Everyone confuses celebrities with other celebrities sometimes. For example, most of the internet confused a young Robert Redford in Jeremiah Johnson with Zack Galifianakis. I often confuse Dax Shepherd with Billy Drago, the guy who played John Bly in The Adventures of Bristol County, Jr. And the casting director of The Godfather Part III confused Sofia Coppola with someone who could act.
But there’s an ugly history of people making racist comments about how black people “all look alike.” So it’s not great when a large national magazine, like Australia’s Who magazine, prints a picture of the wrong black woman to accompany a feature about her. This actually happened when a feature about model Adut Aketch featured a picture of Flavia Lazarus.
The two do share a few superficial similarities, such as short hair and being Australian. And of course, they’re both black. But they also have very different facial features.
Also, they have different hair colors, which is… a pretty major difference. I’m not saying someone saw black skin and went “eh, close enough” but, I mean…
Aketch made an Instagram post addressing the issue, saying she felt that not only she but her whole race was disrespected, which is fair.
Melbourne Fashion Week’s Instagram posted an apology for the incident as well.
While this probably seems like a harmless clerical error, it doesn’t feel harmless to the people who have had to deal with racist stereotypes for generations.
How ironic that you put an incorrect last name…..