blind spot

カナダのトルドー首相が、かつて顔を黒塗り（blackface）にしていた写真が流出したことで苦しい釈明に追われています。

首相への再選を目指している同氏にとってはかなりの痛手に違いありません。

先日からこの件に関する記事は結構目にしていましたが、今日の記事では画質鮮明な動画まで出てきたということで、益々批判が高まっているようです。


The Canadian PM, famed for his ultra-political correctness, is seen leaping around while painted head-to-toe.

A previous blurry image from this moment was widely circulated, but now a high-quality video showing Mr Trudeau has come out.　

In the full clip, pals are white water rafting and kayaking during the day before a fancy dress party.　

Mr Trudeau is the only one who dons a blackface and afro as he cheekily sticks his tongue out for the camera.　

The clip shows he even went as far as to paint his knees and his tongue black.　

But this was not a one-off for the holier-than-thou politician, who is known for calling others out for racism.　

The video is believed to have been captured in the early 1990s, although it’s not clear where it was filmed.　

Mr Trudeau is currently in the middle of a campaign to seek re-election as his Liberal Party is in jeopardy amid his race scandal.
(Alahna Kindred. Justin Trudeau shamed by fresh blackface video as future Canadian PM filmed leaping around in afro wig and dark makeup on boating trip. The Sun. September 29, 2019.)


普段から人種差別に対して厳しい姿勢を取っている同氏だけに、自身がかつてそのように解される行為を臆面もなく行っていたということは恥ずべきところでしょう。

記事は以下のように続きます。


It comes after he’s admitted he can’t remember how many times he wore blackface.

After the third shocking photo emerged last week, Mr Trudeau confessed to a “massive blind spot” in his thinking, saying he is “deeply sorry”.

The PM, who champions diversity and multiculturalism, was pictured dressed up as a black man at the Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf, an elite high school in Quebec, which he attended.

He donned an Afro wig to perform his version of the Banana Boat Song (Day-O) – a song about people in Jamaica loading bananas onto boats – in a talent show.
(ibid.)


ここで、"massive blind spot"という表現が出てきます。この"blind spot"とはどういう意味でしょうか？

科学的、または医学、解剖学的には、盲点という日本語が当てはまりますが、コンテクストに照らしてそのような意味合いではないことは明らかです。

死角という意味もあります。近いようですが、英語での"blind spot"はもう少し違うニュアンスがあるようです。

Merriam-Webster Dictionaryによれば、


an area in which one fails to exercise judgment or discrimination


というように定義されており、正常な判断や識別能力を働かせることができないことを言っており、これはその人の資質といったものに関わる概念であるように思われます。

トルドー首相本人のコメントは以下のように紹介されています。


He said: “Darkening your face regardless of the context or the circumstances is always unacceptable because of the racist history of blackface.”

“I should have understood that then, and I never should have done it.

“I have always acknowledged I came from a place of privilege, but I now need to acknowledge that comes with a massive blind spot,” the son of the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau said.
(ibid.)


最後の部分を解釈するならば、身分の高い家庭に生まれたことでこのような"blind spot"が仇となってしまった、ということでしょうか。言い訳のようにも聞こえます。