ProTip: Don’t wear blackface. Ever. There’s still hope for you decent folks out there, but it’s too late for Paige Shoemaker. She is the Kansas State University student who wore blackface in a Snapchat with the disgraceful caption as you see above.
The sophomore was wearing a L’Oreal clay mask in her public Snapchat Story, but it sure looks like blackface. The photo went viral, and was RT’d more than 15,000 times in one day.
As of Thursday afternoon, Shoemaker was kicked out of the school.
Shoemaker, who was studying biochemistry and pre-med, attempted to defend her appalling actions.
“We never intended for the picture to offend anyone. We had only meant for it to be taken in a funny way, but we clearly understand that what we said should never be joked around about,” Shoemaker said. “People shouldn’t joke around about such a serious topic like this because it feeds into racism.”
“Ask anyone who knows us, we are the most accepting and least racist people,” she said. “We know that we will ride up and learn from this mistake.”
“We want people to know it’s not blackface,” Paige Shoemaker told KSNT. “We did not paint our faces intentionally. We did not do this in hopes of taking this picture and posting it all over.”
“We clearly understand that what was said and done was completely disrespectful,” she said. “We will battle everyone for the right to make things right, because we know what we did was wrong.”
If it’s not blackface, why did you just admit that it was wrong?
Again don’t ever wear blackface even if it is a hilarious joke in your head.
[CNN]