A beauty blogger tried to start the ‘Chocolate challenge.’ Critics say it’s blackface
An aspiring beauty blogger prompted a wave of backlash with an Instagram post that many consider insensitive at best and downright racist at worst.
Vika Shapel, a white woman, reportedly from Portland, Oregon, posted an image of herself and a friend with dark makeup on half of their faces and the caption, “Something fun is coming to YouTube, idk if there is a challenge like this but we haven’t seen it so I’m calling it the chocolate challenge! Come watch us transform into deep chocolate skin tones from our pasty pale.
Almost immediately, critics blasted Shapel, saying the image showed her in blackface, a historically offensive practice of darkening the skin with makeup, often for exaggerated effect in entertainment.
The first critique appears to have been from YouTube personality Arnell Armon. Others quickly chimed in.
So @vika97662612 decided to post this picture which is clearly blackface & she decided to call it "the chocolate challenge" pic.twitter.com/O4NutrEtTH
— Arnell (@arnellarmon) July 9, 2017
this "challenge" doesn't exist because people have common sense the disrespect... pic.twitter.com/j1SEXPdWhr
— Jasmine Brown (@JasMeannnn) July 9, 2017
just saw a pic of these 2 ppl doing half of their face w/dark makeup & wanted to call it "the chocolate challenge". Lord please help them
— Jasmine Brown (@JasMeannnn) July 9, 2017
Chocolate challenge ummmmmmm yikes pic.twitter.com/vdjNOfaRAK
— mom (@mxomee) July 9, 2017
In an interview with Yahoo, Shapel apologized for the post and said she was unaware of the historical legacy of blackface.
“I simply wanted to see how I looked in a deeper skin tone,” Shapel told Yahoo Beauty. “I wasn’t aware of the whole black face concept before people began commenting it on the photo. I would like to apologize to people that were hurt or offended by my post, and it won’t happen again.”
Shapel also told Yahoo that she had deactivated her social media accounts because of “overwhelming hateful responses,” she said. Her YouTube page has been scrubbed of all videos.
As Yahoo reports, some social media users also noted that Shapel and the other woman pictured appeared to have curled their hair and changed the color of their eyes.
Shapel is not alone in being accused of using black face as a beauty trend. Kim Kardashian drew heat online in late June after ads for her new makeup line appeared to show her skin in a darker than usual color, according to the New York Times. Kardashian’s sister, model Kendall Jenner, also was criticized by social media users in 2015 after an Instagram post appeared to show her with dark skin and had the caption: “What I wish I looked like all the time,” according to E! News.
Most recently, a pizzeria owner in Boise, Idaho, apologized after a Facebook video promoting his restaurant showed him with black paint smeared across this face.
This story was originally published July 14, 2017 at 9:47 PM with the headline "A beauty blogger tried to start the ‘Chocolate challenge.’ Critics say it’s blackface."