In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, many influencers have been exposed for using the protests as a way to earn praise and followers by staging photo shoots. But it turns out a few influencers have found a way to outdo their peers’ ignorance - with blackface.
As The Guardian reported, multiple influencers were called out this week for posting Instagram photos of themselves using makeup to paint half of their body black, and/or using filters to darken their skin tone.
The satirical Instagram account, Saint Hoax, first called out the influencers earlier this week, posting a brief explanation of the racist history of blackface followed by several of the influencers’ pictures.
Among the offending accounts was Souhila Ben Lachhab, an Algerian singer with over 1.5 million followers on Instagram. “Just because we are black on the outside, doesn’t mean that we are black on the inside,” she wrote alongside an image of herself painted half black.
While a number of people applauded Lacchab’s post, there were quite a few that called the singer out. “Blackface is sourced from racism,” one person wrote, while another added, “Please educate yourself before you put out stuff like this.”
Polish beauty influencer, Marita Sürma, was also named by Saint Hoax for sharing a similar photo of herself to her 1.6 million followers. Sürma, who has since made her account private, captioned her photo, “We are the same. It’s not white vs black. It’s everyone vs racist.”
Despite their claims to be supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, it’s important to note that blackface invokes a racist history that dates back to the 19th century. Blackface was created as a means of entertainment by white people, who would use makeup to paint themselves black for performances known as minstrel shows.
As these performances were typically the only depiction of black life that white people saw and they were used to demean and promote stereotypes of black people, it has since been condemned for being racist.
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