The furious backlash against Snapchat’s new filter to commemorate reggae legend Bob Marley shows how fast and loose people are now playing with claims of racism.
The filter was aimed at celebrating Marley on 4/20, the unofficial pot smoker’s holiday. It gives fans the opportunity to make their appearance darker and gives them dreadlocks and a Rasta-colored hat in order to better resemble the singer who died 35 years ago.
The revolt was bizarre. Bob Marley fans lit up social media to accuse Snapchat of digital “blackface,” the practice in film where white actors wearing makeup portrayed black people.
Clearly Snapchat did not set out to be offensive since they launched the lens in partnership with the Bob Marley Estate.
And it is unclear what they should have done differently to have fans pay tribute to the singer without a darkening of the user’s skin tone and adding dreadlocks.
Martin Daubney, the British former editor of Loaded Magazine, dared to ask on Twitter: “Is even liking Bob Marley now ‘cultural appropriation?” The question was predictably answered with rage.
In other Bob Marley news, the family has expanded the Marley Natural pot product empire, approving the sale of cannabis and cannabis oils made from organic Humboldt County crops in the San Francisco Bay Area.
What better way for all of the misguided Snapchat haters to go chill out.