Israeli model does blackface for Kobe Bryant tribute photoshot

[babarsuhail]

https://instagram.com/p/CEUpsvRgtmf

Israeli model Barak Shamir did a Kobe Bryant tribute photoshot (scroll in above embedded post), in full blackface. After blacklash, he made his Instagram account with over 170k followers (where the photos were originally posted) private.

https://instagram.com/p/CEUkUFCj4z5

source, 2

Comments

[helloitsmeabby]

No

[kimyesus]

omg not to be cynical.....but there's no way they didn't know that this is super fucking offensive right?? like this HAS to have been done on purpose for the clicks, right??????????

[missjersey]

I legit can't wrap my head around it because this seems sooooo obviously offensive to me lol.

[soul_amazinn]

Excuse you! Not every country knows the history of blackface. He probably didn't knowww it was offensive. It's clear he didn't mean any harm!

[chllschse]

This excuse may have flown a few years ago but not anymore. Most countries consume US pop culture and media. They know that Black Americans, including some very prominent ones have been talking about how blackface in any and all forms is a big no no.

[zoaster_toaster]

...fucking YIKES

[stewie_e]

I just...

[missjersey]

Oh no.

Is the controversy of black face not well known in Israel? Not giving him an excuse (especially because this is a world wide issue) but I def don't know sometimes what's okay to do in the US vs not okay somewhere else. Like I had no idea that g*spsy was a slur for the Romani until college.

[kimyesus]

i guess my thought is like, even if we were to assume that they had no idea how much of an issue blackface is, this would still be a super weird thing to do as a tribute, right?

[lolzerz]

hmm i think they have internet and history books in israel

[genbu_no_miko24]

USA vs International can be a bit of cultural gap at times.

When I would go visit family in Colombia it was very common in some areas to see mammie images on food brands.

I've heard about that Dutch tradition of Zwarte Piet, although it's been getting a lot of pushback in recent years.