Did Mitt Romney Don ‘Brownface’ For Univision Appearance?

Mitt Romney has been accused, by Gawker and a few blogs and message boards, of appearing in “brownface” on Latin TV, and the insinuation is that the strange makeup choice was a bid to appeal to Hispanic voters.

Mitt Romney’s dad was born in Mexico after Grandpa Romney fled the US with his wives to avoid prosecution for polygamy, but George Romney returned to the US to become a self-made businessman of the old school of businessmen, and ultimately achieved great success.

Recent remarks released have Romney saying it would have been helpful to be actually Latino instead of a boring old white guy, perhaps as a suggestion that his opponent polls better and appeals to minority voters more due to his own status as a black dude.

But the images of Romney in “brownface” may not be as base as they appear, and it seems Mitt can’t go in any direction lately without stepping in it — he’s like Alice in the final scenes of Alice in Wonderland, holding the mallet in one hand and the empty jelly jar in the other.

Per Gawker, Romney was doing a Univision appearance when he looked to be far more tan than he has in recent spots. The blog reports:

“But has it gotten so bad that Romney is now resorting to ‘brownface’ in order to make himself more appealing to Univision viewers? Democratic Underground has looked at the photo above from last night’s ‘presidential forum’ and concluded that, yes, Romney definitely ‘dyed his face brown.'”

Certainly looks that way. However, Mitt Romney is very unlikely to do his own makeup. And even if he did make an insensitive joke about being Latino, chances are an overzealous makeup artist applied a bit more bronzer than was necessary, creating the Boehner-like “brownface” look Mitt Romney sports in the clip.

Mitt Romney says and does a few things we can rag on him for, but it would appear a deliberate “brownface” performance isn’t one of them.