Snapchat and Blackface

Karly Morgan

On April 20, known as 420 by people who celebrate the day as a drug-based holiday, Snapchat released a filter where the user could "face swap" with Bob Marley. As usual, the internet exploded.

Some sides claim that the filter is offensive, has a negative association with marijuana, and is an example of blackface. The popular opinion seems to be that it was blackface. I agree that they used his image in a distasteful way. But, what I want to discuss is the issue of blackface as it relates to face swap.

Before I begin, please know that I think blackface is heinous and wrong, and that stigmatizing groups of people is repulsive. I just want to open the conversation about face swap and blackface.

Snapchat introduced the face swap filter this year. In this filter, you can put your face next to someone else's face, and your faces will switch. Simply, you take on the features of whatever person you swap with. It can be funny, scary, weird, and entertaining. There are also filters where you can swap faces with famous people, such as politicians, celebrities, athletes, and historical figures.

My opinion (in this exact moment, my opinion is always subject to change) is that face swap as an individual entity is significantly different from blackface. It is literally placing a face over your own without attached stigmas or stereotypes. It's not a caricature, it's not a fabricated image, it's a photo of the person. For example, if I do the Hillary Clinton face swap, her face literally lays over mine like a mask. I'm not manipulating my features to resemble her, her face literally lays over my face. If I do the Bob Marley face swap, I am not altering my facial features to resemble his, his face lays over my face. It's the same as wearing a digital mask.

Now, if someone does a face swap with a person and then enacts imagery that would trigger negative stereotypes, that is a whole different issue.

What I'm saying is that if I'm sitting with my friend at dinner and we happen to have different skin colors and we face swap, I'm not a racist. I didn't participate in black face any more than she participated in white face, we just took on each other's faces like a digital mask in good taste. I think that as long as it's done in good taste, face swap is significantly different than blackface, yellow face, whitewashing, etc.

The black community is the community with the ultimate right to decide if this is offensive or not, and whatever their collective verdict on the issue says is what I will adhere to and support. I just really want to open this conversation and get opinions from as many different people as possible, because I think this is an issue where there can be a wide spectrum of opinion. What do you think?