Here’s a terrible photo of soccer star Antoine Griezmann in not just blackface, but makeup covering his entire body. He posted the picture on his Twitter and Instagram accounts before eventually deleting about an hour later.
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Somehow, none of the people close to Griezmann — who plays for Atlético Madrid in Spain’s La Liga — were able to figure out that this costume is racist and talk him out of it.
Griezmann saw some of the backlash and, instead of deleting his tweet, defended his costume. This tweet was deleted about 15 minutes after it was posted.
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“Calm down guys,” Griezmann says in the tweet, “I'm fan of the Harlem Globetrotters and this beautiful time... it's a tribute.”
In case it isn’t entirely obvious why no one ever needs to do this:
If you’re white, and you wear a Harlem Globetrotters uniform without blackface, I promise you everyone is going to understand you are supposed to be a Harlem Globetrotter.
— H. José Bosch (@HJBosch21) December 17, 2017
And in case it isn’t entirely obvious why Griezmann’s costume is offensive, here’s an explanation from Vox.