret this”.
Meanwhile, the university’s student representative council said it considered “blackfacing” to be discriminatory and deemed it unacceptable “in all its forms”.
It supported the appointment of a disciplinary body to evaluate the matter, but said expelling the students would merely “treat the symptom and not the cause”.
Cape Argus