Teen's Twitter Gets Banned After 'Whiteface' Skit About Trump's Win Goes Viral

A 19-year-old named Jane Oranika had her Twitter account suspended after uploading a video in response to Donald Trump winning the US presidential election on November 8.

The skit, which originally started out as a "Joanne the Scammer" joke between Oranika and her coworkers, appeared to show the student and musician applying some kind of white substance to her skin.

Oranika and her coworkers would joke,

If Trump is elected, we have nothing to worry about because we are Caucasian.

If you haven't heard the hilarious "Caucasian Living" jokes yet, you probably should.

With the joke in mind, Oranika decided to post a video on Twitter of her painting her face white after Trump won. Eventually, the video went viral and caused her Twitter account to be suspended.

Here's the "whiteface" video that caused 19-year-old Jane Oranika's Twitter account to be suspended.

Unexpectedly, the video went viral. Oranika spoke to BuzzFeed, saying,

I didn't know how to feel about the video going viral. I didn't know if it was blowing up for positive or negative reasons. Some people were saying it [the video] was similar to 'blackface', they called it 'whiteface.' It was mostly strangers and they were clearly Trump supporters – it was in their bios… I didn't take it to heart.

However, after just 12 hours, Oranika's Twitter account was suspended. She added,

When I tried to tweet it wouldn't let me but I wasn't offended by it [being suspended], I thought that if a lot of people had reported me… it was pretty responsible for a media platform to take whatever down as they investigate it.

Twitter users began to denounce the skit, calling it "racist."

When Oranika received an email about her account suspension, the email read that "nude or pornographic pictures" had been removed from her account.

Despite this message from Twitter, the teen said,

My account was the exact same when I returned… I have yet to find anything that was taken down.

Oranika believes her account was suspended not due to "pornographic" images, but because of her "whiteface" video. Still, she was given another reason as to why her Twitter account was suspended.

A Twitter rep spoke to BuzzFeed, saying,

Our rules prohibit pornography in profile and header images. When violations are reported to us, we'll notify the user, temporarily suspend the account, and reinstate it after the image is changed.

Oranika believes her account was really suspended for her video and that instead, she was given another reason by the social platform.

It just goes to show that people don't have a problem [with] bigotry towards minorities… but the minute the majority feel a way about something it's a big deal. There's so many people who do blackface and use racial slurs on Twitter and who [have] spam accounts that say awful triggering things and no one is reporting them. This shows that the only people who get reported are the minority.

People took to Twitter to defend the 19-year-old asking the platform why other users get away with way worse.

The way I see it, anyone who attempts to mimic a race using some kind of colored substance on their face is wrong.

To me, it doesn't matter if you're black or white -- you probably shouldn't paint your face a different color and pretend to be another race.

However, if you have a brain and a Twitter account, you know that many people of all races are constantly getting away with hateful comments, photos and videos on the platform completely unchecked.

In addition, social media personalities like Joanne the Scammer get away with this type of content all the time and never have their accounts suspended so why should Jane Oranika?

Citations: This Teen's Twitter Account Was Suspended After Her Response To Trump's Win Went Viral (BuzzFeed)