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blackface

Eye Black, Football and High School

I’m taking a lot of flack for thinking that a teenage boy shouldn’t paint his face black for a football game.

Servite is a High School in Anaheim, CA. They have a very good football team and (I now find) a less than stellar reputation.

High School Athletics in California are still left to teachers. Teachers in California (as opposed to Coaches in adulthood) are responsible for turning out well rounded young men and women. Ideally a school will also teach kids that they are lucky to be part of a community and they can add great things to it.

Perhaps I wasn’t completely clear in my post last night.

When a High School Football Coach sees a child paint their entire face black (eye black or not I don’t care) that coach has an obligation to the child to take him aside and explain to him what painting one’s face black used to symbolize. The coaches failed the children. The coaches failed the parents, whose money they gladly accept.

If the point of High School is education, then Servite is a failure. If the point of High School is playing football games, Servite has been magnificent.

I realize some NFL players use eye black in an excessive and decorative pattern, but I’ve yet to see an NFL player cover their entire face in eye black. The argument that this child is imitating NFL players is false. There has never been an NFL player that has completely covered his face in eye black.

Chris Hovan is well known for wearing excessive and “menacing” eye black. Does this look like he’s painted his entire face?

The real issue is that this is High School. Ostensibly athletics are there to support academics. I’m curious if a history teacher was on hand, and if they gasped a little when they saw their student?