Makeup artist recreates Kobe Bryant’s face with disturbing accuracy
A woman posted a video recreating Kobe Bryant’s face which went viral, but many are criticizing the video calling what she did the same as “blackface”.
A makeup artist known for creating incredibly accurate imitations of celebrity’s faces on her own has posted a TikTok video to her account (@easy_baobo) that went viral. The video, posted twice within the last year, has gathered over 200,000 views.
In the video, she recreates the face of NBA legend, the late Kobe Bryant. Her caption reads, “Kobe is forever in my heart #fyp #foryou #foryoupage #kobebryant24 limitation makeup not imitating people just respect”.
For her, it was a tribute to Kobe, but it has been highly criticized, with many on social media calling it blackface and accusing her/the act of being racist. Blackface was historically used by non-Black people in theater to portray - mock, actually, would be a better word here - a Black character, but with overdone theatrics that promote negative stereotypes. It was used as a form of entertainment and is highly offensive.
At the time of the writing of this article, Kobe is the only Black celebrity that the artist has recreated. Though she’s been highly criticized for it, others on social media view the act as “respectful” and point out that blackface is only considered when the representation is false or exaggerated.