Aussie Musos Call Out “Scumbag” Blokes For Wearing Blackface

Indigenous Australian musicians Briggs and Thelma Plum are among a string of local acts who have called out two men in Victoria whose elaborate blackface costumes are causing controversy on social media.

Victorian Facebook user Sis Austin, who shared a photo (above) of the men after confronting the person who first uploaded it, says the pair in the photo were dressed for an “Aussie Icon”-themed party.

The post was picked up by Yorta Yorta rapper Briggs, who took to Facebook to say, “Fuck these, dumb, redneck scumbags. Anyone who wants to stick up for this kind of bullshit can swiftly go fuck themselves. Anyone who wants to harass the person who originally called them out can direct all their attention to me.”

While seeing a large amount of support for his post, Briggs also received some, uh, interesting comments, but he shut them down super quickly. Here are just some examples:

When you try to form Racist voltron against the self employed koori.

A photo posted by Briggs (@briggsge) on Jan 30, 2016 at 11:59pm PST

Sharing the same photo of the two men on Facebook, Thelma Plum called for the pair to be named and shamed, and called them “disgusting little boys who think it’s okay to paint their white bodies black and mock my people”. Ms Plum later shared screenshots from what appears to be the Facebook accounts of the two men in the photo.

Other Aussie musicians have shared their support for Briggs and Ms Plum as the photo has continued to circulate, including Hilltop Hoods…

Anyone throwing that ignorance at @BriggsGE, @nookymusic & @funkoars can go f**k themselves. Anyone throwing around ignorance fullstop.

— Hilltop Hoods (@hilltophoods) January 31, 2016

Reading some reckless internet today. It's making me sick.

— Hilltop Hoods (@hilltophoods) January 31, 2016

…The Funkoars

https://twitter.com/funkoars/status/693698229192384512

…and Birdz:

Heres "2 legends" thinking that it's cool to dress up in blackface (and body). Straya, where racism is "top stuff!" pic.twitter.com/M4Ho9SIj2f

— BIRDZ (@MisterBirdZ) January 31, 2016

Catch Briggs’ and Thelma Plum’s Facebook posts, below.

UPDATE 01/02.16: More artists have rallied in support of Briggs, who copped a tonne of racist abuse online following his initial post.