By Karen Hunter

An Australian group of doctors calling themselves “The Jackson Jive ” made headlines last week when they corked up and performed a minstrel act as a “tribute” to the late Michael Jackson and his brothers on a reunion special of the Australian TV variety show, Hey, Hey It’s Saturday, which went off the air in 1999.

The incident would have passed without notice but for American singer/actor Harry Connick Jr., appearing as a celebrity guest judge, taking the group to task for their mockery of black people. Connick’s act of decency immediately went viral, rocketing around the world.

“I just want to say, on behalf of my country, I know it was done humorously, but we’ve spent so much time trying to not make black people look like buffoons, that when we see something like that we take it really to heart,” Connick told the host of the show.

Thank you, Harry Connick for standing up against racism.

So if Connick knew it was offensive, my question is why didn’t the act, or the host, or one of the other judges or the all-white audience? Not only did the audience boo Connick and one of the judges for their criticism of the group, but they could also be seen cackling and howling as the Al Jolson-esque act performed their minstrel show.

Minstrelsy used to be part of the culture in America. Its roots as entertainment stretch back into the 1840s and reached its peak with the proliferation of “coon songs” of the early years of the 20th century. Minstrelsy was gradually forced to underground status as the black freedom struggle gained momentum. But it has never been completely exorcised from the psychic needs of some white people, whether in Europe or the U.S. or, as we now know, Australia, a society still grappling with its own tortured history of relations between white settlers and Aboriginal people.

The lame excuses by both the host of the Hey, Hey It’s Saturday reunion and the performers themselves of the blackface act were, well…inexcusable. They claimed that it was a tribute to Michael Jackson and his brothers and was only done in jest and not at all meant to offend. In fact, many of the news reports blamed Connick for causing the controversy.

But some of the questions these critics ignore: why the blackface—the corking up – which is so historically loaded? Why not simply put on tan or brown makeup – which would be racially accurate? Why not wear rounded Afros instead of “Buckwheat” style wigs? In fact, these props, along with such others as watermelons, fried chicken, apes, alligators and malapropisms, have always been part of the stagecraft of blackface minstrelsy. The Jackson Jive’s explanation for their act is especially curious coming from medical doctors. They are far too learned not to have known exactly what they were doing.

Indeed, whites have long used denial – the assertion of innocence due to ignorance – to try to escape blame for offensive racial behavior. For example, in a notorious incident in New York City in 1998, several off-duty city firefighters dressed in black face and mocked the racially-motivated dragging death of James Byrd that took place a few years earlier in Jasper Texas. When they were fired by the city officials, they, too, claimed that it was not meant as a racial offense. More recently, President Obama’s election has provoked a voluminous new trafficking in the staples of black face minstrelsy – most often accompanied by indignant denials that the acts are racially-motivated.

But the good news is that more whites like Harry Connick now have the courage to publicly declare that such behavior is unacceptable. His teachable moment on race in the land down under represents both the progress that’s already been forged on race and the future possibilities on a global scale.

Karen Hunter is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, best-selling author and media professor at Hunter College in New York City. Her website is www.karenhuntermedia.com.