The West Coast Eagles’ Nic Naitanui has expressed disappointment at a Perth mother who proudly posted a photo on Facebook of her son dressed as the footy player in full blackface.
The mother posted the photo on Thursday, explaining that she decided to paint her son’s skin black for a Book Week parade. She said she had to grow a “set of balls” after being told it was a horrible idea by friends, and used it as a ham-fisted statement against “politically correct extremists”.
The woman described it as a “parenting win”, saying he looked “fanfuckingtastic”. She has has since refused to apologise for her actions, and instead defended them.
She said since she posted the photo, she’d been called "every single name under the sun". She added she at least had some “hope for humanity” after receiving literally “a hundred inboxes from amazing women all over the world…sending me inspirational messages to make me smile”.
Naitanui didn't quite feel the same when he weighed in on the controversial post on social media, saying it "hurts [his] heart", and releasing the following statement:
Naitanui believed that he had encouraged this behaviour somewhat in the past, but educating himself about the history of blackface had taught him better – he implored that we all "grow together" from the incident.
This certainly isn't the first blackface incident this year, and it's surely not the last. At the very least, Indigenous rapper Briggs has managed to sum up the collective thoughts of many on the issue at this point. You can check his posts for yourself below.
