While most of the crowd that lined the sidewalks last week for the 59th annual Dexter Memorial Day parade came to celebrate and remember, some left disgusted and angry.
The source of their rage was a float that at best wasn't appropriate for this kind of event and at worst was racist and offensive.
"It left me dumbfounded," said Mary Diskin, a Dexter resident. "I was shocked that someone would think that it was okay."
In a letter to the editor, Susan Blaisdell stated: "I am a veteran of the U.S. Navy and can't for the life of me figure what a float with hip-hop music and girls in blackface makeup has to do with respecting and honoring our veterans. When I moved to Dexter 13 years ago, a lot of work needed to be done in the community with regard to cultural/racial issues that my children encountered at school. I really thought this was a thing of the past until this float passed us by on Monday."
The offending float, sponsored by David Myers Photography in Dexter, consisted of a red pickup truck with a platform float hitched to the truck's back end. On the front a sign read, "Our troops died Ö so that we can be," with three red stars in the sign's center. Portraits of Dexter Community School District students taken by the company, which the district contracts with for student portraits, were displayed to showcase the company's quality work.
All of that was overshadowed by two female dancers dressed in blackface style makeup with pitch black face paint on exposed skin, wigs that appeared to emulate the racial qualities of an African-American's hair and pink lipstick. The paint also was noticeably absent from the women's palms.
Diskin, an employee of the University of Michigan's Plant Operation's Diversity Community (PODC), emphasized that her opinions of the float are her own and not that of the universities. But it's clear that many others in attendance were upset over the float. A regular contributor to the Dexter Leader said many were "outraged" when the float passed by.
Diskin described her experience at the parade as being "like any other parade," until the David Myers Photography float passed. "Five minutes before (that float) went by, it was fine," said Diskin, a former parade chair on the Dexter Daze Committee. "Everybody was having fun. We were saying we wished more groups would make floats and five minutes later this float comes running down. I struggled to see what it was that they were trying to advertise, and nobody understood it."
To Diskin and others, it appeared as if someone was paying homage to a theatrical style known for playing a role in shaping racial stereotypes that remain to this day. In 1993, former "Cheers" star Ted Danson caused a firestorm of controversy after appearing in "blackface" at a Friars Club roast.
According to Myers, the float had nothing to do with race, but instead was a spoof of commercials for Apple's portable iPod music player. In the commercials, dark silhouetted characters dance against bright-colored backgrounds, with only their distinctive physical characteristics being their body shape and a pair of prominent white iPod corded earphones.
Not all stories are guaranteed to appear
online. The Web edition contains a reasonable
sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to
subscribe
to the print edition of the paper.
Expanded
Web
Coverage
TOP JOBS
