There sure is a lot of race-fueled vitriol online these days. It can be exhausting, trying to either avoid or keep up with it all. Rest assured, this isn’t one of those stories, though. Instead, this story is a bit humorous, delivering a much-needed laugh in our very intense social climate. That said, it does offer up yet another scandal of a celebrity caught wearing ‘blackface’ but with quite a funny resolve.
A 2007 photo of Alyssa Milano has resurfaced online, and has been making the rounds on multiple conservative sites. Many right-wingers sharing the photo are claiming that it depicts the actress and staunch civil rights advocate, donning blackface makeup.
Anyone who follows Milano on social media knows that she is the real deal in putting her money where her mouth is with social causes. She’s one of the most progressive people in Hollywood, unafraid to take on Trump, his minions, Republican members of Congress, or anyone she finds antithetical to her vision of a unified America.
In recent weeks Milano has been raising the alarm on what some people speculate is a plot from the far right to use “cancel culture” to silence prominent liberal voices. Her proof? Well, as it turns out, Milano is not doing blackface at all in that 2007 photo. She’s not even portraying a black person in the highly-circulated screen grab image. She is actually portraying the ultra-tanned, uber ‘Bump-It’ haired, ‘Jersey Shore’ sensation known as Snooki.
That’s right. The still photo is of Milano parodying an Italian- American, who just so happens to be known for, among other things, tanning way too much.
Once Milano became aware of the buzz around the newly resurfaced image, she sprang to action to set the story straight and sent out the following tweet at the end of June, “Cancel culture is being weaponized by the right/Putin,”
Then, in a follow-up tweet, Milano also warned,
“The right-wing trolls are using a still from this funny or die video where a parodied Snookie from Jersey Shore. If you see the screengrab that they are using maybe, you can shut them down with a link to the entire video.”
The video clearly shows the full, actual context of the photo. Alyssa Milano in no way applied blackface makeup, and any claim to the contrary is blatant misinformation or AKA, ‘fake news.”
The right wing trolls are using a still from this funny or die video where a parodied Snookie from Jersey Shore. If you see the screen grab that they are using maybe you can shut them down with a link to the entire video.
Here it is: https://t.co/oKauRsy32a
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) June 27, 2020
I find the whole thing to be a bit amusing but also quite disturbing. This is a far stretch, even for the far-right, and it calls into question all the tactics in play as we get closer to the 2020 election. All I know is Trump’s followers must be nervous about the upcoming election when they start passing off Snooki impersonations as ‘blackface.”
More importantly, though, does all this now mean, “Snookiface” is a thing?
