Instagram Has A Racist Filter With A Blackface Which Changes To “Prettier, Fairer” Skin. Why Does This Exist?
Instagram has made a boo boo again. And this isn’t one that’s too small to dismiss as an oversight. Already, some of the filters that apps like Instagram provide have received criticism for promoting unrealistic standards of beauty. And while many can judiciously use them and understand that they are just for fun, there are more who don’t get that distinction and can go into a downward spiral because they cannot imagine their face without the filters. However, a recent filter that has caught people’s attention and invited outrage is a blackface filter. And when a Twitter user rightly called it out for promoting racism, Twitterati joined in to call for it to be taken down.
Twitter user @vaishnavioffl shared screenshots of her Instagram feed, which showed how there were people, Indians (sigh), using this blackface filter to create reels. What she observed, and which was perhaps the more dangerous implication of this filter, was that in most of these videos, the person using the blackface looks sad, and then suddenly, as the blackface goes away, they’re happy with their ‘fair skin’.
There's an actual blackface filter that ends up showing you differently towards the end when you shoot a reel on Instagram and Indian people are doing this like some Fair and lovely ad shit and glorifying it what is wrong with people! pic.twitter.com/Wn0Y1FOSRx
— Valia (@Vaishnavioffl) July 24, 2021
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In a country that already places so much undue emphasis on fairness and treats people with dark skin tones badly, such filters only propagate the prejudice further.
No seriously what is this racist fair and lovely shit, @instagram please ban this goddamn filter and trend pic.twitter.com/bnM6583KT8
— Valia (@Vaishnavioffl) July 24, 2021
Anyone seeing this please report this filter in Instagram under hate speech/bullying https://t.co/JXwyQlnBze
— Valia (@Vaishnavioffl) July 24, 2021
Videos of people who have used this video still circulating as a "viral trend" with captions like "Omg I love this filter" 🤢🤢🤢.
Please go report every video under this audio as hate speech. It is not enough that the filter was taken down https://t.co/zVWhJEuY2R pic.twitter.com/U8r58AeI0s— Valia (@Vaishnavioffl) July 28, 2021
Many other Twitter users shared the Twitter thread and voiced their own outrage over such a filter existing in the first place.
https://twitter.com/btsbangtan____/status/1420076804707012608?s=20
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tw // blackface
this is so gross especially for obvious antiblack & colorist reasons but also because there are real live indians with darker skin tones who actually look like that, including literally krishna mythologically, so pretending they don't exist is like . wtf https://t.co/q6h0FDDiQP
— ⭒✩ kk⁷⁺⁹ | SAW JIHYO ✩⭒ (@gayforjihyo) July 28, 2021
The kind of ignorance in our country🚶🏻♂️ https://t.co/LxokTZY4Aw
— CIRUS⁷ (@innerchilding7) July 27, 2021
Speechless, enraged, and sad seeing this!! #colourism #colorism https://t.co/EuHG8zNQDZ
— Shweta Aggarwal | Author (@ShwetaAuthor) July 27, 2021
The OP has reported the filter under hate speech, and here’s hoping Instagram takes care of it soon enough. Tech companies have lately made a lot of promises to ensure a safe experience for its users, including Instagram. However, while we do and should hold these companies responsible, there’s a huge chunk of onus on us as well. These people who used the filter have been conditioned by their societal upbringing to find darker skin ugly and such mockery funny and harmless. That conditioning needs to be scraped off and people need to be taught better. And that can only happen when ignorance is dispelled with proper awareness and education.
