White influencers are pretending to be black on social media

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White influencers are pretending to be black on social media

They have been dubbed ‘blackface thots’

Lately, people have pointed out that a number of prominent white influencers are trying to pass themselves off as black women on social media. On Tuesday, @WannasWorld started a Twitter thread that exposed all of the "white girls cosplaying as black women on Instagram."

Hundreds of people responded to her thread with photos of women. All of these women are Instagram influencers, with thousands of followers who comment heart-eye emojis on their selfies. All of them have dark skin, large lips, and textured or braided hair.

And yet, all of these women are white. As old photos reveal, they are almost all naturally pale with straight hair. Through a combination of overzealous tanning, dark foundation, plastic surgery, and photo editing, it seems that these white women have given themselves the appearance of black women.

One such example is a Swedish girl named Emma Halberg with over 173,000 followers on Instagram, where she posts under the handle @eemmahallberg.

Although she appears to be a black woman from her Instagram photos, it was revealed by Twitter user @yeahboutella that Emma is actually a white woman. In an old photo of Emma that someone found, the same girl can be seen with pale skin and straight hair. And in a screenshot from one of her Instagram stories, Emma admits that her hair looks curly because she sleeps with her hair in a braid.

Although Emma claimed in a DM conversation that she's "never tried to be or look black," it's clear that she uses self-tanner, alters her hair to make it look more textured, and edits her photos to look darker — all of which have led many of her Instagram followers to believe that she is a black woman.

However, this is far from the only example of a white woman who is masquerading as a black woman on social media. A Twitter user compiled a thread of all the white women posing as black women on social media, and the findings are truly egregious. Take a look:

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