A high school in the town of Shoreline, Wash. is the center of a brewing controversy over a student’s yearbook photo. A white female student’s picture featured her wearing bronzer that darkened her skin with a caption that suggested she was appearing in”blackface.”
The yearbook from Shorewood High School was issued last week and the photo of the unnamed student made its way to Twitter. The photo’s caption read, “do you think this is my color?” which prompted angry responses. Students at the school say the girl has faced threats with some people telling her to commit suicide.
But other students at the school say the girl wasn’t being offensive at all and was making a joke at the expense of those who use tanning salons.
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“She was just snapchatting back and forth with her friend and put a whole bunch of Claire’s bronzer on,” said junior Trevor Corwin. “It wasn’t meant to be offensive.”
Other students at the school say while they believe the student isn’t racist and didn’t have bad intentions, they believe the picture still sends the wrong message.
“Just because it may not be offensive to you, it still may be offensive to other minority groups,” said Melen Ghebrai, a sophomore at Shorewood and member of the Black Student Union.
The school stopped handing out the yearbooks after the controversy erupted. On Wednesday the school said they regret allowing the picture in the yearbook.
The school has since stopped handing out the yearbooks and have invited students to return the books if they found the alleged blackface photo to be offending. The school will place a sticker over the girl’s photo.
The school district says it is investigating how the photo made its way to the yearbook.
And let this be a warning, kids. Whenever you’re darkening your skin, even if it’s just a joke, it has the potential to offend someone.
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Photo: King 5/Twitter
