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By Hope Winters

Journalist


Bonnie Mbuli blasts Pearl Thusi over ‘blackface’ photoshoot

The actress caused a frenzy on social media when she painted herself to appear darker in complexion.


Bonnie Mbuli did not mince her words when she slammed Pearl Thusi’s ‘blackface’ photoshoot which sparked a spicy debate on Twitter.

It all started after Pearl shared pictures from a recent photoshoot she did, where she was painted to look darker in complexion.

The term blackface is used to describe non-black people who paint their faces black.

Followers on Twitter believed that Pearl was disrespecting the colourism issue.

https://twitter.com/PearlThusi/status/971798293377404930

Taking to her own Twitter page, Bonnie labelled the pictures “distasteful”.

“Blackface will never be palatable. I don’t care who is rocking it, go argue with your concealer! It’s hugely problematic, colourism has economic and social implications that run real deep, blackface will never be cute, artistic or creative,” she said.

When a follower asked Bonnie if she was sub-tweeting Pearl, she did not shy away from her opinions.

The TV personality made it clear that it was not a sub-tweet and that she had even spoken to Pearl about it.

“I shared my thoughts with Pearl after she asked if I was sub-tweeting her, my thoughts were clear that it’s blackface and it’s distasteful.”

Despite the commentary around the shoot, Pearl seemed unfazed and continued to share more pictures.

She said that she had been called so many names for being light-skinned that it didn’t bother her anymore.

“I’ve been called so many names via beng light skinned that I don’t even get touched anymore. Since I was a kid. And apparently light skinned blacks don’t have a right to be upset. So I keep quiet,” she said.

https://twitter.com/PearlThusi/status/971795479087538182

https://twitter.com/PearlThusi/status/971797139415355394

Brought to you by All4Women

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