Outrage after football team wears blackface to club night

It was supposed to be a fun night at Victoria’s Frankston Bombers football club, but the team is in hot water after dressing in blackface and sharing pictures on social media for the world to see.

The teams’ players were seen dressed up as black musicians covered head to toe in black paint and crazy outfits.

The club’s president tried to downplay the incident when asked to comment on his players’ behaviour.

“There was nothing racist about Saturday’s event. We ran an iPod Shuffle Night where everyone dressed up as their favourite musicians,” he said.

Shout out to @FrankstonBomber for their 'Racist Night' and door prize for most #Blackface pic.twitter.com/e6Lx8m69XT

— BRIGGS AKA BIG SIGH (@BriggsGE) May 14, 2016

However, not everyone agrees with people taking to social media to blast the team for being “racist” and “insensitive”.

While dressing up in blackface used to be common in Australian entertainment years ago, the practice is largely viewed as outdated and disrespectful these days.

When Indigenous Australian writer and actor Adam Briggs called out the team on social media he was verbally attacked by Bombers’ fans who told him to “calm the f*** down” and “chill out”.

He also received an abusive voicemail on his phone from someone believed to be connected to the club.

We should just make blackface illegal, that'd settle it

— BRIGGS AKA BIG SIGH (@BriggsGE) May 14, 2016

Earlier this year Indigenous writer Nakkiah Lui told ABC’s triple j why blackface was so offensive to so many people.

“When it comes to blackface there isn’t a debate,” Niakkiah said.

“If a group of people who are the marginalised group, who are still facing racism, who are still facing inequality because of their race, who have to carry the burden of history on their skin and their culture every single day, if they’re telling you that ‘hey, this is offensive to me, it has a loaded history, it’s making me feel uncomfortable, it’s making me feel like a second-class citizen’, it’s not up to the dominant culture — and in this situation that’s white people — to say ‘Why? Why is this making you feel uncomfortable? Because it doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable.’”

However, not everyone agrees that blackface is racist with some asking if that means it’s racist for a black person to dress up as a white person.

The debate runs is a similar vein to that of golliwog dolls, which were once a common childhood doll but are now largely viewed as racist.

Do you think blackface is offensive? Should it be banned? Did you have a golliwog doll when you were young?