Last night, the girls packed their bags and went to Hawai'i, where their skin was darkened for a "biracial people" shoot. To get them into character, Tyra offered inspiration: "Think about the people in Egypt and what they've been through!"
Guess who was the inspiration for the shoot? President Obama. Because they were in Hawai'i, Tyra wanted to do a shoot inspired by "the world's most famous hapa."
This isn't the first time that ANTM has done blackface—or had a confusing, high-concept approach to cultural awareness. For a photoshoot back in Cycle 4, the girls were each assigned a race different from their own that they were supposed to embody for a Got Milk? ad, while also holding a child. Brittany was made to be African-American.
Tatiana was "biracial."
Noelle, who is biracial in real life, was made to be "African".
Naima, who is a mix of several different ethnicities, was made to be Swedish.
And back in Cycle 2, for a shoot in which the girls had to each portray a different famous person, Xiomara was given dark makeup in order to pose as Grace Jones. I remember that she was wearing a thong, and when she got off the wall she was leaning on, she had left two distinct butt marks from her makeup. I'm sad that I can't find a picture of that anywhere.
And just when we're starting to believe all of Tyra's hype that all shapes, sizes and colors are beautiful—and eligible to compete for a useless title on this show—we learn that being short still sucks.
DISCUSSION
"Think of the people of Egypt and what they've been through?" Whuh?
Also, maybe the definition was not explained to me correctly, but I'm pretty sure Obama is not a hapa. All biracial people != hapa's. #antmblackface