Students Dress Up As Black Face, Imitate Rihanna’s Domestic Violence Dispute

A pep rally skit by three white high school students who wore blackface and parodied Chris Brown's arrest for assaulting Rihanna has officials in a largely white New York district vowing to set clearer expectations for school events. 

The skit was one of several pop culture parodies performed Friday at Waverly High School as part of an annual "Mr. Waverly" competition, Superintendent Joseph Yelich said. The one in question had a male student portraying Brown standing over another cowering actor playing Rihanna; a third male student played an arresting officer.

A picture from the skit posted to social media and other sites including Facebook, Tumblr and CNN iReport drew thousands of views and dozens of comments, many calling the skit blatantly racist and blasting the idea of drawing laughs from domestic violence.

"I mean, this is a pep rally; we're supposed to be cheering on our team," said Yelich, who has been on the job a little over a year. "The fact that skits are involved and parodies … it strayed from that and it got into a different kind of competition."

A Waverly High alumnus who posted comments on CNN said that while he doesn't believe the students meant to offend, he was surprised administrators didn't intervene.

"There were adults who should have stood up and said, 'Hey, guys, this is not OK. Blackface is not OK. Is it illegal? No. But you should really not do that,'" Matthew Dishler, 24, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Rose Garrity, executive director of A New Hope Center, an agency in nearby Oswego County that assists victims of domestic and sexual abuse and other crimes, also put responsibility on the adults.

"They were trying to make something funny that is far from funny, and they were being incredibly racist while they were doing it," Garrity said. "I doubt any of those children had any idea about the history of racism and minstrels or anything like that."

What are your thoughts on the students skit? Harmless or insensitive? And should the administration have prevented it? 

[Associated Press]