AN Aberdeen pub has been heavily condemned after images emerged of a man wearing blackface at a party celebrating King Charles’s coronation.
The man, dressed as Huggy Bear from the TV show Starsky and Hutch, was pictured in a now-deleted post on Abergeldie Bar’s Facebook page, which saw pub locals dressed up in 70s costumes and Union flags.
Huggy Bear was originally played by African American actor Antonio Fargas in the TV show, and Snoop Dogg in a later film adaptation.
The images were met with outrage, with one local saying it “made her sick”.
The pub issued an initial statement on Facebook afterwards, which has now been deleted.
It read: “On Saturday we had a 70s night plus celebrating the kings [sic] coronation! One of our customers dress as a Character Huggy Bear from the 70s some people found it offensive.
“But I can assure you that would be the last thing on his mind. It’s people like him who support our dying trade. The people who were upset by it I have never seen in the bar.
“It was meant as fun.”
One person defended the bar, saying: “That’s crazy some people are just looking for a disagreement.”
Another said: “Regardless of your personal relationship with the person – blackface has been widely condemned as offensive towards minority groups and inappropriate nowadays due to the way it was used in the past to portray a caricature of people of colour.”
The origins of blackface date back to the minstrel shows of the mid-19th century. White performers darkened their skin and exaggerated their features to mock black people and racistly depict them as lazy, ignorant or cowardly.
The bar released another statement shortly after, apologising.
They wrote: “I would like to post the message to make everyone aware that I have done my research and I now understand what blackface means, I was totally unaware of this as obviously so were many in the bar.
“I have taken it on board and now understand what your saying and again I can only apologise.”
A woman who lives in the local area with her daughter, who is mixed race, said: “When I saw the pictures, I honestly felt so sick.
"I was shocked. I was really dumbfounded that people think it’s okay. Why didn’t people in the pub say it wasn’t okay?
“When you have a black person in your family, it also hits you on a personal level. I was pleasantly surprised that people had tried to educate and call them out in the comments.
“There was a lot of ignorance in there. Someone had tried to put an article about why blackface is wrong and it was completely ignored, people saying it was a laugh, that it was okay in the 80s.”
She added: “These people need to know that skin tone isn’t a costume.”
The bar was approached for comment. They responded: "No comment. We have done our apologies."
