CLEVELAND – When he learned that members of a local fraternity would be dressing up as the black man who lives next door, Andrew Thompson, the black man who lives next to Pi Gamma Gamma, was elated.
“I’m glad to see white people get over their denial and coming to terms with the fact that blackface minstrelsy is a part of their heritage” said the 38-year old.
“Their choice to dress up as me is all the more heartening because it means they see me as a person,” he added, “which dominant white society has never done.”
“It’s really touching to see that they understand the importance of skin colour in American history,” he continued. “This vindicates my decision to recommend that they read John Howard Griffin’s Black Like Me.”
Thompson was so enamoured by the fraternity’s costumes that he suggested doing a Freaky Friday wherein he would dress up as a Pi Gamma Gamma member.
Upon hearing about this idea, the fraternity sent him a letter that read: “We know you think Whiteface is innocuous fun but we cannot condone you appropriating our culture for your own frivolous amusement.”
