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Isn't it amazing that every five or six months someone goes and gets the idea that putting on blackface makeup in a public forum is going to be cool and funny? Like these dudes who did it on Australian television in front of Harry Connick Jr.? Or this model who did it in French Vogue. Or this artist who created Black Jesus in Electric Chair. (Wow, now that's pushing a lot of buttons.)

Maybe this just needs to be stated outright. Blackface is never OK.

Blackface is the essential archetype of American racism. And you know what? Shockingly, this even includes your take on blackface.

We know! Amazing, right? Listen, as awesome and funny as your blackface idea seems when you're putting on the makeup, it's going to end up being racist and falling flat and annoying everyone.

You may be a very, very funny person, and we know, you're "totally not racist, bro," but you are also not the Jackie Robinson or the Rosa Parks of blackface. You are not the forward-thinking liberator whose blackface number is going be so awesome everyone will think, Oh, now I get it! Blackface! It's not racist, it's hilarious.

So, to the 10,000 or so of you who are buying shoe polish and an afro wig as part of your upcoming Halloween costume, be warned, it's a bad idea. And if no one calls you on it, it's only because the homogenous crowd you're partying with is as ignorant as you are.