Narelda Jacobs says blackface ‘facilitates a negative stereotype of black people’

Indigenous journalist Narelda Jacobs has shared her thoughts on blackface after an old clip resurfaced of Daryl Somers doing the offensive act in the 1980s.

In the controversial footage, Daryl performed Louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World in blackface alongside Kiwi jazz singer Ricky May on a 1988 episode of Hey Hey It’s Saturday. 

Speaking about the clip on Tuesday’s Studio 10, Narelda said that blackface ‘facilitates a negative stereotype of black people’.

The 44-year-old also referred to an incident in 2009 in which a comedy troupe dressed up as the Jackson Five while in blackface for a Red Faces segment. 

American singer Harry Connick Jr was a guest judge on the episode. He gave the performance a score of zero and said that he never would’ve appeared on the show if he had known that it would involve blackface. 

Referencing the incident, Narelda said: ‘When [Harry] called it out, it shocked people in Australia, because we probably weren’t used to being called out for such things.

‘Had we known then what we know now, nobody would have been in blackface.’

She added: ‘What’s really heartening is when people acknowledge that they had done the wrong thing.’

Daryl issued an apology to Harry at the end of the live segment at the time, saying: ‘I think we may have offended you with that act and I deeply apologise on behalf of all of us. 

‘Because I know that to your countrymen, that’s an insult to have a blackface routine like that on the show, so I do apologise to you.’

Harry responded by saying that he wouldn’t have appeared on the show if he’d known about the segment.

‘I know it was done humorously, but we’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons that when we see something like that we take it really to heart,’ he said.

‘I feel like I am at home here and if I knew that was going to be part of the show, I probably, I definitely, wouldn’t have done it.’  

On Tuesday’s Studio 10, Narelda also addressed comedian Magda Szubanski’s history with blackface.

The journalist praised Magda for giving a ‘very heartfelt apology’ last year after an old clip of her doing a skit in blackface in the early 1990s resurfaced online.