America's Next Top Model Blackface Causes Controversy
Nicole, from America's Next Top Model, being transformed
As many of you Top Model fans know, on the latest episode, the girls were made to look bi-racial in a photo shoot conducted by Tyra. This is just weeks after an Australian variety show featured white performers wearing blackface to perform as the Jackson brothers and a white model was photographed in blackface for French Vogue.
Historically, the black face minstrel act was a very popular way to entertain during the 19th-century- it was a very racist portrayal of black people.
And according to National Public Radio’s website, the audience for those performances were mainly working-class whites; initally, however, the blackface character was a “smart and sympathetic one. But as time went on, the minstrel show took on a more racist tone.”
When I first heard about the episode, my first thought was, she’s already done this before (back in Seasons 4). I don’t remember it being so controversial. Should it have been? Is it different when Tyra Banks does black (or East Indian or Morrocoan-face) because she is black? Is blackface ever okay?
As a black woman, I might be biased and think that since Tyra did it, it’s okay because she is black. (Like some black people feel another black friend can call them the ‘n’ word, but not a friend of another race; or some women feel it’s okay if another female friends calls her a ‘b***h, but not a man.) I honestly don’t know how I feel about it because I haven’t really given it much thought until this month. On the one hand, I’m thinking, no, it’s not okay under any circumstances because you’re depicting another race. On the other hand, I’m kind of like, well, if it’s artistic and tasteful with no racist undertones, is it okay, or is it still racist because you’ve put on makeup to look like someone of another ethnicity?
What do you guys think?
Sources: (photo, too) ‘America’s Next Top Model’ Creates Stir After ‘Bi-Racial’ Photo Shoot, The Legacy of Blackface.
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Jamie
I think it depends on how one thinks.. I persoanlly think its kinda racist to do this..
I thought it was tasteless and racist. I can’t handle double standards-just as I don’t appreciate white people using the N word, I think it is equally if not more offensive for black people do it. Same for this particular use of blackface. There was nothing educational about it (a la the gentleman who genetically altered his skin tone to see what the experiences of black people were like in the US)-there was nothing informative about it, and no real point to it.
I don’t think that she should have done that. Things of that nature are too troublesome and cause problems. Anything blackface is all bad to me. I would not have done this!