Alice Kunek, a forward for Australian women’s basketball team the Opals, has taken to Twitter to apologise for a picture posted to Instagram over the weekend where she was dressed as Kanye West, wearing blackface makeup.
The Rio Olympics-hopeful dressed as one of her “favourite artists” for Melbourne Boomers ‘silly Sunday’, however, she immediately drew negative attention on Instagram forcing her to delete the post and set her account to private.
One of the strongest critiques came from her teammate Elizabeth Cambage who posted a screenshot of the Instagram post on Twitter and wrote, “I’m am so shocked and disturbed to see this behavior from someone I’m meant to call a ‘teammate’.”
“Blackface is disgusting, I honestly have no words,” she further wrote.
Since then, Kunek has apologised, writing, “I’m sorry that people would think my support of Kanye as being racist in some way.”
“People who know me, know that I don’t judge others based on the colour of their skin.”
She also spoke to Fairfax explaining, “The reason why I dressed as Kanye was that he is one of my favourite artists and really love his new album.”
While much of the backlash has been directed at Kunek, Cambage has also received many racist taunts on Twitter, which she has posted publicly.
Wearing blackface is considered to be highly offensive. It dates back to Minstrel shows in the 19th century where Americans would paint their faces black and act out offensive skits, stereotyping African Americans.
1/4. I’m sorry that people would think my support of Kanye as being racist in some way.
— Alice Kunek (@AliceKunek) February 21, 2016
2/4 People who know me, know that I don’t judge others based on the colour of their skin.
— Alice Kunek (@AliceKunek) February 21, 2016
3/4 One of the things I love most about basketball is that I get to play with and against women from different countries ,
— Alice Kunek (@AliceKunek) February 21, 2016
4/4 religions & upbringings and be united as a team. I never meant to offend any team mates, fans, or people in the community.
— Alice Kunek (@AliceKunek) February 21, 2016
I’m am so shocked and disturbed to see this behavior from someone I’m meant to call a “teammate” pic.twitter.com/Rz9Hp33oCs
— Elizabeth Cambage (@ecambage) February 21, 2016
blackface is disgusting, I honestly have no words.
— Elizabeth Cambage (@ecambage) February 21, 2016
I have learnt so much from white males today on racism, thanks so much guys X pic.twitter.com/H5ERb87YW3
— Elizabeth Cambage (@ecambage) February 21, 2016
but this was most definitely my favorite message pic.twitter.com/FPDDEcE1zt
— Elizabeth Cambage (@ecambage) February 21, 2016
