Auburn City Schools officials said Thursday they are investigating a racist photo posted by an Auburn High School student on Snapchat.
The student in the racist post has not been identified by the school system. The Plainsman blurred her face because she is a minor.
A screenshot from Snapchat shows the white female student wearing a black face mask with the caption, "Is this what being a n---er feels like?"
"Auburn City Schools Officials have been made aware of an inappropriate post on social media by a student at Auburn High School," the system said in a statement. "What has been presented to the administration at AHS and the leadership of ACS in this case does not reflect the school system’s statements of belief."
It began circulating on other social media sites Wednesday evening. Commenters immediately called out the racist nature of the photo and its caption.
Officials said upon the completion of a thorough investigation, "the appropriate measures will be taken."
The backlash to the photo comes as the nation is grappling with a number of high-profile cases of public officials donning blackface.
White people covering their faces with black face paints or masks to appear black has racist origins in 19th century blackface "minstrel performances" and is widely considered to be offensive today.
Blackface can be traced from minstrelsy, comedic performances by white people in costumes and make-up in order to portray an exaggerated, stereotyped depiction of black people. While it was a fixture of popular culture through the 19th century, it's left popular culture since the mid-20th Century and the Civil Rights movement, according to Austin McCoy, an assistant professor of history at Auburn University.
He said it's impossible to explain away blackface as a joke with that history in mind.
"It's not funny. There's nothing funny about it," McCoy said. "It draws upon these histories of white Americans who were producing their own sort of theater and movies to dehumanize black people. Participating in minstrel shows donned in blackface was about making black people not seem real and therefore making it easier for other white Americans to discriminate or even inflict violence against black people."
There's no separating the present from history, he said.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, is facing widespread calls for his resignation after a 1984 yearbook photo surfaced from his page showing a white man wearing blackface and another wearing a Ku Klux Klan robe.
Northam initially admitted to being in the photograph, but later recanted and said it wasn't him. He is refusing to resign despite numerous members of his own party calling for him to step down. At a press conference Saturday, he admitted to a different case of wearing blackface in 1984.
Another of the state's top officials, Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring, admitted to wearing blackface too, throwing the state's government into chaos. The second-in-command to Northam, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who would replace Northam if he were to resign, has faced an accusation of sexual assault in recent days. He denies the accusation.
Last month, two students at the University of Oklahoma posted a racist video using racist epithets and wearing blackface. They are no longer students there.
Florida's Republican secretary of state resigned late last month after a photo surfaced of him wearing blackface after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He was dressed as a "Hurricane Katrina victim." Another Florida politician, State Rep. Anthony Sabatini is under scrutiny for a photo of him in blackface.
"It's just unfortunate to see that there are just more and more reports of blackface that are coming out, whether it's in Virginia or in local schools," McCoy said. "I think it's very disheartening."
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Chip Brownlee, senior in journalism and political science, is the editor-in-chief of The Auburn Plainsman.
