How Bad is Accidental Blackface?

          Most people know by now the OU blackface incident. A young white student was in a snapchat video with some sort of black material spread all over her face, she then proceeded to call herself the N-word. Hard R and everything. Obviously not a very bright move, but she was pretty heavily intoxicated and has come out and apologized since then. It seemed that the public was pretty split on the apology, with some not caring enough to be angry in the first place, and others demanding more from the university. 

I don't want to talk about the girl though, enough has been said about her. I want to focus on the extended version of the video, the one less known by most. In this version. you not only see the girls saying the N-word, but also prior is another student applying the makeup. This student, who I'll just call the "Artist", was a friend of mine that I had hung out with a couple times. OU eventually found the extended version and contacted the Artist, but no formal punishment came from the college; however, the rest of his life crumbled. He has been fired from his job that we worked together at, his fraternity has put him on probation, and Twitter has been pretty relentless to the guy. Before we go trying to justify these punishments, I think more people should understand his story.

He spoke to me about what had happened, and I can sympathize with him. Apparently, they had all been drinking, so they started messing around with some makeup. The Artist went on to help apply a black lotion onto one of the girl's faces, with no intention of a blackface relation. He didn't expect for the girl to turn to the camera and say what she did. If you can't believe that, then I'll tell you about his background. He is one of the most open-minded people you will meet, as an immigrant from Thailand and gay, he knows what it's like to be a minority. He's also a devout vegan, I've tried to break him, so I know he wouldn't want anything to get hurt from his actions. He's also an extremely nice guy, when we first met he invited me out some parties with him and introduced me to a bunch of people. I don't believe the Artist would have ever meant to have something like this occur, and shouldn't be punished so harshly for an accident, which was honestly harmless.

I do see the other side however; I've talked to other students who've said a more severe punishment should have been given to him. I also see Twitter calling him out and giving out his personal information to the public, which is way too far in my opinion. I think these individuals don't know the full backstory but are just angry and directing it towards the Artist. I do agree we should discourage this from happening ever again, but to destroy a life as some want for the actions of another seems drastic to me, and not how as a people we should react to this type of event.