America's Next Top Model: Posing in Glorified Blackface

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ANTM contestant Nicole Fox.
Last night on America's Next Top Model, the all-powerful Tyra Banks had a special photoshoot planned for Cycle 13's remaining contestants: each young lady would represent a Hapa, or a person of mixed descent.

Tyra herself designated what, exactly, her aspiring models would "play." One girl was outfitted and a sari and a headdress and told to pose like an East Indian and Native American woman; another donned a kimono and buckets of dark body paint to look half-Japanese, half-Malagasy.

This wasn't the first time that models were asked to portray people of different racial backgrounds. Several seasons ago, the models shot "Got Milk?" advertisements as mothers from around the world.

Tyra probably thinks that she's somehow encouraging the celebration of diversity worldwide one misguided photo shoot at a time. But even when Tyra's the orchestrator, a stunt like this is what it is - blackface. While there was no malicious intent in portraying women of these ethnicities, it's still cultural appropriation - and probably inappropriate.

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