America's Next Top Model takes blackface to a whole new level at Schema : more than ethnic

Not sure how to feel about this. My whole creative career has been devoted to fostering the end-of-pure-race. And I've said publicly that the "colour" of the future is beige. But in this episode of Tyra Bank's America's Next Top Model, I was really unsure what to think. In this episode, the contestants are challenged to be hapa. You heard right, pretend to mixed-race, other than their own.

Thank you, Meghan Carlson, Staff Writer of BuddyTV for stating:

Well, this is awkward. I honestly don't know if Tyra is trying to celebrate Hawaiian culture and mixed race people, or if this is just a hack way to get controversial publicity following French Vogue's recent blackface spread which certainly got people talking... and lashing back. Whatever the case, it makes me a bit uncomfortable, and even though this sort of broad-stroked, insensitive stunt doesn't surprise me (coming from Tyra, after all), I can see why some people --whether mixed race or not--might be offended by the aestheticizing and stereotyping of so many ethnicities.

All the following excerpts are from the recap on seacoastonline.com:

[Tyra] and Jay Manuel took the girls to a sugar cane field.
People of other cultures came to the fields to get jobs, they said, and then some of those workers got together and had babies of two different races.

OK, stop. There's a lot of history here. Often slaves worked in fields, and the resulting mixed-race baby-making was forced (not by the labourers). Perhaps the sugar cane fields was a little inappropriate.

"Hapa" means half in Hawaiian, Tyra said, and the most famous "Hapa" is ... Barack Obama.

Yes, Barack Obama is the most famous hapa. But beyond that, it just gets weird. Is this fashion fantasy? Can skin colour be worn like any other fashion costume? Maybe the reason the wannabe super-models appeared so uncomfortable is because they were truly uncomfortable at pretending to be exotified hapa mixes, or subconsciously knew how inappropriate it might be to pretend to "look like different racial identities."

Their task was to portray two cultures in one photo:
Laura -- Mexican and Greek
Erin -- Tibetan and Egyptian
Sundai -- Moroccan and Russian
Brittany -- Native American and East Indian
Jennifer -- Botswanan and Polynesian
Nicole -- Malagasy and Japanese

Seriously? First, there is no such place as "East India" (it's just India). For all of those who have been told, "You don't really look ... (fill in the blank)", this could be offensive. Does this remind anyone else of blackface?

Tyra and Jay were yelling out things like "Erin, feel that spirituality; the Tibetan culture, it's all about ritual!" and "Think about Egypt, the people, what they've been through!"
They were shocked that she was "lost."

How exactly was Laura supposed to act half-Mexican and Greek in a photoshoot? Was Sundai really supposed to channel the musical beats of Moraccan culture (as Jay suggested) in her poses? OK, I have to admit, it was rather creative idea. And some of the images are quite stunning. But the photos aren't what we (as TV-viewers) are judging, it's the whole episode—which fell short of actually suggesting this challenge was anything but awkward.

Something to be learned from America's Next Best Dance Crew where the ethno-cultural "blending" was a lot more successful. And ... I have to say, the girls are all far TOO skinny!

MORE:
Recap on seacoastonline.com | 'America's Next Top Model' Recap: Don't Worry, Be Hapa by Meghan Carlson, Staff Writer of BuddyTV

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America's Next Top Model takes blackface to a whole new level

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