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MYMP guitarist Jacques “Chin” Alcantara wore black face makeup for his Jimi Hendrix costume. Images: YouTube Screenshot / The Alcantaras, Twitter / @ paz_ango
Filipino band MYMP (Make Your Momma Proud) received backlash online after guitarist Jacques “Chin” Alcantara donned black face makeup during their Halloween performance.
The group livestreamed the show on its Facebook page yesterday, October 30, but has since removed it. However, a Twitter user with the username @paz_ango posted a snippet of his performance on his own profile on the same day.
The short video shows Alcantara’s face covered in dark makeup to make him look like a black man. When his viewers began calling him for his costume, the guitarist called the Black Lives Matter movement “kalokohan (nonsense)”.
Black Lives Matter is an activist movement that campaigns against violence and racism towards blacks.
Mymp defends himself against Blackface and later claims that BLM sucks. pic.twitter.com/Cv47hUh7qO
– ango (@paz_ango) October 30, 2020
“Because you just stand out. Of course, our lives matter too, ”he said. “There should be no color. All lives matter. “
(Because you’re pointing [Black lives]. Of course, our lives matter too. There should be no color.)
He also clarified that his opinion on the movement is solely his and is not shared by his bandmates.
Following his performance, actor Bart Guingona described MYMP as a “[consequence] of having an inadequate educational system that produces uncritical, thoughtless, insensitive and very stupid Filipinos. “
#mymp It is the consequence of having an inadequate educational system that produces uncritical, thoughtless, insensitive and very stupid Filipinos
– Bart Guingona (@guingonabart) October 31, 2020
Musician Raymund Marasigan also appeared to criticize the band, saying: “[T]hat wouldn’t make mom proud [clown face emoji]. “
that wouldn’t make mom proud🤡
– Raymund Marasigan (@raymsmercygun) October 30, 2020
Meanwhile, a Twitter user (@idlewreker) claimed that Alcantara’s ignorance was the reason the band’s former lead singer, Juris Fernández, left the group. Many also shared memes that said the band was no longer popular after she left and that they should have stayed that way.
imagine being so ignorant in 2020 that’s why juris left the band@MYMP_OFFICIAL Please inquire https://t.co/LvwskpTNpE
– nul • hq spoilers (@idlewreker) October 31, 2020
After the backlash, Alcantara defended his decision to use blackface in a video on his YouTube page. He said he was simply dressing up as American musician Jimi Hendrix for Halloween and that makeup was part of his costume.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYKc-9cls34
He also insisted that wearing black face makeup does not mean that it is anti-black. Alcantara later described Black Lives Matter as mere propaganda.
At the end of his video, Alcantara reminded his critics: “Don’t believe everything you hear or read. Not everything is as it seems. Don’t be swayed by popular opinion and cool. “
Blackface is known to have started in the 1830s and is considered the first exclusively American form of entertainment. In acting, white men darkened their skin color to create caricatures of black people.
Civil rights organizations condemned these actions from the start for dehumanizing blacks and “introducing and reinforcing racial stereotypes.” /outside
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