The London-based jewelry company Janeen Jewellery reposted a Black creator’s photo with a whitewashed hand.
@nylah.akua WHITEWASHING AND RACISM IS STILL ALIVE. F this brand “janeen_jewellery” @Chazlyn love you 💗 #racism #whitewashing #greenscreen ♬ original sound – Nylah | Lifestyle + Travel
In a Tiktok video by creator Nylah ( @nylah.akua), discusses how one of her friend’s photo was whitewashed by a jewelry company.
She says that her good friend a Black cottagecore Instagrammer and Tikoker Chazlyn ( chazlyn.yvonne) posted a picture on her Instagram showing herself and other friends wearing Jewelry items from different brand, one of which was Janeen Jewellery.
Soon after this picture would be reposted by Janeen Jewellery but with her hand being completely whitewashed.
The brand sells mostly jewlery pieces that appeal to fans of cottagecore, royalcore, and other aesthetically feminine trends or subcultures.
After many complaints about this incident to the jewelry brand, they reposted the original picture unaltered and gave a statement.
In the statement (now deleted) the brand stated that the Black creator’s skin color was changed in the picture is due to a filter.
More times than often Black women are excluded from aesthetics that are overtly feminine or girly.
Stereotypes like the Sapphire or the Angry Black women paint women of color as being loud. over dramatic, and being masculinized .
We’ve seen this showcased numerous times in public when successful Black women like Serena Willams and Michelle Obama, both of which repeatedly endured criticism for their not being docile or feminine enough.
Racist cartoon compares ‘masculine’ Michelle Obama to pageant-ready Melania Trump https://t.co/K7cWaHluwI pic.twitter.com/gjGei7zlgh
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) May 15, 2016
dark skinned black women have been historically been seen as manly and not feminine enough. serena williams.. michelle obama… leslie jones https://t.co/Mn6Cuh3FTt
— 🪐⊹*:・*˚⁺‧͙ (@pmrbl) March 27, 2021
So though this brand states this was simply a filter mishap it can be easy to also assume that they changed the creator’s skin tone to fit with their notion of what is aesthetically feminine. And it didn’t include a Black women.