French fashion magazine L`Officiel Paris featured Beyonce in a myriad of African-themed wardrobe shots, but it is a single photograph of the singer with a heavily darkened face and neck that has some crying racism.
"Given the controversial history surrounding blackface, it`s inconceivable to think that both Beyonce and her team didn`t think of the racial implications in painting her face," said Steven J.
Horowitz, Associated Editor at YRB Magazine. "In an age when racism is however a prevalent issue, and where other artists like Will.i.am have faced backlash for darkening their skin, she should have completed that anything remotely resembling blackface would raise fire from the smoke."
Writes Jezebel`s Dodai Stewart: "It`s fun to meet with style and makeup, and style has a story of aggravation and pushing boundaries. But when you paint your face darker in order to look more `African,` aren`t you reducing an entire continent, full of different nations, tribes, cultures and histories, into one brown color?"
"Blackface is not fashion forward or edgy and, in my opinion, it is just flat-out offensive," wrote Charing Ball of the Atlanta Post.
But the magazine says their imagination was more "United Colors of Benetton" than "The Al Jolson Minstrel Hour."
"A queen, a goddess, Beyonce is a bombshell beauty with a divine voice. We`re thrilled she`s opening a temper of celebrating the 90th anniversary of L`Officiel de la Mode. The series was conceived as using art and style in paying court to African queens," the magazine noted in a statement. "Beyonce mentioned the artist Fela Kuti in the audience as one of her musical inspirations. It was later misquoted as the aspiration for the shoot. We would wish to elucidate that it is not the case."
"As for the artistic makeup, the inspiration came from various African rituals during which paint is used on the face. We see the images beautiful and inspiring," the statement concluded.
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