WATCH: Why Is Beyonce… In Blackface?

by Justin Fenner | 5:50 pm, February 22nd, 2011

Beyonce‘s next magazine spread is sure to cause its share of controversy, because it features the singer wearing the one kind of makeup everyone knows they’re supposed to hate: blackface.

Here’s what happened. Beyonce went and saw Fela! the musical her boyfriend Jay-Z co-produced about Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. Beyonce was so inspired by the music that she cites it as an influence on her upcoming album. And what’s an Afrobeat-inspired tracklist without a coordinating Afrocentric fashion spread in a French high fashion magazine?

So Miss Knowles donned the finest kente cloth, turbans and leopard print garments the Champs Elysees has to offer for L’Officiel Paris. In light of the music on her new album, the magazine wanted to see Knowles to return to her African roots. And someone involved with the creative process decided that the best way to express that connection was to paint her face a darker brown than it already is. Apparently, darker skin signifies increased African-ness. Knowles agreed.

While there’s nothing wrong with getting in touch with where you come from, what we have a problem with is that the magazine tried so ardently to turn Knowles into an African queen when she’s really an American princess. Being black and being African are two things that might seem similar but are, in fact, very different. African Americans might be inextricably linked to Africa’s rich and varied history, but it doesn’t make us Africans. After all, you can’t go back to Africa if you’ve never been there in the first place.

Also, putting a black person in blackface does not make blackface one iota less offensive than it would be if a white person did it (we’re talking to you, Claudia Schiffer). It still relegates all black people (and in this case, the entire continent of Africa) to one color and one image, as the good people at Jezebel point out, when in reality the continent is more ethnically diverse than anywhere else on earth. To suggest that Beyonce — or any other black person — needs to look more African in order to better reflect their obvious and indelible connection with Africa is offensively stupid. And not just because there’s more than one way to look like an African.

We’re ranting. The video is below. We invite you to think of it what you will.

Beyonce Beyonce Blackface Beyonce L'Officiel Paris blackface Blackface L'Officiel Blackface L'Official Paris

http://twitter.com/ModestDweeb Eileen Cheong

Black face? Really.
http://www.dearjackie.net MissBaker

Its interesting that a culture can be used as fashion, it happens all the time on runways. Why cant Beyonce do it? I like it.
Troy

I think Beyonce looks beautiful. The U.S. is so PC.
Sean

So why do things like Karl Lagerfeld’s self-indulgent ‘Paris-Shanghai’ short film, which uses white models pretending to be Chinese, receive only titters of amusement, but the moment a person blacks up, it becomes majorly offensive? American musicals have a long tradition of casting caucasians in ethnic roles, or one asian race in the role of another. So now that Beyonce chooses to represent herself as ‘more African’, why is everyone making a fuss? Should I be offended that a whole host of actors and opera divas have worn black eye make-up and queue hairstyles pretending to be Chinese?
http://www.dearjackie.net MissBaker

@Sean- I know, have you noticed that the ‘Oriental’ look is in right now? Check out the new Louis Vuitton Ads, not to mention Nicki Minaj’s harajuku and samurai obsession, Florence & The Machine’s new video ‘Dog Days are Over’…
Biffytoy

the main thing is it looks good on her…..its a perfect way to express her opinion, because her face is painted black doesn’t mean she’s black or anything like that, and its not like she wld wanna insult d African American’s deliberately, she’s one what wld she gain by insulting herself and her people….d media shld stop making stories out of no story.
http://www.crewdoginvesting.com/military-credit-card-rewards-4/ military credit cards

Nice information.And now a days there are a lot of facilities offering by different banks so that to increase the user rate.And recently military credit cards are offering the best facilities.The best thing about this card is it automatically pays you the rewards in your account monthly without the usual $50 minimum like most credit cards.
Poetrist

I believe that the offense is caused by her assumption that she needed to paint her face darker to become more African when in fact there are many shades in Africa thus this notion came about through ignorance. We also have to keep in mind the historical connotations behind ‘black face’ namely the black minstrel characters where black face, big lips and buffoonery was used to characterize African American. Many black people were highly insulted due to this, thus black face will always have a stigma attached to it.
Empress Nefertina

It was ignorant and racist considering French colonial history in Africa and the Caribbean. It was insensitive to the fact that Europeans namely the British and French put a South African woman by the name of Sara Baartman on display in the 1800′s and the French kept her body parts after her death until President Nelson Mandela demanded their return these many years later.
http://blackhistorypages.net/p...

Beyonce is nothing but a modern day hottentot venus and she is too stupid to know that. And because history isn’t taught wholistically or truthfully, most people today are too stupid to know how wrong this ‘blackface’ is. I mean look up the history of minstrelsy in the U.S. for pity sake!!! SMH!!!

Last but not least, in Africa the face paint most commonly used is ‘WHITE’ not black so the magazine is telling a lie, there are no groups in Africa who darken their skin, I mean duh why would they need to??? This was NOT paying homage to her heritage, it was INSULTING her heritage and helping others to do so as well. Only the ignorant and racist would see this as homage!!! Beyonce should spend some of that money and get herself educated because she keeps doing and saying things which prove what an idiot she is… SMH twice!!!

WATCH: Why Is Beyonce… In Blackface?

Most Popular Articles

Follow Us

Tips

Style Dish

Login

Style Sheets