Asian Woman Faces Backlash for Kobe Bryant Blackface Transformation on TikTok
There's been a recent controversy surrounding a TikTok user named Easy Baobo, who is also an Asian woman. She attempted to recreate the likeness of the late NBA legend Kobe Bryant using a technique known as blackface. This has sparked outrage among many people.
Kobe Bryant, who tragically passed away in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020, was an iconic figure in the basketball world. His impact on the sport and his fans was immense, and numerous tributes have been made to honor his memory. However, Easy Baobo's TikTok video seems to have crossed a line.
In the video, Easy Baobo captioned her transformation as “Color and pain [sic]. My lovely black beauty transformation make-up.” She included several hashtags, including “#slave,” which she later removed due to the backlash she received from shocked viewers.
Easy Baobo, also known as Percem, explained that the transformation was part of a movie shoot in Turkey, and she had originally hashtagged it as “#slayer,” which was changed to “#slave” without her consent.
Although Easy Baobo has posted many makeup transformation videos on TikTok, the one featuring Kobe Bryant gained significant attention and criticism. While her other videos received only a few thousand views, the Kobe Bryant recreation amassed nearly 200,000 views. However, it was met with strong disapproval.
When one critic shared a photo of Percem's transformation on Twitter, it quickly went viral. People expressed their shock and disbelief, questioning why anyone would think this kind of behavior is acceptable.
Percem is an SFX artist who initially shared a tutorial video on YouTube and later posted stills from the video on her Instagram account, which has over 3,300 followers. She has gained recognition for her makeup skills, with 20,000 views on her YouTube channel and winning the NYX Face Awards for Turkey in 2017.
While Percem's YouTube page is filled with various makeup tutorials, including Halloween horror makeup guides, it was her controversial “slave” post that garnered widespread attention, leading the Twitter user who shared it to encourage others to report the post to moderators.
