"Orange Like Me!" (From The "Everything Is Racism" Department)
A high school girl who apparently rather liberally applied bronzer from Claire's -- turning her skin a very deep and very unattractive brownish orange -- was accused of racism for it. As if she were trying to mimic blackface. (As if more than three students currently in high school actually know what "blackface" refers to.)
EagNews's Viktor Skinner reports:
SHORELINE, Wash. - A picture of a white female Shorewood High School student with a bad tan and the cutline "do you think this is my color" caused so much racial strife the district is putting stickers over the image.Officials with the Shoreline School District issued a formal apology for the yearbook photo of a pouting white teen with a dark, obviously fake complexion after the image circulated on social media and offended many people. Some claim the picture resembles blackface, and the backlash against the teen has been relentless, King 5 reports.
"There have been some pretty mean comments. Some people have actually been telling her to go kill herself," junior Case Macklin told the news site.
"I know she didn't mean it to be offensive," Macklin told KREM 2. "She didn't mean blackface like in an offensive way, she just meant it like she had a bad tan."
"She was just snapchatting back and forth with her friend and put a whole bunch of Claire's bronzer on," said junior Trevor Corwin. "It wasn't meant to be offensive."
In fact, the student herself took to Twitter to clear the air. She explained she wasn't being racist, but poking fun at her own bad tan from the salon and apologized. It didn't matter, her comments only drew more scorn.
Once there's a witch burning in progress, there's no turning back for, you know, that reasoning thingie.







Apparently trans-gender like Jenner is alright, but trans-racial isn't?
Apparently if you lie about it like Rachel Dolezal it's alright, but if you don't lie it's not?
Difficult to remember all the rules...
I'm actually a beagle trapped inside a human's body.
Snoopy at June 13, 2015 10:35 AM
What Seinfeld said.
Lobster at June 13, 2015 10:58 AM
I guess bronzeface is the new blackface.
Speaking of Shorewood High School...
This backward music video the kids there -- under the guidance of video production instructor Martin Ballew -- did back in 2009 is pretty creative and always makes me smile.
JD at June 13, 2015 12:20 PM
It's called being Liberal. They are always right, no matter what... even if they are wrong - their racism narrative will survive regardless of the harm it does.
Lee Ladisky at June 13, 2015 12:39 PM
When will you (pick one or more: racist, homophobic, hateful, unamerican fools) learn that the ideological narrative of the day trumps all else; including facts, common sense or rational thought!
Jay at June 13, 2015 1:07 PM
Slightly related -- a WayBack Machine photo of Dolezal, who was really, really white before she went "black":
https://web.archive.org/web/20070204055358/http://www.belhaven.edu/Alumni/Homecoming/homecoming_previous.htm#Artist
Amy Alkon at June 13, 2015 1:35 PM
I think the kid looks more like Snooki from Jersey Shore than any racial stereotype. She should have captioned her pic "Snooki eat your heart out!".
Kat at June 13, 2015 3:05 PM
Everything Is Racism because Black Americans put all their hope (audacious it was) into their new messiah - Obama.
And he has screwed them over royally; but, rather than admit they were worshiping a false god it is easier to blame whitey for all their problems.
Here's an old newsflash for Black Americans - most white Americans don't even think about you every day; let alone try to come up with stuff to offend you everyday.
charles at June 13, 2015 5:09 PM
As an olive skinned person I'm offended. This is olive-face and to call it blackface glosses over the oppression and ridicule I feel on a daily basis by whites. Everytime I shop at a drugstore and see the fake tanners or watch the Emmys and look at the all oranged out actresses I can't help but be triggered. Michael Kors is my people's Bing Crosby.
I didn't chose to be this color and to portray it as orange only reinforces the negative stereotypes of the bronzed goddesss with a healthy glow. As a woman I find being objectified in thr media for my skin color patronizing and patriarchal.
#oliverightsnotslights
Ppen at June 13, 2015 5:37 PM
From Dolezal's Belhaven profile: I intend to dissolve racial stereotypes by showing the shared experiences of the human race.
To give her the benefit of the doubt, maybe what she's trying to say, in a clumsy way, is "I feel black", in the same way the former Bruce Jenner would say -- and current Caitlyn Jenner says -- "I feel like a woman."
If we can accept a person who feels they were born as one sex but are really another -- and those of us who are open-minded do accept this -- then why can't we accept a person who feels they were born as one race but are really another?
JD at June 13, 2015 6:14 PM
I would say most kids do know about blackface... But this ain't it
Nicole k at June 13, 2015 9:44 PM
The fact that the racial justice crusaders and wannabe victim minorities at Shorewood High School are lashing out at this orange girl shows that actual racism has never been part of their experience. They should move on now and find some other injustice to be against, preferably one that actually exists.
Ken R at June 14, 2015 12:04 PM
Rachel Dolezal has as much right to be African American as Caitlyn Jenner has to be female. As such she should be as entitled to have her affirmative action job and to be president of the NAACP as any other African American. The NAACP has said that they're OK with it.
Ken R at June 14, 2015 12:13 PM
Snoopy: "Apparently if you lie about it like Rachel Dolezal it's alright."
How is she lying? She's not lying, anymore than Caitlyn Jenner is lying by saying she's a woman.
I'm actually a white, transgender lesbian. But I often struggle with a deep sense of being Native American. For the past few years I've had a strong urge to get a Mohawk, but my grandkids are telling me that I should have thought about that sooner.
Ken R at June 14, 2015 12:30 PM
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