Here we go again: Another day, another blackface makeup tutorial. Cue the moral outrage ... and another horrible human goes viral.
Today’s transgressor is @notcatart, a Russian-speaking makeup hacker who claims to “love skin of all colors”—which likely inspired this idiocy, after he apparently ran out of other looks and cultures to imitate. Of course, we instantly shared this among ourselves in The Root’s virtual office (shoutout to Slack). Since beauty is our journalistic beat here at The Glow Up, our colleagues were especially eager to get our hot take on it.
Fun fact: The Glow Up’s editor, Veronica Webb, momentarily thought this was a Walking Dead tutorial. But even after we realized what we were watching, we found our outrage hard to muster. You know why?
Because we’re tired (building a new section takes a lot of work). Exhaustipated. And bored. This is boring, @notcatart.
This is not new, novel, or even particularly well-executed (not if a blinged-out grill and Yo Gotti soundtrack are needed to drive the point home). Nor can we blame this on ignorance, because, well ... we’ve been here before, haven’t we? We’ve had this conversation so many times, with so many “I’m playing dumb”-asses like @notcatart, that it’s like perpetual déjà vu. And since we consider ourselves pretty fashion-forward at The Glow Up, ain’t nobody got time for that.
So, here’s what we’re not going to do: We’re not going to reward willfully ignorant, smugly unrepentant, race-baiting fetishists with our attention, energy and outrage. Instead, we’re going to play in our makeup; paint our faces appropriate, nonappropriating colors; whip our hair back and forth; and tell each other every day how pretty we are. (You are, by the way.)
Because this is The Glow Up and we don’t do boring—and we definitely aren’t going to burden ourselves with enlightening those who only want to play in the dark (when it’s clickbait). Consider this new section of The Root your virtual vanity—a sanctuary of style, swag, sisterhood and serenity, where you can always see yourself reflected, beautifully.