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You may not be familiar with Illamasqua Cosmetics but thanks to their new ad, they’re probably getting lots of Google inquiries. The British company released a holiday promotion featuring a model in blackface, a top hat, and a tuxedo.

The ad was posted to Pinterest and shows the image in both black and white next to the heading “NOT Dreaming of A White Christmas.”

Since there are two versions of the ad, commenters were split on deciding whether or not the advertisement was racist. “Not feeling the blackface style at all,” commented one person.

“Are people not familiar with the back cream foundation by Ilamasqua? Are people worried this is racist? Well, so is the white edition then,” wrote another person. “Surely if you are concerned about race then it is less racist to include both. As it is, they are more likely a juxtaposition of black and white.”

“The model painted black has been interpreted by some as ‘black face,” the company said in a statement. “This was certainly not our intention nor inspiration.”

Whenever an occurrence of blackface arises those involved claim to have no sensitivity to the matter, like in the case of two college students who doused themselves in brown paint for their “rock stars and rappers” party.

However, pretending to have no knowledge and understanding of both blackface, especially when the woman clearly mimics that of a minstrel character, is irresponsible at the very least.

Click below to see the enlarged photo.

 

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Photo: Pinterest

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