Foreign Affairs

NBC News Avoids Saying Trudeau Wore Blackface

No featured image available

NBC News avoided saying Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wore brown-or-blackface after three photos surfaced in which he dressed up in such costumes, with the network instead calling it a “darkened” face.

A 2001 photo emerged Wednesday evening from TIME that showed Trudeau attending a party dressed as “Aladdin,” complete with brownface. He admitted later Wednesday that he had done this before, prompting the unearthing of a second photo. A third picture of him wearing a blackface emerged Thursday, discovered by Global News.

NBC News tweeted out that Trudeau simply had “darkened his face” after the TIME article broke Wednesday evening.

“A photo from 2001 appears to show Canadian PM Trudeau darkened his face as part of a costume for an ‘Arabian Nights’-themed gala, according to a report from Time magazine,” an NBC News tweet reads. It includes an article about the incident titled “Justin Trudeau darkened face for ‘Aladdin’ costume in 2001 photo.”

A photo from 2001 appears to show Canadian PM Trudeau darkened his face as part of a costume for an “Arabian Nights”-themed gala, according to a report from Time magazine. https://t.co/EpjxxSMlEI

— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 18, 2019

The accompanying article doesn’t ever call Trudeau’s costume “brownface,” instead writing that he “darkened his face dramatically.” TIME, who broke the first photo of Trudeau in the “Aladdin” costume, called it “brownface.”

NBC News fired Megyn Kelly in 2018 after Kelly suggested that wearing a blackface costume was acceptable when it was for Halloween. She apologized for the comments, and was fired from the network shortly after.

NBC News did not immediately respond to a request for comment when asked why they referred to the incidents as a “darkened” face instead of brown or blackface.