Dallas Cowboys cheerleader criticized after blackface Halloween photos emerge
08:08 AM CST on Tuesday, November 3, 2009
By JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News
jmosier@dallasnews.com
A Dallas Cowboys cheerleader is getting attacked on blogs nationwide for dressing up in blackface at a Halloween party over the weekend.
The sports blog Deadspin posted photos of Whitney Isleib, a Cowboys cheerleader since 2008, dressed as black rapper Lil Wayne. Isleib is white.
"
More..We are aware of the images and we are handling it internally," Cowboys spokesman Brett Daniels said Monday.
Isleib could not be reached for comment Monday.
The photos were posted on Deadspin on Sunday but later taken down. A new post that went up on the Web site Monday had the word "allegedly" added.
The photos appear to have come from the Facebook page of another Cowboys cheerleader.
Isleib's Facebook page had been deleted by Monday.
The photos show Isleib wearing dark makeup, a wig of long braids, a mouth grill, and fake tattoos on her arms and face.
In one photo, she is posing with two black women. Another shows her with two people dressed as mariachi performers with fake mustaches and thick eyebrows.
Some photos also include a man in blackface with a top hat, who appears to be dressed as singer and producer T-Pain.
On Deadspin, a short commentary at the end says: "In this era of political correctness, people who live their lives in the 'public eye,' for lack of a better way of putting it, have to exercise a little more discretion and not upload photos to Facebook that would make Ted Danson blush."
Danson was publicly excoriated in the 1990s after appearing in blackface at a Friars Club roast of Whoopi Goldberg, whom he had dated.
Mark Q. Sawyer, associate professor of political science and African-American studies at the University of California at Los Angeles, said the cheerleader pictures suggest this is more an issue of bad judgment than actual racism. He said that many young people are unaware of the deeply offensive history of blackface performances.
"She probably asked her black friends about it with the idea that they could exonerate her," Sawyer said.
But he said people looking at those photos don't know her and wouldn't look at the pictures in the same context as her friends.
Leslie Picca, a sociology professor at the University of Dayton who has written about racial stereotypes and Halloween costumes, said these kinds of scandals happen frequently, often on college campuses and usually at Halloween or at Martin Luther King Jr. Day parties.
"Part of me wonders if it's sort of the taboo nature, playing with something dangerous," she said. "For some people, they see it as a pass. It's Halloween. It's not meant to be taken seriously." Less..
Added: Nov 3 2009 In: news_politics
Recorded on: Nov 3 2009
By: gregory_peckory 
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Comments - sort by newest to oldest
Hahahahah!
Always something stupid for the sheeple to find outrage over...
Posted Nov-3-2009 by "Awsomatic" (R)
Black face? Its called H A L L O W E E N ffs, now dressing up as a black rapper is a "sin" if you're white? Man get a life!
Posted Nov-3-2009 by "OzzyGodsmack" (R)
1000 dollars says the idiots who are most outraged about this are WHITE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS that voted for Obama.
Posted Nov-3-2009 by "Awsomatic" (R)
If you're offended you should just not comment. Don't make yourself look stupid.
Posted Nov-3-2009 by "ST0N3PONY" (R)
I can't wait till the political correctness card get's so over played that it becomes irrelevant. Being someone who sympathizes with liberalism, probably as reaction to the nutty right wing movement that gutted American culture.. both extremes can be each side's ownworst enemy. For the left it's those who would play the P.C. card and for the right it's the talk radio crowd.
Posted Nov-3-2009 by "oneof6billion" (R)
Oh no!!! This is the worst thing in the world... ever!!!
Posted Nov-3-2009 by "sprunk" (R)
nation of cry babies and dependent slobs...
Posted Nov-3-2009 by "Hawk_Eye" (R)
So you're offended? cause we all know you're a closet socialist
Posted Nov-3-2009 by "Chained" (R)
that is not blackface.
blackface means you have huge white lips painted on and is used in theatre instead of hiring real black actors.
Posted Nov-3-2009 by "Pale_Ale" (R)
#1. Who gives a shit. Its Halloween for ffs.
#2. If your insulted then spend your time looking at the blond on the right.
Posted Nov-3-2009 by "bommer1" (R)
i did that one time
Posted Nov-3-2009 by "BladeRunner1985" (R)
Then you would of lost that bet because your a white trash idiot.
Posted Nov-3-2009 by "bommer1" (R)
who cares looked funny to me.
was anyone outraged at the film white girls?
p.c outta control
Posted Nov-3-2009 by "brako" (R)
Who in the hell cares what she looks like, a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader came to the party!
Posted Nov-3-2009 by "Texasguns"
Well black people are scary ! I joke i joke i kid i kid !!!
People are a joke sometimes , There was a black rapper dressed as a white reporter , were these people crying then ?
These people are the problem.
Posted Nov-3-2009 by "dannydandan"