Camila Cabello was one of the attractions of “The Tonigh Show With Jimmy Fallon” this Friday. Advertising her new single, the singer made the first televised performance of “Don’t Go Yet” hours after the song was available on platforms.
The artist tried to bring the atmosphere of her new video, full of Latin references and inspirations, to the stage of the NBC talk show, but one detail caught the attention of Internet users. One of Camila’s dancers was accused of doing “blackface” during the performance. The practice of darkening the skin with paints, sprays, and stains is considered racist.
On social media, fans compared the way the dancer, Dylan Pearce, introduced himself to photos found on his Instagram.
racist rehab didn’t work… https://t.co/pzh5iPwqUv pic.twitter.com/xH798rupqL
— georgia (@lemonadenormani) July 24, 2021
Then, on Saturday, July 24, in the afternoon, Camila published a short note in which she tried to justify the painting.
“This man was trying to look like a white man with a terrible spray tan. We purposely tried to gather a multicultural group on stage, the expectation was not that someone would look Latino.
There are whites, African Americans, Latinos, etc. so the point was not to try to make a latin anyway. There are a lot of people in performance who are not.
The point was to try to make each person look like an exaggerated ’80s character like in the video, including a white man with a terrible orange spray.
”
@Camila_Cabello pic.twitter.com/qARokq0qj7
— camila (@Camila_Cabello) July 24, 2021
Blackface lasted more than 200 years in entertainment culture and consisted of painting white bodies to compose stereotypical and playful characters. In television and movie shows, whites ridiculed blacks and associated them with negative stereotypes. Due to the struggle of the anti-racist movements, the practice came to be seen as shameful and prejudicial.
C
