MARSHALLTOWN – The community finds themselves confused after a photo of five girls dressed in ‘blackface’ for Halloween circulates online.
“Controversial. Just people act odd sometimes towards things like that,” said a Marshalltown resident.
Many people hadn’t seen the picture before Local 5 showed it to them, but said they were confused and didn’t understand the costume.
“At first I thought maybe it was something historical,” said Lee Walker.
Walker has lived in Marshalltown for almost 40 years now. He says he’s never seen anything like the photo before.
After finding out the meaning behind the costume he said, “I just didn’t know what to think, you know?”
Three of the girls in the picture attend East Marshall High School. The district is aware of the photo and released a statement addressing the post.
“The Marshalltown Community School District is aware of a very disturbing and offensive Halloween photo shared on social media. We are investigating the situation surrounding the photo and will take action as deemed appropriate. This is not acceptable behavior and not an indication of our school community,” said the Marshalltown Schools.
“I think it was an honest mistake. I couldn’t even tell by looking at the picture,” said Walker.
The girls say the costume wasn’t supposed to cause any harm and was just intended to be a fun idea. Later in a statement they apologized saying, “We’re sorry…we didn’t know what blackface was.”
While the picture is still circulating online, the original post was taken down after it went viral. It’s still unclear what consequences the girls will face.
