Journalist photoshops herself in blackface 'to raise awareness' of Africa, culture
Hungarian journalist Boglarka Balogh photoshopped herself into blackface as part of a photography project meant to portray different cultures in Africa...
Hungarian journalist Boglarka Balogh photoshopped herself into blackface as part of a photography project meant to portray different cultures in Africa.
She entitled the project “I Morphed Myself Into Tribal Women To Raise Awareness Of Their Secluded Cultures” and claimed that she had been inspired to do the project “from my time spent in various African countries where I became fully aware of the issues regarding a number of endangered tribes, and the speed at which they are fading away.”
The journalist, who is white and blonde, teamed up with graphic designer Csaba Szabo to make herself look like women from the Himba, Karo, Turkana, Mursi, Arbore, Daasanach, and Wodaabe tribes.
Immediately, the project sparked backlash as people pointed out that the Photoshopping job was basically blackface and that Balogh was appropriately the women’s cultures and fashions for the project.
Since then, Balogh has posted an apology and an explanation for her actions after deleting the post. “Since I had no intentions to offend anyone and yet I’m not able to answer to all of you, I’ve decided to delete my post,” she explained.
“My intention was 100% pure with this tribal art, being a human right lawyer and journalist who knows pretty much about racism and similar issues, I have never imagined that my work will annoy so many people and that I will have to explain myself. And sure, I will not do that. Keep calm and love every human.”
