To the Mount Allison community:
This past Halloween, Oct. 31, 2014, we dressed up as the Jamaican bobsled team. However, out of our group, two of us used blackface.
We have realized that this is both unacceptable and wrong. Since the incident, we have attended an educational session on the history behind blackface and why it is so hurtful and harmful still today. While our intentions may not have been to offend and insult the Mount Allison community with our costumes, we realize that we have – and we are deeply sorry for our actions.
We would like to formally apologize not just to the members of the Black Students for Advocacy, Awareness, and Togetherness (BSAAT), but to the entire Mount Allison and Sackville community. While we were attempting to dress up as people we admire, we did so in a way that unintentionally mocked them. We realize this now and we will never again use a person’s race as a costume.
We also hope that this apology will help others to realize the harmful nature of blackface, which we were unaware of before the incident. Now knowing what it means, we hope that such a thing should not be happen in this community again.
Sincerely,
Daniel Tomei
Aaron Grant
Brandon Maj
Jimmy Scheel
Donovan Saunders
