People Are Calling Out Tyra Banks For Her Race-Swapping “ANTM” Comments

Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model is a three-part docuseries on Netflix exploring some of the most controversial moments from the infamous reality show — like when the contestants had to do a “race-swapping” challenge.

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That’s right, in Cycle 4, the contestants did a photoshoot for the Got Milk? campaign in which they were assigned a race other than their own to “model.” It led to brownface, blackface, yellowface…basically all kinds of culturally insensitive and offensive moments.

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And for some reason, the contestants also had to pose with small children of the race they were meant to be depicting.

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In Reality Check, ANTM creative director and judge Jay Manuel said he had actually asked to be excused from the shoot. “I just said, ‘Race swapping? Wow,'” he shares, adding that Tyra had told him she would “handle” it and he just had to do his job. “I recognized that my role was starting to have limitations. That shoot was happening regardless.”

Courtesy of Netflix

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Jay adds that in the shots where he was explaining the challenge to contestants on the show, it’s clear to him how uncomfortable he was. “I just had to do my job,” he says.

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Tyra Banks — who not only created and hosted ANTM but also came up with the concept for the race-swap photoshoot — says in Reality Check that she didn’t think the challenge was “controversial.”

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“I was in my own little bubble in my own little head. This was my way of showing the world that Brown and Black is beautiful,” Tyra says. “But then we put it out there and the world was like, ‘Are you crazy? Have you lost your mind?'”

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Here’s the thing, though — ANTM did another race-swapping challenge nine cycles after the first one — which the documentary mentions, but Tyra doesn’t really address.

UPN / Via Netflix

Tyra does say, “Looking at the show now through a 2020 lens, it’s an issue, and I understand 100% why.”

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But after watching the docuseries, a lot of people weren’t buying Tyra’s statements, and were generally horrified by the whole thing:

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Have you watched Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model yet? What do you think of Tyra’s response? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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