Beauty vlogger Vika Shapel's 'blackface chocolate challenge' goes viral
Beauty blogger Vika Shapel is in hot water after initiating a "racist" beauty challenge to her followers.
The challenge comes just a month after Kim Kardashian's photo controversy, in which she was also accused of blackface.
Shapel, who posts beauty tutorials to social media, shared a snapshot of herself and a friend, each with half of their faces painted. "IDK if there is a challenge like this but we haven't seen it so Im calling it The Chocolate Challenge! Come watch us transform into deep chocolate skin tones from our pasty pale," she wrote.
So @vika97662612 decided to post this picture which is clearly blackface & she decided to call it "the chocolate challenge" pic.twitter.com/O4NutrEtTH
— arnellarmon (@arnellarmon) July 9, 2017
Shapel and her friend also changed their eye color in the photo and curled their hair.
The blogger's picture has since been deleted, along with her various social media accounts.
Unsurprisingly, the Youtube personality received major backlash on social media, where the photo went viral. Many called the challenge "racist", "disrespectful" and "disgusting."
I believe she did it to intentionally start some commotion. It's 2017. NO ONE is that oblivious esp with all current issues surrounding race
— N (@jourNYblog) July 9, 2017
"I wasn't aware of the whole black-face concept before people began commenting it on the photo. I would like to apologize to people that were hurt or offended by my post, and it won't happen again," Shapel commented to Yahoo! Beauty.
Why?! What do I have to do to convince people that my skin tone is not a trend/a mask/a makeup challenge/ a new concept for entertainment?!
— 𝖆𝖗𝖎 𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖊 𝖙𝖎𝖗𝖊𝖉 (@ArielleMonai) July 9, 2017
h/t Yahoo! Beauty
RELATED: Fans respond to the reality star's photo drama