An analysis of Chris Lilley’s blackface apology
Chris Lilley, a white Australian comedian, recently drew criticism because he shared a fan-made remix of a song he wrote in 2009, called “Squashed N*****”. The original was written for a character, S-Mouse, in his show Angry Boys.
He says the n-word fifteen times in the song, and performs it covered in a thick layer of brown paint, because he is pretending to be someone who is black.
He posted the remix on his Instagram account and his Facebook account three days after the man who killed 14 year old Aboriginal boy Elijah Doughty was sentenced to three years in prison (the man killed Elijah by chasing him down in a truck, because he thought Elijah had stolen his motorcycle). The man was found not guilty of manslaughter. The ruling brought on a wave of sorrow and grief in the indigenous community, drawing peaceful and impassioned protests in the streets outside the courthouse.
The sheer gravity of the grief expressed in the indigenous community was stark and obvious, and the similarities of the story to Lilley’s pathologically unfunny and deeply racist parody song were clear.
After taking down the posts, Chris Lilley posted an apology on Twitter:
“My social media pages are run for me to give fans nostalgic pics of clips from previous tv shows. A fan-made remix of a song from Angry Boys made in 2009 was posted recently. It is not connected in any way to current news stories. I apologise for any hurt caused by the misinterpretation”
This is a very pure instance of what’s often described as a non-apology. The fact that it’s a non-apology is significant, because it speaks directly to the cause of the initial wrongdoing.
Let’s break it down.
Lilleyspeak: “My social media pages are run for me to give fans nostalgic pics of clips from previous tv shows”
Translation: I have billions of adoring fans. They adore me with such ferocity that watching low-grade parody songs from 2009 constitute “nostalgia” for them.
Why it’s there: When met with a backlash, I imagine it’s easy to regress back into a synthesised world of adoration and fandom. This is there for Lilley, not us — a reassertion of the love of a crowd that will always be willing to eject excuses for racist caricature, and perhaps something that he sees as proof that blackface in comedy is edgy and worthwhile.
Lilleyspeak: “A fan-made remix of a song from Angry Boys made in 2009 was posted recently”
Translation: MY FANS. THEY CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF ME.
Why it’s there: This is descriptive, but in addition to that, the word ‘fan’ is there for the same reason as above. Even this controversy stemmed purely from the gallons of love being poured upon Chris Lilley — he can’t compute the intensity of the backlash because it was pushed along by a fan.
Lilleyspeak: “It is not connected in any way to current news stories”
Translation: “You did this to yourselves, you idiots”
Why it’s there: This is pretty clear. The community is at fault for perceiving a connection between the murder of a 14 year Aboriginal old boy using a two-tonne truck and the re-sharing of “Squashed N*****”, which opens with a dead, splayed boy lying motionless on the ground and features Lilley, smeared in black, saying the N word several times in front of the grill of a truck. He’s an innocent vessel pushing joy out into the world, and he can’t help if people make connections that he decrees are non-existent.
Lilleyspeak: “I apologise for any hurt caused by the misinterpretation”
Translation: “I’m sorry that you’re so bad at not being offended by blackface”
Why it’s there: The pointy end of Lilley’s accusatory thesis, and a classic of insincere apologies. It’s a way of grabbing headlines that say “[x] apologises” without admitting fault, and shooting a reproachful barb at those who “misinterpreted” his totally harmless blackface video.
Apologies often add colour and context to the original wrongdoing. We already know, what Lilley thinks of blackface. It’s worth reading his remarks, made to Vulture, in full. They explain a lot:
“ I just thought, It’s going to provoke people, it’s going to be headlined — and certainly everyone in Australia fell into that trap. It was all over the place, like, ‘Blackface! He’s doing it!’ Like, Australians definitely don’t walk around dressed up in blackface going ‘Ha-ha.’ We’re exposed to American culture and stuff, so we get it. I think I wanted to do it because I thought it was a challenging, new, interesting idea, and mostly I just thought it was a really funny character.
It’s a character … It’s kind of funny that there’s only certain races that it’s an issue — yes, it’s that history with blackface — but, I don’t know. There’s no comparison. I think it’s a bit stupid that you would shut yourself off to being able to do that. I think I’m pretty brave with putting myself out there and looking stupid and doing things that are potentially offensive. I’ve already gone far enough with the blackface thing — I can’t go much further.”
Lilley’s decision to adopt blackface isn’t complicated or nuanced. He specifically wanted headlines, and he considers it edgy, interesting and hilarious. He calls himself “brave” because he blacked up for our amusement.
Lilley’s apology was dismissive and reproachful specifically because he is a living, breathing representation of the sheer luxury of punching down. He almost can’t compute the existence of people who don’t see blackface as “brave”.
“I’m pretty lucky. I don’t get too many haters”, he says in his Vulture interview, just before he says “I get people coming up and they’ll sing [an] S’Mouse song to me and it’s so awkward”. It’s a truly special and unique thing to be able to admit to encouraging people to use a shockingly cruel racist slur in public spaces, and to describe that experience as, simply, “awkward”.
As Patrick Marlborough wrote in Junkee in June this year, “Blackface only exists in a vacuum to those who aren’t harmed by it”. Lilley’s apology is the reassertion of that vacuum — one that isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. Perhaps, as well, it’s a written representation of the fan-filled, gleeful, naive void inside his own head. A territory in which toying joyfully with intense racism is something he considers brave.
