Missouri High School Girls Play Annual Powder-Puff Football Game In Blackface


Every year in the town of Sullivan, Missouri, the girls from each high school grade compete against each other in an annual “Powder Puff” football game to raise money for prom. This year, a handful of the girls wore blackface to the game, and now the outrage is pouring in.

The game took place on November 5, and the blackface went completely unnoticed (there was hardly anyone at the game, according to Riverfront Times). Unnoticed, that is, until pictures of the game, posted on social media and since deleted, were brought to the attention of Leigh Kolb, an English and journalism instructor at East Central College in nearby Union.

“It was pretty clearly offensive to us. It’s an example of… likely not egregious and malicious intent, but a lack of historical context.”

In fact, Sullivan High School Principal Jennifer Schmidt seems to think that the blackface was nothing more than a case of poor planning and a failure to think things through, according to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh.’ I knew they didn’t mean anything by it, but, in hindsight, I should have made them wash it off and move on… What they told me was everybody just brought black, so that’s what they used.”

Schmidt says that the girls sometimes wear black paint under their eyes, like some NFL players do, in order to intimidate other players. Also, she noted, the school colors are gold and black.

Sullivan Eagles Football
Sullivan Eagles Football

Sullivan, Missouri, is about 70 miles south and west of Saint Louis. It’s home to about 7,000 people, according to City-Data.com, and is 97.7 percent white. It is unknown, as of this post, if any African Americans attend Sullivan High School.

Schmidt has said she will not punish the girls who wore blackface because she believes they had no idea they were doing anything that could be considered offensive.

“I knew they didn’t mean anything racial by it. They just weren’t thinking.”

However, in the future, blackface — or any kind of face paint — will not be allowed at future games.

These Missouri girls are not the first people to cause controversy by wearing blackface. For centuries, people of The Netherlands have celebrated Christmas in part by donning blackface in honor of Sinterklaas’ (their version of Santa Claus) sidekick “Black Pete,” according to this Inquisitr report. It’s a tradition considered to be racist by many who would like to see it end.

Do you believe these Missouri high school girls did anything wrong by wearing blackface to their football game?

[Images courtesy of: Riverfront Times,Sullivan High School]

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