Tyra Banks' Top Model Stunt: Racy or Racist?

Models were forced to don dark makeup and pose as biracial women, but was that crossing a line?

By Breanne L. Heldman Oct 29, 2009 3:45 PMTags
Americas next top model, erinTyra Banks/Pottle Productions Inc , Jerry Mettellus/The CW

Sure it might be Halloween with its usual goofy costumes, but we're finding one getup just plain horrifying.

On last night's America's Next Top Model, Tyra Banks asked contestants to smear on some heavy-duty makeup and pose as biracial women.

Sure, they tried to make it sound exotic by having the leggy ladies look like Tibetan-Egyptian or Botswana-Polynesian women, but at the end of the day, they were still coated in creams to darken their skin tone.

This isn't the reality series' first time under fire for racy choices—ANTM had contestants take pictures as different ethnicities back in season four.

And it comes in the wake of Mad Men's Roger Sterling donning blackface at a party, Harry Connick Jr. criticizing an Australian TV show over a sketch by white actors in face paint mocking the Jackson 5 and Madonna admitting she once posed as "Black Madonna" but opted not to use the photos in fear that only a minority of fans would understand them.

You think?

Poll

Model Behavior?

Was Tyra crazy for putting the girls in darker skin yet again?
I found it insulting and demeaning
18.1%
It made for an interesting challenge
42.2%
Umm. It's Tyra. She's crazy regardless
39.7%

________

If that doesn't get your goat, Joel McHale: Male Model certainly will.