Hello! So while perusing Facebook, I found an article on how the Disney actress Zendaya had to apologize for supporting Kylie Jenner's supposedly racist pictures. I was intrigued so naturally I read through it. What happened is that Kylie posted a picture from a special project she was working on, and Zendaya then commented "Eff it up" with a bunch of clapping emjois (whatever that means). Other viewers of Kylie's photo then said it appeared that she was in black face. Zendaya immediately went to Twitter to apologize for not seeing it that way and thanked everyone for keeping her "on point." Here is the article if you want to see Kylie's pictures or Zendaya's tweets: http://www.seventeen.com/celebrity/news/a29811/zendaya-weighs-in-on-kylie-jenners-photo-shoot-controversy/?src=spr_FBPAGE&spr_id=1442_165079529
So my feelings about this are mixed. First of all, I don't think that picture looks like black face, and I doubt I would have considered it if I had seen the pictures before this article. Second of all, why should Zendaya feel like she needs to apologize?! She didn't do anything wrong, but she still felt like she needed to explain herself. I also wonder if Zendaya's earlier issues with racism affected her action to this. Earlier this year, some racist remarks were made about Zendaya's award show hairstyle. So I guess I just wanted to see what you all thought about Kylie's picture and the way the whole situation was handled.
I agree that the pictures don't really look like black face or like she was trying to portray herself as a black person. When we discussed Blackface Minstrelsy and the Julianne Hough controversy in class, the problem with it was that they treated the African-American race like it was just something to dress up as and make fun of. I don't think Kylie's pictures were doing that, it was more of a stylistic choice by the photographer.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I have an answer to why Zendaya thought she should apologize. She is a Disney star so she has an image of youth and innocence that supporting blackface doesn't mix well with.