For some inexplicable reason, people still haven’t figured out that blackface is off limits, no matter the circumstance. One white beauty blogger had to learn the hard way that the offensive practice has no place in 2017, let alone on her personal social media feed. Portland, Oregon “self-taught” makeup artist Vika Shapel decided that all the regular product hauls weren’t interesting enough for her channel, and decided to start the gravely ill-advised “chocolate challenge.”
“Something fun is coming to YouTube, idk if there is a challenge like this but we haven’t seen it so Im calling it the chocolate challenge!” she wrote beneath an Instagram photo of herself and a friend, both donning half-painted brown faces. “Come watch us transform into deep chocolate skin tones from our pasty pale.”
this “challenge” doesn’t exist because people have common sense the disrespect… pic.twitter.com/j1SEXPdWhr
— Jasmine Brown (@JasMeannnn) July 9, 2017
The racist accusations thereafter were swift, prompting the blogger to not only delete the post but also deactivate her social media accounts and shed proverbial crocodile tears in an apology that Black Twitter simply didn’t buy.
“I simply wanted to see how I looked in a deeper skin tone,” Shapel told Yahoo Beauty. “I wasn’t aware of the whole black-face concept before people began commenting it on the photo. I would like to apologize to people that were hurt or offended by my post, and it won’t happen again.” Cue eye roll.
So @vika97662612 decided to post this picture which is clearly blackface & she decided to call it “the chocolate challenge” pic.twitter.com/O4NutrEtTH
— Arnell (@arnellarmon) July 9, 2017
They also curled their have to make themselves look more “black” wtff ♀️♀️
— (@_mamacyta) July 9, 2017
Why?! What do I have to do to convince people that my skin tone is not a trend/a mask/a makeup challenge/ a new concept for entertainment?!
— • A R I E L L E • (@ArielleMonai) July 9, 2017
She’s deleting comments and blocking everyone too. Deleted the photo and vid but girl no. I don’t think so
— victoria (@icryclouds) July 9, 2017
I just reported it and I tried to scroll down then refresh and she went private, it literally happened in a span of 30 seconds pic.twitter.com/G4Ya0FjQqg
— Gloria ✊ (@wordtogloria) July 9, 2017
Somebody get this girl a history book.