Thick in the sense that these sort of melodramas happen with boring regularity. You'd have to be living in a cave not to realise what was going to happen if a picture of you in blackface gets in the papers. And speaking if melodrama "I don't want to live in a society whereby you can't imitate...
What gets me in these cases is how thick the people involved are not to realise that blacking up is going to cause a bit of trouble. Regardless of what you think of the practice surely a profeesional sportsperson has to have had some media training in things to avoid and would think hang on its...