Winnie Harlow (Chantelle Brown-Young) is making a name for herself as one of the top models to watch in the fashion industry. After competing on Cycle 21 of America’s Next Top Model with vitiligo, a skin condition that causes loss of color in blotches, the 21 year-old Canadian beauty booked several campaigns and appears on the cover of the September issue of Ebony alongside other Black models.

With popularity comes more visibility, and Harlow is gaining loads fans across race by the millisecond. In what some are calling a tribute to Harlow and her skin condition, White women are applying makeup to their faces to look more like the 21-year-old model and critics are accusing them of blackface!

Any other time, copying someone’s skin condition or disease would be seen as insensitive or offensive, but Harlow has a different perspective on things.

She released a statement on her Instagram questioning complaints on White fans copying her skin condition, and her general thoughts on Black appropriation writing, “Why do we have to make it a hate crime?”

My response to this is probably not what a lot of people want but here it goes: every time someone wants fuller lips, or a bigger bum, or curly hair, or braids does Not mean our culture is being stolen. Have you ever stop to realize these things used to be ridiculed and now they’re loved and lusted over. No one wants to “steal” our look here. We’ve just stood so confidently in our own nappy hair and du-rags and big asses (or in this case, my skin) that now those who don’t have it love and lust after it. Just because a black girl wears blue contacts and long weave doesn’t mean she wants to be white and just because a white girl wears braids and gets lip injection doesn’t mean she wants to be black. The amount of mixed races in this world is living proof that we don’t want to be each other we’ve just gained a national love for each other. Why can’t we embrace that feeling of love? Why do we have to make it a hate crime? In a time when so much negative is happening, please don’t accuse those who are showing love and appreciation, of being hateful. It is very clear to me when someone is showing love and I appreciate these people recreating, loving and broadcasting something to the world that once upon a time I cried myself to sleep over #1LOVE 💋

A photo posted by ♔Chantelle Winnie♔ (@winnieharlow) on Aug 22, 2015 at 9:13am PDT

Of course, Harlow’s unpopular approach didn’t sit well with many. She had a message for her detractors as well.

I agree & am knowledgeable to these things. & by all means I get it. But It’s one thing to recreate my skin & wear a crown in a photo, & it’s another to recreate my face & then wear a noose (which is not the case). There is a difference in love vs hate & it’s easy to see. There’s this fine line between stealing & showing appreciation or seeing that something’s are being accepted by the world. There are things that have been taken without recognition (from Art, to culture, to language and beyond and from many races including our own), this is not one of them. One big comment I saw on my post was “u can’t play both sides” but it’s that same mentality that keeps us stagnant, sitting in the same mind frame as our predecessors who dealt with things that are & can come to an end if we could Really see each other as equals, & not just claim we do. I proudly stand on the Gray Line that blurs black from white. I am happily a mix of many races and creeds! I am of African, Indian European and Asian decent and identify as a Proud Black Canadian Woman, and I Never forget the Canadian because that is the Gray. Being Canadian or American should remind you of this beautiful melting pot we are, and that the world is turning into. People are so prideful that they die & protest to be accepted, & when they are, they still find fault😐. When a white girl wears braids why can’t we say “woooy big up di gyal deh ah show di world and agree seh Our culture is something beautiful to wear and to be celebrated” rather than getting offended and upset. And when a black fan paints their face to look like mine then what…will u turn it into “appropriation of vitiligo” or will u be able to except something’s as public examples of LOVE? -_- #1LOVE A photo posted by ♔Chantelle Winnie♔ (@winnieharlow) on Aug 22, 2015 at 10:54am PDT

What do you think about White women copying Harlow’s skin condition and her general statements on Black appropriation? Sound off!

Image Courtesy of Desigual