*Beauty blogger Vika Shapel thought it would be fun to launch her own social media challenge and came up with the idea to cover half of her face in chocolate, to get that “deep chocolate skin tone.” She called it the #chocolatechallenge.
The Internet, however, called it #blackface and proceeded to drag the white blogger all the way back to vaudeville.
In a photo posted to her Instagram, Shapel and a friend covered half of their faces with chocolate to darken the color of their skin.
“Something fun is coming to YouTube, idk if there is a challenge like this but we haven’t seen it so Im calling it the chocolate challenge!” Shapel captioned the photo. “Come watch us transform into deep chocolate skin tones from our pasty pale.”
The IG post has since been deleted, but not before it was re-posted by YouTuber Arnell Armon, who commented on the blackface nature of it all.
The rest is history.
So @vika97662612 decided to post this picture which is clearly blackface & she decided to call it “the chocolate challenge” pic.twitter.com/O4NutrEtTH
— Arnell (@arnellarmon) July 9, 2017
oh wow she even gave the “chocolate” side brown eyes .
— Princess Mawi (@Mawiella) July 9, 2017
@GabbyOneLove You see this shit? Somebody gotta find where they work, where they go to school, all that shit ?
— blue shakalaka (@jessjiles) July 9, 2017
— lilbean (@wintercaptains) July 10, 2017
Double ew because she has a damn kid, you know she be teaching that innocent child how to hate
— lilbean (@wintercaptains) July 10, 2017
Me reporting her Instagram, YouTube, and twitter accounts pic.twitter.com/2s9SQisC60
— Gloria ✊??? (@wordtogloria) July 9, 2017