Singapore-based company apologises after blackface at corporate event sparks backlash

A renowned Singapore-based spot developer has apologised aft a TikTok video showed a radical of 8 attendees successful blackface astatine its yearly meal and creation event.

UOL Group said it “sincerely apologises for immoderate offence caused” aft the backlash implicit a TikTok video shared by idiosyncratic @summer88959.

The TikTok video had by Tuesday greeting amassed implicit 55,000 views. It showed a radical of radical dressed successful Afro wigs, sunglasses, 1980s-style costumes, and blackface, posing for photos.

The lawsuit by UOL took spot connected 14 November astatine the Marina Bay Sands and the video was shared connected Sunday by the idiosyncratic connected TikTok.

The video received flak for its insensitivity. However, the Singapore-based institution didn’t uncover whether the radical posing successful blackface were institution employees oregon outsiders and whether immoderate enactment had been taken against them.

Blackface originated successful 19th-century minstrel shows, wherever achromatic performers utilized it to picture Black radical successful a mocking and dehumanising manner. Civil rights organisation successful the United States, NAACP, has stated that “in past history, the purpose of blackface was mocking … turning into a figment of the achromatic imaginativeness for entertainment. Blackface invokes a racist and achy history, dehumanising Black people”.

UOL Group aboriginal informed section media that it was alert of the incidental astatine the event, themed “The Rhythm of the Night”, and issued an apology for immoderate offence caused.

On TikTok, respective users commented connected the insensitivity of the radical successful blackface. “Eight radical and not adjacent 1 idiosyncratic thinks it’s not good to bash this,” 1 commented.

“This is terrible, not funny. Shame connected them and the institution if they were inactive allowed to articulation the festivities. They request to beryllium held accountable,” different said.

“It’s 2024 already, wherefore are we inactive doing this?” wrote different user.

In July, a pupil astatine 1 of Singapore’s astir prestigious secondary schools faced disciplinary enactment for dressing arsenic a dark-skinned transportation rider during Racial Harmony Day.

A akin contention erupted successful 2020 erstwhile an aged photograph from 2016 resurfaced connected societal media, showing a radical of Raffles Institution (RI) students successful blackface. The photograph depicted a student, believed to beryllium of South Asian descent, surrounded by 10 others wearing achromatic look masks.

Nazry Bahrawi, an adjunct prof of Southeast Asian lit and civilization astatine the University of Washington was quoted arsenic saying by the South China Morning Post that Singapore inactive needed to “rethink its strategies connected multiracialism”.

“Racial Harmony Day volition not enactment if we bash not get to the basal of the problem,” helium said, referring to the yearly observance connected 21 July, which promotes taste harmony successful Singapore and commemorates the contention riots of 1964 that occurred earlier the nation’s independence.

The Independent has reached retired to the UOL Group for a comment.