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Snapchat’s Offensive ‘Bob Marley’ Filter Gives You Instant Blackface

Sophie Kleeman Avatar
Sophie Kleeman
Snapchat’s Offensive ‘Bob Marley’ Filter Gives You Instant Blackface

For some reason, Snapchat decided it was a good idea to create a Bob Marley filter — one that makes the user look like a bizarre, warped version of the late singer, dreadlocks and all. All the typical things that might stop a massive social network from doing this — the fact that it looks like like automated blackface, the reductiveness of creating a Bob Marley filter on 4/20, the half-hearted attempts at incorporating Marley’s music, the fact that it literally slaps blackface and dreadlocks on everyone who tries it — apparently didn’t occur to Snapchat.

Instead, we got this.

Snapchat’s Offensive ‘Bob Marley’ Filter Gives You Instant Blackface

It’s unclear whether or not the filter was created specifically for 4/20. Either way, the filter is in extremely poor taste. We’ve reached out to Snapchat for an explanation, and received the following statement from a Snapchat spokesman:

The lens we launched today was created in partnership with the Bob Marley Estate, and gives people a new way to share their appreciation for Bob Marley and his music. Millions of Snapchatters have enjoyed Bob Marley’s music, and we respect his life and achievements.

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