Police are searching for a man who robbed a bank in eastern Maryland while wearing blackface.
The Perryville Police Department sent out a Facebook post to the public asking for assistance identifying the man captured by surveillance footage. The man allegedly robbed a PNC Bank in Cecil County on Tuesday night.
Police describe him as “a white male, with paint on his face, approximately 5′0″-5′5″ and late 20s to early 30s.”
Blackface, the use of brushing black paint on one’s face to enact racist caricatures, traces its origins back to the early 19th century in America. From New York to the antebellum South, white performers would perform “minstrel shows” in tattered clothing and blackened faces, commonly with shoe polish, to racially stereotype slaves.
A recent example came from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who wore blackface on multiple occasions before assuming political office. Trudeau, 48, acknowledged and apologized for the acts after photographs of him in blackface were unearthed. “It was a dumb thing to do. I’m disappointed in myself. I’m pissed off at myself for having done it,” he then said.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, 60, was also found in the 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook wearing either blackface or a KKK grand wizard robe. Though Northam did not feel it necessary to resign from his post, he apologized to the general public.
“I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now,” Northam said in February 2019. “It will take time and serious effort to heal the damage this conduct has caused.”
